Onir on Priyanka Chopra’s ‘tumultuous’ journey in Bollywood: ‘Media is still busy being paparazzi to star kids’

Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s comments on why she chose to speak about her “tumultuous” journey in Bollywood, in a controversial podcast recently made headlines. While promoting her upcoming Amazon Prime Video sci-fi action thriller series Citadel with co-star Richard Madden, in Mumbai earlier this month, the actress said “I think now I was confident enough to talk about that phase of my life”. Reflecting on the same, filmmaker Onir recently said that it’s “a truth everyone is aware”, yet not much really changes in the industry.  

Retweeting journalist Nidhi Razdan’s opinion piece on “the toxicity within the industry and the way outsiders are treated, and how Priyanka has had the ultimate revenge though with her success abroad”, Onir wrote: “A truth everyone is aware … once in a while the discourse surfaces and then the world goes back to the same practices and much of the media that criticises busy being paparazzi to star kids and media refusing to talk to “outsider” newcomers. While those successful gets”.  

Speaking with Dax Shepherd on his podcast Armchair Expert, Priyanka had opened up about how she felt cornered in Bollywood. She said, “I was being pushed into a corner in the industry (Bollywood). I had people not casting me, I had beef with people, I am not good at playing that game so I kind of was tired of the politics and I said I needed a break. This music thing gave me an opportunity to go into another part of the world, not crave for the movies I didn’t want to get but I would require to schmooze certain clubs and cliques of people. It would require grovelling and I had worked a long time by then so I didn’t feel like I wanted to do it.”

Also read: Citadel star Priyanka Chopra on speaking about her ‘tumultuous’ Bollywood journey in the controversial podcast: I was ‘confident enough’ to share it now 

Speaking at the Citadel press meet in Mumbai recently, Priyanka said, “When I was on the podcast, I was talking about the truth of my journey. And I think now I was confident enough to talk about that phase of my life. I think now where I am, I was okay enough to kind of articulate what I felt. I think I had a very tumultuous relationship with what occurred, but I forgave and I moved on a long time ago, and then I made my peace with it. And I think that’s why it was easy for me to talk about it in an open manner in a safe space.”