NEW DELHI: At the peak of her career, Bollywood’s marquee actor Priyanka Chopra changed track to explore the world of music - only to emerge as a winner. And now she has ventured into film production.
Describing her activities as unique, she said she doesn’t follow a path but creates her own. “I am not an ordinary star. Everything I do is sort of unique and I hate being clubbed as ‘oh celebrities’,” said Chopra. “I have a very unique personality. I like to do things which I want to do and I don’t know whether these things will turn out to be good or bad. But everything that I have done has been very unique to me. I don’t follow a path, I create my own,” she added.
Her showbiz journey started with being crowned Miss India and going on to win the Miss World title at the age of 17 in 2000, followed by her Bollywood debut in 2003 with The Hero: Love Story of a Spy. After that, there was no looking back as she mastered the art of delivering the unexpected.
However, planning for the future is not her style. “I never knew I will become an actor or a singer or a producer. Things just happened as I evolved. So, I can’t say when I will do what,” said the 32-year-old.
For Priyanka, 2014 was good largely due to the success of her film Mary Kom. “It’s been a great year. I started off with Gunday and then Mary Kom. Female films start with small numbers and make INR 50 or 60 billion in two months, but that was not the case for Mary Kom. It’s a huge step,” the actor said.
The actor is now prepping up for her role in Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do and Bajirao Mastani. Priyanka, who was recently in the capital to support the Girl Rising campaign, says women empowerment is seeping into the film industry, but slowly.
“We live in an extremely male-dominated world and slowly it’s changing. For instance, female actors used to get roles with three songs and 12 scenes. I personally have tried to move away from such films, but every girl doesn’t get such an opportunity. Females are even afraid to do that because it is easier to do a film with a boy and share the credit,” she said.
The success of women-centric films like Mardaani, Queen and Mary Kom proves that a wave of change has set its foot in Bollywood. “It is so great to see female actors now coming and taking those steps. When I did Fashion everybody thought I was mad, but it proved a point that female-led films, if are good films, will be seen,” said Priyanka.
Priyanka doesn’t just exude optimism but is working towards it. She says along with the Clean India campaign, she is working on her own campaign. “I hope to do more such (women-centric) films so that the generation after me is not afraid to take films which are on their shoulders and girls get parts that make them as relevant as boys. So it’s my own campaign,” the actor said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2014.
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