Priyanka Chopra thought she was more talented than her ‘lighter-skinned co-stars’, opens up about colourism

Priyanka Chopra has had people comment on her skin colour and call her dusky during her early phase in the film industry. Having made her acting debut with the Tamil film Thamizhan in 2002, Priyanka soon worked in films such as Hero The Story of A Spy, Andaaz and Plan, in the early 2000s. While she ruled the industry with her hit songs and popular films, it was only in 2015 that she became an international star with the American series Quantico. She has since worked in Baywatch, Isn’t It Romantic, and many other international projects. (Also read: Priyanka Chopra among 4 Indians on BBC’s 100 influential women list)

Priyanka was recently named in the BBC’s 100 Women list of influential figures of the year. Apart from Priyanka, aeronautical engineer Sirisha Bandla, social worker Sneha Jawale and Booker-winning author Geetanjali Shree were the other Indians who made it to the list.

Speaking with BBC in a recent interview, Priyanka said 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 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 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 is Jee Le Zaraa. It is being touted as a female buddy film and also stars Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif.