She has always taken the road less travelled in a career spanning 17 years. From starring in a film that exposed the behind-the-scenes controversies of the fashion world (Fashion; 2008) to playing a character with grey shades in 7 Khoon Maaf (2011) or stepping into the shoes of boxer Mary Kom (2014) in her biopic, Priyanka Chopra Jonas has always earned applause for her acting chops.
Currently, Bollywood is focussing firmly on films with female protagonists, and Priyanka feels the industry has come a long way from the time she started off in films. “When I first started working, we were told, ‘Heroes will decide who the heroine is going to be.’ This was 2002 or 2003; it was on the beck and call of main actors.
I’m sure it still happens with a lot of films, but what has changed is the audience, and the acceptance of watching films with content instead of the gender of the lead actor. That’s one big change we’ve seen,” says the 37-year-old, who was last seen in The Sky is Pink (2019).
Priyanka’s all set to star with Richard Madden in an international event series Citadel, developed by Russo Brothers, who are known for directing Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and End Game (2019). She also adds that there were a lot of naysayers who dissuaded her from taking up roles that eventually turned out to be her career milestones.
“When I did Fashion, everyone told me, ‘Women do female-oriented films — I hate that word — when they want to win awards at the end of their careers.’ And, when I did Aitraaz (2004), I was told, ‘People will consider me a ‘vamp’, and my ‘pure’ image will get tarnished.’ I didn’t know any better, so I ended up doing them. There was no one to teach me.
Now, we’ve actors like Deepika (Padukone), Alia (Bhatt), Kangana (Ranaut), Vidya (Balan) come out there and say, ‘These are the stories we want to tell, and we will do it so well we will compel you to come in and watch them.’ When I started doing it, very few people were doing it.”
-Hindustan Times
