Actor Lin Laishram, who hails from Manipur, starred in the 2014 boxing biopic ‘Mary Kom’ in a supporting role. She recently opened up about how it was “heartbreaking” to see Priyanka Chopra being cast for the title role and had previously stressed how “a girl from the North-East could’ve been cast” instead.
As per a report in HT, she stated that she would’ve loved to play the part herself, but would’ve also been equally happy if someone else from the community would’ve been cast as ‘Mary Kom’.
She said, “As an actor, that self-centered egoistic actor tells me that I should have been… But it could have been anybody from the North East. We have many great actors. I want to be generous here, and say that there were many, many actors who could have done this. But the casting, and the whole team decided on someone else. It’s heartbreaking, but we are coming along, and I hope that this does not happen again.”
She continued, “A lot of times, the casting is stereotyped, and we are stuck to a very small genre of our own. That’s also stereotype, and not in the best manner. So when a script like that comes up, from our place, it would be great to be given to somebody who is more eligible and who’s close to that land, because it helps.”
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