Published 14:58 IST, November 27th 2019
Priyanka Chopra: " Bollywood is not a genre, it’s an entire industry!"
"Bollywood is not a genre, it’s an entire industry! It’s my life’s dream to see Indian cinema and artists take over the West," said Priyanka Chopra in an interv
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Priyanka Chopra who was last seen in Shonali Bose directorial 'The Sky is Pink' spoke about Hollywood and how there was no precedent when she went to the US. "I didn’t have a road map to follow because there was no one who had done it before. I had to figure it out, walk into rooms, introduce myself, say ‘I am an Indian actor, my name is Priyanka Chopra, these are the kind of films I want to do’. I demanded playing leading ladies, instead of having parts which were the stereotype of what a Bollywood actor would usually get. Those also came to me, but I was very clear about what I wanted to do."
She further explained to Hindustan Times: “I dug my feet in, persevered and did what I needed to do. I am so glad, and hope through me… it’s my life’s dream that Indian cinema becomes global. We are one of the biggest movie industries in the world, and we have been reduced to a genre? If you look on streaming services, you will see ‘horror’ ‘comedy’ ‘drama’ ‘Bollywood’. Bollywood is not a genre, it’s an entire industry! It’s my life’s dream to see Indian cinema and artists take over the West.”
Talking about her journey and the smooth transition of Bollywood actors in the West, she agrees that there is a positive shift. She said, “It’s better. Somewhere, people don’t see Bollywood with the lens that they saw with when I started working in America. I got a lot of ‘so you must be dancing well?’ and I used to be like ‘Ya, I can sing, dance and act, I am a triple threat!’ So you stop people in tracks and say ‘I am not just one thing’.. It took a lot of work, I am so glad. I hope beyond what we are seeing, I want to see Indian actors in mainstream global entertainers. That’s what I have done with Quantico, Baywatch and the movies The White Tiger and We Can Be Heroes. That’s where we need to see more Indian talent."
14:42 IST, November 27th 2019