Priyanka reveals she was rejected for a film role due to her skin color

MUMBAI: Indian film star Priyanka Chopra in an interview talked about how she lost out on a film due to her skin color.

While talking to InStyle magazine, the 35-year-old Quantico star revealed that she faced color-discrimination last year when a studio executive called one of her agents and said, she has the wrong physicality.

“I was out for a movie, and somebody [from the studio] called one of my agents and said, ‘She’s has the wrong — what word did they use? — ‘physicality,’” Priyanka shared.

“So in my defense as an actor, I’m like, ‘Do I need to be skinnier? Do I need to get in shape? Do I need to have abs?’ Like, what does ‘wrong physicality’ mean?” Priyanka continued. “And then my agent broke it down for me. Like, ‘I think, Priy, they meant that they wanted someone who’s not brown.’ It affected me.”

Speaking about wage disparity, the starlet said that it happens everywhere, be it in your home country or internationally the pay gap is staggering in films with big actors. She admitted that she deals with such incidents by making her agent negotiate on her behalf.

“No one will say that a woman is getting paid less because she’s a woman of color, but the numbers mostly end up reflecting that,” Priyanka shared.

“In America, we don’t talk about it as brashly, whereas in India the issue is not skirted around. I’ve been told straight up if it’s a female role in a movie with big, male actors attached, your worth is not really considered as much.”