Actress Priyanka Chopra has been in the news for her comments on the Hindi film industry. The actress, who predominantly works in Hollywood, opened up about facing discrimination and being cornered in the Hindi film industry.
In one of his recent interviews, filmmaker Apurva Asrani opened up about the happening of 2012, which resulted in Chopra locking horns with several powerful and influential people in the Industry, which did not end well for her. The writer of Aligarh has stated that there are a few families in the business who have been controlling the business.
Apurva Asrani. Credits – The Indian Express.
Shedding light on the dark nature of the Hindi entertainment industry, Asrani also said that if someone does not go well with others, they end up asking their peers to not work with particular professionals.
They 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. 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 out. All this can be very damaging to a hardworking talent, especially one who doesn’t have a father or uncle in the film business,” said Asrani in the interview.
Asrani opened up about the vicious campaigns which were run against Priyanka Chopra in 2012, one of her most successful years in the Hindi film industry. “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,” says Asrani, adding that’s the reason a win for Priyanka is a win for all of the people, who aren’t giving up the fight against a largely corrupt system.
Priyanka Chopra in Barfi. Credits – Hindustan Times
But Priyanka is not the first one to speak against the Bollywood mafias. Several other actors faced similar treatment, and Asrani believes it happens to “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.”
Asrani also talked about the treatment which was meted out to Sushant Singh Rajput as well. “Director Abhishek Kapoor has used a very apt term to describe what was done to Sushant. He called it ‘a systematic dismantling of a fragile mind’. It’s where they use the entire system to slowly ignore you, isolate you. Sushant was snubbed at awards, his last film may have done a whopping 100 crores but it was projected as a flop. He spoke intelligently, but they portrayed his words like he had mental issues. He was harangued right till the end and the worst part is, we could hardly see the truth. It was made to look like he had plum projects, but had an attitude problem.”
