In the latest issue of InStyle, Priyanka Chopra discussed her transition from Bollywood to Hollywood, including the cultural stereotypes the performer encountered along the way.
Before Chopra fully ascended in Hollywood, she had an enviable Bollywood movie career. Priyanka Chopra had an amazing last year when the actor co-starred alongside Rebel Wilson in ‘Isn’t it Romantic’, attended the Royal wedding, and had a lavish celebration of her own when she married Nick Jones in December 2018.
When she won the 2008 National Film Award, for the movie Fashion, which is India version of the Oscars — America came calling. But Chopra, told InStyle that she was weary of stereotypical depictions of Indian characters in Western culture, who had starred in more than 50 Bollywood films.
And so, she made it a point to look for roles that were unexpected, when she made the leap to Hollywood."I knew that American pop culture was not used to seeing Indians outside the box," Chopra explained.
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"I was definitely not signing up for something like My Big Fat Punjabi Wedding. Or something where people would see me as a Bollywood actor with, like, 15 people coming out of a car and all of those stereotypes. I wanted to be able to shift that narrative, because that's the India I know."
Looking back at her career till now, Chopra told InStyle that she wants an industry "where your ethnicity is your asset, not your identity. I want to create that opportunity for many more actors from outside the U.S. — and it doesn't have to be just Indians — to come into global entertainment and be up for lead parts without having to just play, you know, what their ethnicity defines."
She isn't stopping any time soon. Chopra's path from Bollywood to Hollywood was paved by leaving stereotypes behind — a move that clearly paid off.