Actress Priyanka Chopra discussed making the switch from India’s Bollywood to the American movie industry.
“I was being pushed into a corner in the industry. I had people not casting me for reasons. I had a beef with people. Again, I’m not good at playing that game. I was tired of the politics,” Chopra told Dax Shepard on his “Armchair Expert” podcast on March 27.
The 40-year-old celebrity mentioned that she took issue with top actresses in India making less than their male counterparts.
“Movies are sold on the guy and the girl now. Change was demanded by the new generation coming in and saying, ‘Great, make a Bollywood blockbuster, but with me too,’” she went on.
Chopra, who is married to recording artist Nick Jonas, said fame in Hollywood isn’t the same as it is in India.
“I don’t think you guys have seen that stardom,” she said of Bollywood celebrities. “I don’t think Tom Cruise has seen that. I’m not that, but we have actors with that allegiance and love.”
The actress also discussed Bollywood’s obsession with skin color.
“I was lightened up in many movies. Through makeup and then blasting lighting. There was a song which I still remember. It was called ‘Chitti Dudh Kudi’ which means a girl who is as white as milk, and I ain’t that, but I was playing her and I was really lightened up in the movie,” Chopra recalled.
“If you were darker – I’m not even that dark – for darker girls it was: ‘Let’s lighten you up,’” she added, saying she did an ad for lightening skin cream which depicted a woman getting a man’s attention after applying it.
Chopra and Jonas made headlines recently when they welcomed their first child via surrogate, a decision the actress defended earlier this year.
“I had medical complications,” Chopra told British Vogue in an interview for their February cover story. “This was a necessary step, and I’m so grateful I was in a position where I could do this. Our surrogate was so generous, kind, lovely, and funny, and she took care of this precious gift for us for six months.”
“You don’t know me,” the former Miss World competition winner went on. “You don’t know what I’ve been through. And just because I don’t want to make my medical history, or my daughter’s, public doesn’t give you the right to make up whatever the reasons were.”