EXCLUSIVE | Priyanka Chopra: 'When I started my career, Bollywood treated female actors like side-kicks'

Interviewing Priyanka Chopra is always a joy and every time you have a conversation with her you realise that she has been raised well. Polite, spontaneous, hardworking and smart that’s how I would like to describe Priyanka. She is an actress who never gave up even when Bollywood tried to corner her. She moved to Hollywood and showed the world that if you have it in you, there is nobody who can stop you. And she gives hope to millions of women around the world by telling them that if one door closes, there are many doors that will open up. In an interview with Firtspost, Priyanka Chopra mentioned that when she started her career, there were just ornamental roles that were offered to actresses and they were asked to be happy with it. Women actors were treated like side-kicks. They were told to be happy to be visible in just five scenes and five to six songs in films. Well, that’s how Bollywood functioned those days. So, she realised if female actors don’t get what they deserve in life, they will have to demand it. Edited excerpts from the interview: You have had a real exciting journey in the entertainment industry… How would you like to describe it? My journey has been pretty long. It started when I was just seventeen. I have never been to a film school so whatever I am today, I owe it to the Hindi film industry because my foundation in acting started from here. My country trained me in such a way that I never had problem adjusting in another industry because when I stepped into Hollywood, I knew my craft well. My parents have been my support system. I am glad that they never tried to cut my wings.  They always supported me and they always allowed me to dream and assured me that they would be there for me. That is very important especially for the girls of our country. Because when a girl becomes independent, she can help the whole family grow and take care of the finances and again take care of her children. We need to encourage women as women need males as allies. A country can progress only when everybody is given the chance to move ahead and we shouldn’t forget that women are a very important part of it. On women’s roles changing especially with the coming of OTT… Sadly, I started at a time when women were getting only ornamental roles in Bollywood . Girls used to be sidekicks. We were told that an actress should be happy with five to six songs and five to six scenes. I started at a time when the industry was a little bit like that, but I realised that in my own journey as an actress, I have seen women like me demanding that they wanted more visibility and said they have the bhuk (hunger) to do more and to do it better. I always believed in those days too, that women actors want more and deserve more. [caption id=“attachment_12412232” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Priyanks Chopra’s Citadel[/caption] The actresses who belonged to the previous generation like Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit also fought for roles that were women centric and commanded a lot of power. But they were very few. After that there was a gap and from my generation, girls who joined Bollywood realised that if the industry doesn’t give us the kind of work we deserve we will do it ourselves. They became writers, producers and they made their own roles. I also think that women empowerment in the entertainment industry or any industry for that matter comes from conversation. I am very proud that from my generation itself the female actors like Anushka Sharma, Deepika Padukone, Vidya Balan, Alia Bhatt have moved ahead and said we deserve more, we need more and we want more. We have realised that if we don’t get what we deserve in life, we will have to demand it. So, hopefully, the coming generation of actresses will not have to fight our fights! [caption id=“attachment_12403652” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Priyanka Chopra[/caption] Tell us about the world of _Citadel_ … Firstly, Citadel is an original franchise and I am proud to be a part of it. Citadel talks about how humanity should benefit from intelligence. I am the top spy for Citadel. And that spy can be anybody, she can be your neighbour too. So, it’s a very interesting world and the show has a very global approach. The one thing that was different in Citadel was that it took one and a half years to shoot for only six episodes. We paid a lot of attention to detailing, working for one and a half years on characters and for each and everything we had to focus really hard, finding the little smallest details that make the character interesting, instead of just doing the performance superficially.  

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