Priyanka Chopra apologises for magazine cover 'insulting refugees'

Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has apologised after being criticised for modelling an 'insensitive' top on a Conde Nast Traveller magazine cover.

"I'm really apologetic about sentiments being hurt. I have always been against labels. I am very affected and feel really horrible, but the message has been misconstrued,” Chopra told India's NDTV news channel.



"The magazine was very clear that they wanted to send a message about addressing xenophobia with labels," she added. The Bollywood actor told the channel that she was fully aware of the issues faced by refugees and was actually trying to send out a message to support them. "But it got misconstrued, and I'm sorry people saw it like that and they saw it on me," she said.



The magazine cover, which was tweeted out by Chopra earlier this month, saw the actor wearing a top, which had the words "migrant," "refugee" and "outsider" crossed out with the word "traveller" standing out. According to the magazine, Conde Nast, the intention was to highlight labeling of people.

In a statement reported by India Times, the magazine said, "At Conde Nast Traveller, we believe that the opening up of borders and the breaking down of walls can help us discover the world, and open up our minds and hearts. So, when we had actress Priyanka Chopra wear a T-shirt we created on the cover of our sixth anniversary issue, we had a point to make. And it's not about privilege or fashion."



But many saw the cover as offensive and insensitive in context of the Syrian refugee crisis. An opinion piece on Huffington Post read, "The lack of choice in removing one's home and hearth from the familiar to the alien is one fraught with heartbreak and the feeling of being cornered. Very different from picking out the next attractive destination on your bucket list, and surfing through Airbnb for that perfect place to park oneself."

Social media users expressed similar views.

Aِre the #Immigrants real #People ?
Can the Intentions be innocent ?
Can the #Choice of #Words be questioned ?https://t.co/q0qmtaBGNH

— Shafi Naqi Jamie (@ShafiNaqiJamie) October 17, 2016

u r beautiful but use some of ur brain, refugees r not a choice!!!,it's a brutal reality millions are facing today

— Sarcasm_King (@D_SocialGuy) October 10, 2016

2/n I wish my grannie was alive to tell u that she didn't choose to be a refugee Kashmiri Pandit in her country

— Megha Raina (@MeghaRaina2) October 9, 2016

offensive t-shirt. With 65 million ppl displaced, highest no. since WWII, to pretend as if it's a choice. #nonPC

— Savita Pawnday (@savita_pawnday) October 9, 2016

.@priyankachopra @CNTIndia r u kidding me PC?! What with this shirt! Insensitive to all ppl suffer around from refugees..etc.

— Hanna 💆🏻 (@HannanMust) October 8, 2016

 

This article originally appeared on NDTV.