'THE GIRL NEXT DOOR SHOULD LOOK LIKE THE GIRL NEXT DOOR': PRIYANKA CHOPRA ON DIVERSITY
Our superstar columnist reveals the "eye-opening" moment that made her realize she had to champion diversity.
Priyanka Chopra can't easily be summed up in a sentence. The former Miss World (she won the title in 2000) is a Bollywood star, recording artist, model (in December 2013 she became the first Indian GUESS girl), humanitarian (she's a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador), and activist (she promotes the education of girls in India through her namesake charity, The Priyanka Chopra Foundation). All that in one person? Sounds like Chopra, or PC as her friends call her, would have to be superhuman to pull it all off. Only she isn't. Like us, she struggles to get enough sleep, worries too much, and can't resist her junk food cravings.
How do we know? Because she told us. And every month on ELLE.com, in a new column, "Pret-a-Priyanka," Chopra will open up about her life, struggles, and her guilty pleasures. In this month's column, PC talks diversity.
I consider myself a citizen of a world. I've gone to school in India and the U.S. My career in entertainment has allowed me to travel the globe and interact with many cultures. But my first brush with the world of entertainment"and, really, the world in general"happened in 2000 at the Miss World competition, where I had the privilege of interacting and competing with girls from over 130 countries. It was an overwhelming experience for me to learn so many aspects of so many different cultures, to experience first-hand the similarities and the differences that we had, and most importantly to seamlessly come together into one big unit.
I remember returning to India following my win and meeting so many young girls who told me that my achievement on a world stage was an inspiration for them, giving them hope that the world was truly their oyster. At 17, all that kind of talk was a little too intense for me to compute but I heard it very very often through the various stages of my career. It gave me a few 'pat yourself on your back' kind of moments, but I mostly chalked it off to people being kind.
I am a girl from a small town in India, the daughter of two hard-working army doctors who achieved a certain success through hard work and determination. I understood that it was my underdog story that offered hope to all the young people who nurtured a dream for themselves. I tried my best to encourage people to look at the world as a place of opportunity and to just give their dreams a shot.
But the actual reality of my 'celebrity status' (for lack of a better phrase) and what it meant hit me quite recently. It wasn't until I made my debut internationally, first with my music (I have released four singles so far in English) and then with the campaign I did for Guess Worldwide, that my "fame" really sunk in.
My debut single 'In My City' featuring will.I.am was chosen as the theme song for NFL's Thursday Night Football for two years in a row. Suddenly, there was this brown girl (their words not mine) from India who became a part of this quintessential American culture. And then came the Guess campaign. The all-American blonde bombshell was replaced by a dusky, brunette Indian girl!
I was proud to be a part of both these milestones and very happily took on the role of brand ambassador of South Asia and India to the world. I wasn't being positioned as "Indian" in any way for either of these initiatives, I was simply being me: an artist sharing her creative self with the world. But the reality of the bigger picture of both these initiatives hit me after an interaction with a young American of Indian descent. (A little context before I continue: India has a population of over 1.2 billion people and also, importantly, a vast diaspora. While some may have become citizens and passport holders of another nation, somewhere they still have a connection to India.) This young lady came up to me in the airport and gave me a hug and said "Thank you for making us relevant." I was stunned at the comment and asked her to explain. She said she was second-generation Indian, born and brought up in the US. Her family still had strong ties with India. She said that most people still equated our culture to speaking like Apu from The Simpsons or living in a country of snake charmers and elephants! She said with the NFL and Guess, I proved that we are much more than that and that we are 'cool' too. She said "You broke the norm... the quintessential all-American girl has changed... She can be of any ethnicity and culture...for the first time in my life I feel like it can be me too!" That conversation was a real eye opener for me. It inspired me to champion the cause of diversity in entertainment and media.
I was reminded of that experience recently when the news of my developmental deal with ABC Networks was announced. It all began with a chance meeting with the fiery Keli Lee (EVP of Casting at ABC) and a continued conversation aided by my equally fiery manager Anjula Acharia Bath. Both of these ladies have been on a mission to embrace and to celebrate diversity in the United States. In her role at ABC, Keli has pioneered diversity at the network, scouting talent from around the world, and casting strong female diverse talent in top dramas-like my friend Kerry Washington in Scandal and Sofia Vergara in Modern Family. Similarly, Anjula has championed South Asians in music and entertainment. Collectively, their efforts are bridging cultures from around the world through pop culture and entertainment.
So why is that important you ask? What exactly is the true meaning of diversity?
In my opinion, diversity means the inclusion of individuals representing more than one national origin, color, religion, socioeconomic stratum, gender, or sexual orientation, and it is the responsibility of the entertainment community to mirror the world we actually live in every day. To create a screen that shows color "not only black and white, but also brown, Asian, Hispanic, gay, and transgender" and cast an image of the "girl next door" that actually looks like the girls next door with roots from countries around the world.
Diversity is the one thing that we all have in common, and so I hope "as I prepare for my long-term stay in LA at the end of this month, adding a new layer to my career"that my presence on your television is accepted for the characters I portray, and not judged by where I come from. We are, after all, citizens of the same world!
https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a26052/priyanka-chopra-on-diversity/
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