Actor Priyanka Chopra opened up about facing racism, changing her accent, and much more after moving to the US in this old video from Karan Johar's show.
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00:00It's really funny, the Indian fans push out the American.
00:03That's not a good habit.
00:04Poor Americans are like,
00:06Excuse me, can we have a photo? We love your show.
00:09And you have to put on this American accent, is it hard?
00:11It's very difficult.
00:12It's as difficult as being Kashibhai and having a Peshwin,
00:14like a Maharashtrian accent.
00:16You gotta throw it away.
00:18You're sounding erotic.
00:19Is that what you're meant to do?
00:21Is sounding American mean sounding erotic?
00:23Even in Hindi I can sound it.
00:25That we know Priya.
00:26Okay.
00:31You know, I noticed a big difference
00:33now that I've spent so much time in America.
00:35I don't think stars or movie stars around the world
00:38will ever understand the stardom that we see.
00:40The kind of love and affection that we see.
00:42It's impossible for them to fathom.
00:44Especially like with me,
00:46when I'm shooting on the roads and stuff,
00:48you have about 500-1000 people just standing there,
00:51waiting for hours in the cold,
00:52just for a picture, just to meet.
00:54So has it happened with you,
00:55where you've been in this scenario,
00:57shooting an American television show,
00:58and you've created a lot of noise
00:59because of your Indian stardom.
01:01Does that happen all the time?
01:02Yeah, because there's so many people
01:03who are just waiting and watching,
01:04and it's really funny,
01:05the Indian fans push out the American fans.
01:07That's Tamil Nadu.
01:08And the poor Americans are like,
01:10uh, excuse me, can we have a photo?
01:12We love your show.
01:13Is that weird for the others on the show?
01:15Like they're not used to this kind of like,
01:17this divide between the two kinds of fans.
01:19No, they take pictures and all.
01:20Whenever I have fans,
01:21like my other colleagues and my co-actors,
01:23they're taking photographs of the madness that happens.
01:25They've never seen it.
01:26It's very,
01:27the kind of insane love that we see,
01:31how people believe that we belong to them,
01:33which we do,
01:34is very different.
01:35Like that's such a massive difference
01:36between the East and the West.
01:38So when you have to put on this American accent,
01:39is it tiresome?
01:40It's very difficult.
01:41It's as difficult as being Kashibhai
01:42and having a Peshwin,
01:43like a Maharashtrian accent.
01:45It's as difficult as that?
01:46Yeah, I had a dialect coach there,
01:47and I have a dialect coach here.
01:48So you have to play act sometimes.
01:50Yeah, you always act.
01:51Like you have to learn how to say the word.
01:53It took me so long to say some of these words
01:55in American.
01:56So you have to say the last line in the accent.
01:58What would you have to say?
01:59It took me so long to learn these American words.
02:01It took me a really long time
02:02to learn all the American lines.
02:04Like it was really hard.
02:05So what do you have to do specifically?
02:07The R's have to be really soft.
02:08You just throw away your words.
02:10You need to make sure you don't enunciate,
02:11which is the opposite of what I was taught growing up.
02:14You gotta just like throw it away.
02:16Oh my God.
02:17You gotta throw it away.
02:18You're sounding erotic.
02:20Is that what you're meant to do?
02:22Is sounding American mean sounding erotic?
02:24Even in Hindi I can sound it.
02:26That we know Priya.
02:27Okay.
02:28That you know,
02:29it's in your nature.
02:30It's in your voice.
02:31It's in your voice.
02:32It's not in your nature.
02:33Do you feel like any kind of treatment difference
02:36in where you come from
02:37and who you are on set in America?
02:39Because God knows that racism,
02:41I mean, is a global phenomenon.
02:43And you know it exists.
02:44Have you ever been at the receiving end of it?
02:46Not on set as much.
02:47Like I was at the airport once.
02:49I was flying back from Europe to New York.
02:52And I was sitting,
02:53and it was one of the small planes you know,
02:55because we were connecting from a smaller city.
02:58And I went to the loo up front,
03:01the first class loo.
03:02And the air host,
03:05he goes,
03:07oh the loo's at the back.
03:09I said,
03:10what about that?
03:11He said,
03:12oh that's just for first class.
03:13Oh dear.
03:14So I was like,
03:15so he said,
03:16oh I'm sorry.
03:17I said,
03:18I'm sitting right there.
03:19He goes,
03:20oh I didn't mean that.
03:21He meant first world.
03:22Yeah.
03:23Not first class.
03:24Basically,
03:25that I was brown.
03:26Anyway,
03:27so I've seen it like that.
03:28Little,
03:29little things.
03:30Especially like how I speak English so well.
03:32And then I have to explain to people that we have,
03:34English and Hindi both have been my first languages.