Priyanka Chopra Talks About Sexual Harassment, Nepotism

Brut India

Priyanka Chopra talks about how she overcame her limited networking abilities and fought nepotism on her road to Bollywood stardom.

Transcript

00:00If I talk about sexual harassment, which I think every woman in this room probably has,

00:07how many have?

00:08That's a pretty full house.

00:11Nepotism and Bollywood go hand in hand.

00:13Everyone knows that.

00:14Who knows Bollywood?

00:15Have you ever experienced that kind of harassment yourself?

00:45It's okay to just lightly tap a girl on her bum, and it's okay to just make comments

01:14which are sort of unnecessary and not required, because boys will be boys.

01:20Because come on, he's just being a guy.

01:22As women, as society, we've had people who we trust and love say that to us, that we

01:27never even questioned it.

01:29And slowly, I think this is probably after, at least in my lifetime, one of the first

01:35times that I've seen women support each other so much and come and stand with each other

01:38that now, if I have a story, I don't feel like I'm alone anymore, and nor am I ashamed

01:43of it.

01:44And because of maybe my strength or your strength or your strength, it'll give some girl who's

01:49sitting in the anonymity of a home, not being able to even have a choice or a voice, the

01:54power to be able to do that, and that's extremely amazing.

01:57Bollywood used to be quite an insular industry with a few small families dominating.

02:01How hard was it for you to break into Bollywood?

02:04Was that itself, its own mountain to climb?

02:07Yes.

02:08Bollywood, nepotism and Bollywood go hand in hand.

02:11Who knows that?

02:12Who knows Bollywood?

02:13But there have been a few incredible actors over the years that have been able to penetrate

02:18that and make a name for themselves and then create their own legacy, which is something

02:23I'm hoping to do.

02:25It was very hard.

02:26I didn't know anyone.

02:28Everyone was friends with everybody when I joined the movie business, and I'm not really

02:33good at networking.

02:34I'm not very good at going to the parties and doing the thing.

02:37So it was a little difficult, but I kind of depended on the fact that I was not afraid

02:42to take on risky parts.

02:45I depended on the fact that I would do things and perform in my characters, that when people

02:51come out of a movie, they don't recognize me, they recognize my character.

02:56I started working on the craft.

02:58I started working on the art of it.

03:00Of course, I learned dancing and made sure that I was good at that.

03:04But I think working on yourself sort of gave me the ability to create those opportunities.

03:10From my first film, which did really well, and I got a lot of accolades for it, I think

03:14it was just uphill.

03:15I just made sure that I didn't stop working on myself.

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