“Oh my gosh, I'm gonna let womankind down.” When Priyanka Chopra explained to Bhumi Pednekar the importance of female-led films and how disheartening it can be when they don’t do well.
Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival
Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00When a female-led film doesn't do well, I feel the collective failure on behalf of all women.
00:06At the age of 17, 18, when everyone is looking at you and everyone is expecting you to be at your best behavior, never say anything wrong, it's tough.
00:15Girls do female-oriented films only at the end of their careers, for the National Award.
00:21Yours has just started.
00:30I was kind of thrown into the pageant world, I became Miss India in this world, when I was 17-18, I literally came out of high school.
00:43I had not even taken my boards yet, and suddenly, you know, people are looking at you.
00:51Like, now I'm used to it, you're looking at me like this.
00:54But at the age of 17, 18, when everyone is looking at you and everyone is expecting you to be at your best behavior, never say anything wrong, it's tough.
01:04And I, because I was a pageant winner, I was expected to be perfect in every way, which a lot of girls are when you're coming into the field through that.
01:13And the pressure of all of that was, I didn't know what my next step was, but it was trust upon me, because if you win a pageant, you get films.
01:23Now I thought that was a natural progression.
01:26And sure, it must have been, I feel like it was some form of divinity where, you know, I was made to find my vocation, or whatever my future was, I got it.
01:36Somehow God sent me in that direction.
01:38After Miss World, you got your first film, you got your initial few films, like what was that moment when you realized, okay, now I can choose what I want to do?
01:48Oh, many, many, many, many films later, I think around after Krish, maybe.
01:56Yeah, probably after the first Krish, maybe somewhere there.
01:59Before that, it was always a, oh my gosh, what's the next one I'm going to do?
02:03What is the opportunity that's going to come to me?
02:05I picked from what came to me.
02:08After the first Krish, I think I was, because I had just done Airtas as well, and I had just done Krish as well, I had done work which gave me a solid foundation.
02:19I got critical acclaim.
02:21I had people telling me I know my job, even though I didn't know I knew my job.
02:26But that is when I started, that was a very clear time when I started seeking work that would challenge me.
02:34Like fashion was a time when I took that decision.
02:37It was right around Krish.
02:38And I remember one time I met, and at that time I was told that girls do female-oriented films only at the end of their career, for National Award.
02:49You've just started, you've just done Krish, you've just done Airtas, you're having such a moment, you're doing a female-oriented film.
02:57It wasn't much in those days, this was early 2000s, 2005-2006, something like that.
03:02But I just didn't know any better, you know.
03:04I loved the script, I loved what Madhur was talking about.
03:07We sat together for six months, I remember, with the writers, me, Rumi, Madhur sir, and all of us.
03:15We sat together for six months, we worked on the script, and it was just a passion project.
03:17I didn't know I could become an author, it did.
03:19We worked on it for six months, we figured out, I don't remember, my house is in Goa.
03:23I just knew this, I knew the work, I didn't know anything else, I just work.
03:27I took the team to Goa, I had a house there.
03:31We had made a fashion wall.
03:35Meghna Madhur's life, where will it be from?
03:37From a small town of Chandigarh, how will it look?
03:41How will her looks be?
03:43How will her emotional changes be?
03:45How will her physical changes be?
03:47And I think, all I focused on was, you know, immersing myself into, who is this girl?
03:55If you're playing a character, if you ever think about acting, or if you're thinking about playing a character,
03:59what worked for me, and I realized this at that time, because that's when I started seeking work
04:05that was for me, instead of being part of a big project only.
04:09Is, get to know your character like your best friend.
04:13When you have success, you have failure as well.
04:15How do you deal with it?
04:17Because suddenly you, that journey becomes so lonely.
04:21You know, if it's successful, it's usually shared.
04:25But if it's not, it's just you.
04:27And you know, most times, if you are, if it's a film that's led by a female character,
04:35you know, then it just becomes like, you know, you're doomed.
04:37Because, I mean, it is a gender conversation.
04:39That is a lot of, that is a lot of pressure.
04:43Is when you have a female-led film, because we have such few.
04:47And because, you know, we are seeing successes of female-led films more and more, obviously.
04:55And, but that's tough, because when a female-led film doesn't do well,
05:01I feel the collective failure on behalf of all women.
05:05I feel like, oh, I've taken them a few steps back.
05:09I've taken women a few steps back.
05:11This has to work, because there are so few of us that get the opportunity to do this,
05:15that we have to do it well.
05:17Whether that's filmmakers behind the camera, whether that's actors in front of the camera,
05:21whether that's writers, or any medium that you're in, hair, makeup, whatever.
05:25Like, you just feel the sense of, oh my gosh, I'm going to let womankind down,
05:29because we have such few opportunities.
05:31But I've learned to pivot my mind around that it's not personal.
05:36When a movie works, it works because it has something to say.
05:40And if it doesn't work, it didn't say what it needed to say.
05:43So take away the power of making it personal, and just move on to the next thing.
05:48That's why I was saying, it's easy to move on if you take away the power of feeling like,
05:53oh shh, this is all my fault, this is what I did, this was mine.
05:56How was it yours?
05:58150 people woke up this morning.
06:00It's not just yours.
06:02So, pick up, have a tub of ice cream, cry a few tears with your friends, go out.
06:08Have a pizza.
06:09Have a pizza, move on.
06:10Maybe for a few nights.
06:12Yeah, I'll do it for at least a week.
06:14It takes me a week.
06:15Me too.
06:16Yeah.
06:17It's like a breakup.
06:18A bad movie is like a breakup.
06:20You pick up and move on, eventually.
06:22A breakup I feel like I can still deal with.
06:25If there's a diamond in a diamond, it's called Kohinoor.