It was 8 years ago, Priyanka Chopra made an attempt to deliver an award-winning performance in her ambitious biopic of sports icon – Mary Kom.
While she did end-up winning several accolades for the 2014-released film, what many failed to point out around that time was the problematic casting of the film.
Mary Kom, born in a small village in Manipur, India – hails from a part of the country that has not been represented at all, in mainstream Bollywood. Hence it was extremely problematic for a non-North-Eastern actress to be cast in the role, that was meant to portray one of the greatest sports icons of the region.
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8 years later, Priyanka realizes that mistake, and confesses to it being problematic.
In a recent conversation with Indian Express, the actress was quoted as saying:
“The part should have probably gone to someone from the Northeast. But I was just greedy as an actor to get a chance to tell her story, because as a woman, she inspired me so much.”
The statement does try to narrow-down a problem that is pretty vast in the mainstream Hindi film industry.
We have often complained about the North-east not being properly represented in Bollywood, and the industry not giving enough opportunities to artists beyond the stereotypical North-Indian-looking folks. The lack of stories from all quarters of the country is a bigger problem, that cannot be diminished to mere a statement of regret.
Here are a few other problems in Bollywood that we previously addressed in one of our old videos..
Check it out:
Hopefully PC and the likes of her in her powerful position put together greater efforts to ensure equal representation in our film industry.