Priyanka Chopra Jonas On Facing Colourism In Bollywood: I Was Called Black Cat

Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who has worked in Bollywood films like 'Hero The Story of A Spy', 'Andaaz' and 'Plan', says that she has had people comment on her skin colour when she joined Bollywood. 

Priyanka Chopra Jonas was recently named in the BBC’s 100 Women list of influential figures of the year and while speaking BBC in a recent interview, she spoke about colorism in Bollywood, she said, “I was called 'black cat', 'dusky'. I mean, what does 'dusky' even mean in a country where we are literally all brown? I thought I was not pretty enough, I believed that I would have to work a lot harder, even though I thought I was probably a little bit more talented than my fellow actors who were lighter skinned. But I thought that was right because it was so normalised.”

She added, "Of course, that comes from our colonial past, it's not even been 100 years since we shed the British Raj, so we still hold on to it, I think. But it is up to our generation to be able to cut those ties and change it so that the next generation doesn't inherit the equity placed on light skin."

Last week, Priyanka Chopra attended the second edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival held in Saudi Arabia. Freida Pinto, Shah Rukh Khan, and Kajol also attended the festival.

Last seen in The White Tiger and the Hollywood film, Matrix Resurrection, Priyanka Chopra now has a few more English films in the pipeline. These include international projects such as It's All Coming Back To Me and Russo Brothers' Citadel which will premiere on Prime Video. Richard Madden will also be seen in the show alongside Priyanka.

The next Hindi film that will feature Priyanka Chopra is Jee Le Zaraa and is being touted as a female buddy film and also stars Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif.