Priyanka Chopra Jonas said at the Cannes Lions conference on Wednesday that becoming a producer has allowed her to back new talent, while the changing entertainment landscape has lowered barriers for actors and filmmakers. She also spoke about her wish to take her English-language career further and said ideas now matter more than traditional gatekeeping.
Citing the low-budget horror hit Obsession, Priyanka said a strong idea can now find an audience in ways that were not possible earlier. She also reflected on the global rise of non-English-language content, the impact of streaming and the pandemic on viewing habits, and how marriage and motherhood have changed the way she approaches work.
“I feel like if you have an idea, shoot it, put it on YouTube, and it can become Obsession, the movie that just came out,” Priyanka said. “What a wonderful time to be an entertainer, to be in the entertainment business, because ideas are your currency.”
She said it had not always been so open for newcomers. Priyanka, a Bollywood star who has spent the last decade building a career in Hollywood, said she faced difficulties when she entered films because she had no industry connections. “My parents were doctors, so none of us had any idea how to navigate film,” she said.
She said the industry was far more limited when she began. “It used to be such a niche industry when I first started. If you wanted to get into filmmaking, you had to figure out what department you wanted to be in,” she said.
Shift in perception of Indian cinema globally
Priyanka also recalled being told early in her career that Indian cinema would “never be as global as Hollywood because we’re not English-language, and not everybody understands whatever language our movies might be in, whether Hindi, Telugu, Marathi or anything else”.
She said that experience shaped her decision to start her production house. According to Priyanka , she wanted to support “new filmmakers, or filmmakers who have great ideas but don’t have the ability to open doors that I may be able to open”.
She also spoke about her ambition to broaden her work in the United States. Priyanka, who is coming off streaming hits “Citadel” and “Heads of State”, said she wants her English-language career to reflect the range she has had in Hindi films.
“In my Hindi-language career, I’ve worked with all the best filmmakers and the best actors, I’ve told amazing stories and done a variety of genres. Whereas in America, in Hollywood, in my English-language work, I haven’t really done that as much,” she said.
She described her “next reinvention” as “figuring out how, in (her) English-language work” she can bring the same “kind of variety to my characters that I have been able to do in India”.
Streaming boom and global content shift
Priyanka credited streaming platforms and the pandemic with pushing viewers towards stories from different parts of the world. She said audiences now have much easier access to international films and series than before.
“My mom loves Korean dramas. She would never have had access to those if it wasn’t for both of those factors,” Priyanka said. “Or she’ll watch an Iranian movie. Or look at Squid Game when it became the phenomenon that it did, or Parasite when it won Best Picture.”
She said such projects had shown that non-English-language entertainment could no longer be seen as niche. She also mentioned Varanasi, a project she is currently working on, which was shot in Telugu and will be dubbed in almost 200 languages.
Personal life and changing priorities
During the conversation, the Quantico star also spoke about how her personal life has changed since getting married and becoming a mother. She said her “life has changed tremendously” and that it has altered the way she works and travels.
“Your priorities really change. I don’t just pack my bags and go off for a movie anymore. I don’t do five films a year. I don’t travel the way I used to. I’m really, really selective about the time I spend and who I spend it with I’m navigating working-mom life. I have so much more respect for my mother now,” she said.
At Cannes Lions, Priyanka used her own journey to speak about how the entertainment business has changed, why she started producing, how she wants to grow her English-language work, and why global audiences are now more open to stories told in every language.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.indiatoday.in ’
