Why does Priyanka Chopra want to promote South Asian talent in Hollywood?

Mumbai: Actor-producer Priyanka Chopra Jonas didn’t have any help when she crossed over to Hollywood, but she wants to become ‘the shoulders for people to jump off of’ when it comes to promoting talent from her home country and South Asia.

From organising screenings of ‘RRR’, which won the ‘best original song’ Academy Award for ‘Naatu Naatu’ and India’s official entry for the Oscars, ‘Chhello Show’ to throwing a pre-Oscars party for the South Asian talent, Priyanka said she wants to showcase the ‘power’ of the artists from India.

“I feel like it is my responsibility now to be able to help people who want help from me because I didn’t have it. It’s always nice when you come into the industry and somebody says, ‘I’ll make a call for you’. I have that now with industry friends that I’ve built relationships with, whether that’s in Bollywood or Hollywood. It feels good to be able to help people achieve their dreams,” the actor-producer told the top news agency.

The reason behind organising the pre-Oscars party for the South Asian talent, the 40-year-old said, was to show that ‘there’s not just one or two of us. There are 400 of us. There are a lot of us and we demand a position of power’.

Priyanka said now, through her production banner ‘Purple Pebble Pictures’, she aims to ‘become the shoulders for people to jump off of’.

“Because I realise the power of the platform that I have and I really want to make sure that I can help South Asian filmmakers get the spotlight,” she added.

The actor moved to the US to pursue a career in the American film industry a decade ago. After releasing her first music single, ‘In My City’ in 2012, she went on to star in the series ‘Quantico’, play the main antagonist in ‘Baywatch’ movie, feature in ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ and will soon be seen headlining Prime Video’s spy thriller show ‘Citadel’ as well as the romance drama ‘Love Again’.

When she started living in Los Angeles, the actor said, her industry colleagues from India would come and she felt their aspirations.

“I’d make the connections. I’d call somebody I know and say, ‘Hey’. Then I realised that I could do that. Then I wanted to do it deliberately. I started making sure that if somebody wants support from me, Indian filmmakers especially or South Asian talent, I will try and find a way to do it.”