Bollywood fans were recently shocked after Priyanka Chopra’s brutally honest revelations on why she left India to pursue a career in the US. The actor said she faced opposition in the Hindi film industry, as people stopped casting her in movies. Now writer Apurva Asrani has rather made a shocking revelation in his interview with Hindustan Times.
The filmmaker recalled how a vicious campaign was run against Priyanka in 2012 and she was cornered. “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.
The filmmaker, who shifted base to Goa after realising that he does not need to play this game to do good work, believes there are several producers today “who play a fair game because they are not from dynasties and sincerely seek out talent over sycophancy”.Before Priyanka, another actor, who made became the target of the influentials, was Sushant Singh Rajput, says Asrani. He shares, “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.”But Priyanka is not the first one to speak against the Bollywood mafias. Several other actors faced a 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.” Apurva Asrani is a popular director. The last movie which Apurva Asrani directed was Out of Control.