Priyanka Chopra Jonas On Female-Oriented Films In Bollywood & Hoping To Be Challenged In Her U.S. Projects – Mumbai Film Festival

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Indian actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas talked about how she was warned away from doing female-centric films when working in Hindi cinema, as well as her ambitions to expand her portfolio in the U.S., in a  conversation with fellow Indian actress Bhumi Pednekar at Mumbai Film Festival today.

In a relaxed master class that focused on the craft of acting, Chopra Jonas explained that she was advised not to take on one of her early films, Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion (2008), in which she starred as a small-town girl who becomes a super-model.  “I signed on for the film right after Krrish, and was told that actresses only do female-oriented projects at the end of their careers so they can win a National Award,” said Chopra Jonas, who moved into acting after winning the Miss World beauty pageant in 2000. “Back then there were not many female-centric movies.”  She did indeed win Best Actress for Bhandarkar’s critically-acclaimed film at India’s prestigious National Awards in 2009.

Later in the conversation, she talked about the responsibility of starring in female-oriented films and how she had learned to relax when those films didn’t perform well: “There’s a lot of pressure when you have a female-led film, because we have so few, so when they don’t do well you feel the collective failure on behalf of all women.” “I used to feel like I’ve taken women a few steps back, I’ve let women-kind down, because there are so few of us that get the opportunity to do this,” she continued. “But I’ve learned to pivot my mind around that – it’s not personal.

When a movie works, it works because it has something to say. And if it doesn’t work, it didn’t say what it needed to say.” While careful not to mention any upcoming U.S.