Priyanka Chopra says casting in Bollywood shouldn’t depend on ‘politics and drama’: ‘No camps should rule it’

Her recent revelations, that she faced opposition in the Hindi film industry as people stopped casting her in movies, forcing her to eventually go to the West, reignited conversations around the functioning of the film industry — its politics, nepotistic nature, gatekeeping attitude and cliques.

In an interview with media, Priyanka Chopra opened up about ways to make Bollywood a safe space for outsiders, who don’t come with a safety net of a film family. The actor, who is currently awaiting the release of her mega Prima Video series Citadel, said change starts with dismantling internal politics which often dictate casting in movies.

“I think having conversations around opportunity and merit is important. Now that we are living in the world of streaming, there is so much more. The Hindi film industry has changed so much in the last five to ten years. You have so many talent – writers, directors, actors that come from outside the industry. When I first started, that was not the case, at all. So I think having conversations around the fact that the workplace should be merit based, that the workplace should be a positive environment, that casting should be a casting director’s job instead of the politics and the drama,” the actor said.

Priyanka Chopra, who moved to the US and bagged projects like the TV series Quantico (2015) and feature films including Dwayne Johnson starrer Baywatch and The Matrix Resurrections, said for the industry to be a safe workspace, opportunities should only rely on merit, not favoritism. Today, Priyanka notes, if there is a strong influx of outsiders in the industry, it is because her generation of actors “fought for it”.

“I think having those conversations is really, really important so that there are no camps that actually rule casting and it is done because of merit and because of audiences wanting to watch people. I am so excited to be able to see so many new faces from outside (of the film industry) and different parts of the country who have come in to mainstream Hindi language entertainment. It gives me such a joy, to be able to see that in my own career. And that happened because my generation of actors fought for it,” she added.

Earlier, speaking with Dax Shepherd on his podcast Armchair Expert, Priyanka had shared that she was feeling “cornered” in Bollywood and also had some “beef” with people in the industry. There were no names, but the claims were damaging, where Priyanka had said she was “not good at playing that game” and was tired of the “politics”.

“I was being pushed into a corner in the industry (Bollywood). I had people not casting me, I had beef with people, I am not good at playing that game so I kind of was tired of the politics and I said I needed a break. This music thing gave me an opportunity to go into another part of the world, not crave for the movies I didn’t want to get but I would require to schmooze certain clubs and cliques of people. It would require groveling and I had worked a long time by then that I didn’t feel like I wanted to do it,” she had said in the interview.

Citadel features Priyanka Chopra as an elite spy Nadia Sinh opposite Game of Thrones star Richard Madden, who stars as Mason Kane in the globe-trotting series. It is produced by the Russo Brothers’ (filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo) AGBO and showrunner David Weil. The ambitious spy drama is slated to debut on April 28.