Priyanka Chopra signs TV deal with Amazon: Want to tell female stories, work with creators from around the world

Priyanka Chopra has signed a two-year multimillion-dollar first-look television deal with Amazon. The actor-shared the development on social media, writing that through her banner Purple Pebble Pictures, she always wanted to create content in collaboration with a global talent team. Here is Chopra’s post

In an exclusive interview with Variety, Chopra said she wanted to tell female stories and work with creators from across the world for “a cross-pollination of storytelling”. She added that she can create global content in any language, which will be carried by Amazon globally. The actress spoke about consuming American films and shows, but never found authentic South Asian representation onscreen. Despite having a massive following in India with many awards to her name, Chopra explained how she had to start from scratch. “I had to explain who I was and what I wanted to do. There have been some incredibly prolific Indian actors that have worked in American movies and have done incredible work — like Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Anupam Kher, Amitabh Bachchan — and outside of Indian Americans like Mindy Kaling and Aziz Ansari, there was no precedent for having someone who was an Indian immigrant from outside of the American culture to come in and break global entertainment.” A meeting with Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke led to the first-look deal, who told Variety that the two “bonded over a shared passion for diverse global storytelling.” Salke added. Chopra began her career in the US as the voice of Ishani in Disney’s animated film Planes. Her breakthrough role was the ABC series Quantico, following which she featured in films such as Baywatch and Isn’t It Romantic. Prior to her deal with Amazon, the actor had lined up two projects with the streamer. She will star opposite Game of Thrones actor Richard Madden in upcoming thriller series Citadel, produced by the Russo brothers. She will also feature in Sangeet, an unscripted series co-produced with her husband, Nick Jonas. Chopra’s another project with Amazon is a film about Ma Anand Sheela, the assistant to guru Bhagwan Rajneesh (also known as Osho). The actor will be producing the movie which is based on Netflix docu-series Wild Wild Country. Besides her association with Amazon, the actor will next star in two Netflix projects — superhero movie We Can Be Heroes and an adaptation of The White Tiger. She is currently shooting for Keanu Reeves-starrer The Matrix 4, which recently resumed filming after production was halted by the coronavirus pandemic. (With inputs from Press Trust of India)