Priyanka Chopra is one of the biggest global superstars to have ever come out of India. The actress is a brand of her own today and is recognised and respected internationally. However, Priyanka had to battle a lot of challenges to reach that place. And recently, she opened up on one ‘dehumanizing’ incident from her past.
The actress has been vocal about the discrimination that she has faced during her initial years in Bollywood. From being asked to get surgeries to being thrown out of films, Priyanka has never shied away from sharing her stories.
Recently, while talking to The Zoe Report, Priyanka opened up about a time when a director asked to ‘see her underwear’ for a scene. While she didn’t reveal the name of the film or director, she did say that it happened around the time she was making her acting debut.
She shared, “I’m undercover, I’m seducing the guy — obviously that’s what girls do when they’re undercover. But I’m seducing the guy and you have to take off one piece of clothing [at a time]. I wanted to layer up. The filmmaker was like, No, I need to see her underwear. Otherwise, why is anybody coming to watch this movie?”
Priyanka added that what made it worse was that the director didn’t say this directly to her. She said, “He didn’t say it to me. He said it to the stylist in front of me. It was such a dehumanizing moment. It was a feeling of, I’m nothing else outside of how I can be used, my art is not important, what I contribute is not important.”
The actress went on to inform that after the incident she was questioning being a part of the film. Taking her father’s advice, she quit the film as she ‘couldn’t look at him (director) every day’. After two days, she even returned the money the makers had spent on her to keep up the professionalism from her end.
A few months ago, Priyanka had appeared onDax Shepard’s podcast and opened up on being cornered in Bollywood before she moved to the West. She had said, “I was being pushed into a corner in the industry (Bollywood). I had people not casting me, I had beef with people, I am not good at playing that game so I kind of was tired of the politics and I said I needed a break.”
Even after facing all the challenges, Priyanka always rose up from the hardships. Today, she is one of the biggest global stars. Recently, she was seen in Russo Brothers’ Citadel with Richard Madden. She also had the release of the romcom Love Again with Sam Heughan and Celine Dion. She now has a film Heads of State with John Cena and Idris Elba. And she will mark her return to Hindi films with Farhan Akhtar’s Jee Le Zaraa co-starring Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif.
