Last month, in a podcast with American actor Dax Shepard, Priyanka Chopra revealed her reason for leaving India and starting from scratch in Hollywood. She claimed that she was cornered in the industry and wasn’t being cast in movies, despite being a very talented actor. While a lot of people, including filmmakers, critics and artists, showered support on her, a few did some research and dug up old articles from the early 2010s – the time when things started to shift for her.
From article headlines hinting at a feud with Karan Johar to rumours of a very “close friendship” with Shahrukh Khan, a lot was unravelled, including a front-page article that claimed that none of Bollywood’s leading male actors wanted to work with her.
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Filmmaker Apurva Asrani, famous for his work in Aligarh, Satya, Made In Heaven and Criminal Justice, dropped some massive truth bombs regarding lobbying in Bollywood in a pretty explosive interview with Hindustan Times.
He claimed that back in 2012, an entire campaign was run against Priyanka Chopra to tamper with her reputation and oust her from the Hindi Film Industry. He added that “insiders” from Bollywood shook hands with certain media outlets to run a smear campaign against her.
“Obviously, they have their favourites and have every right to work with the ones they like. The problem is when they gang up to oust an actor or a technician from not just their movie, but from the entire ecosystem,” he said.
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Apurva explained that just because some people get their egos hurt, they use the media and powerful journalists to discredit a person by publishing blind items containing “damaging accusations.”
“Then these egos call other egos and tell them not to work with this person. They then use the media and powerful journalists to run campaigns to discredit this person. Blind articles are written by corrupt scribes who make damaging accusations. False stories are planted about inappropriate behaviour on set.”
Despite all this, if an actor is resilient and continues to produce work worthy of praise, then certain critics either poorly review their work or don’t talk about it at all.
“If this actor/technician is resilient and continues to do good work, then their work is poorly reviewed, or worse, not reviewed at all. If the project still manages to become successful, then news of the success is not carried. All this can be very damaging to a hardworking talent, especially one who doesn’t have a father or uncle in the film business.”
Talking about the front page article that claimed no actor wanted to work with Priyanka Chopra, he revealed that it happened during the time when she had delivered two big hit films – Barfi! and Agneepath.
“She had given two big hits – Barfi and Agneepath – in just one year, but the front page of a city newspaper carried a headline saying that no hero wanted to work with her. They weren’t giving her due, she wasn’t able to grow as an actor and a star.”
Apparently, this happens to anyone who speaks against the system and refuses to be disrespected. They are called difficult to work with and what’s appalling is that this happens mostly to outsiders.
“Anyone who is outspoken, who refuses to be disrespected, who doesn’t demean themselves by agreeing to their regressive ideas, they are pushed into a corner. If you do your research you will find that the ones labelled difficult and problematic are usually the outsiders. The star children are rarely messed with.”
If you remember the time when Dostana 2 had been shelved and rumours of Kartik Aaryan being “fired” from the project made headlines, there were articles that alleged that the actor had “unprofessional behavior”. Nothing was said about his co-actor, Janhvi Kapoor.
I paid the price when I spoke for Sushant & the horrid culture of blind items. I will pay the price for standing up for Priyanka Chopra. The 'liberal' media will be the first to boycott me. But I will always speak my truth, even if I have to stand alone.
https://t.co/WMUF3t7MLj— Apurva (@Apurvasrani) April 3, 2023
Kudos to Apurva for speaking out!