By our reporter
Priyanka Chopra may be India’s most famous international film star today, but her Bollywood career seems to be in the doldrums.
Post her marriage to Nick Jonas in 2018, her first Bollywood film The Sky is Pink has not done well at the box office. Her earlier Bollywood film Jai Gangaajal too was a flop.
In fact, her last Bollywood hit was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2015 film Bajirao Mastani which also starred Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone.
But The Sky is Pink, which is directed by Shonali Bose and premiered at the just concluded Toronto International Film Festival, has marked a new low for Priyanka. The film collected only Rs 2.5 crore on its first day – which is the lowest box-office collection for any of her films.
Priyanka is seen by many – mostly in the huge Indian diaspora – as a global Indian star after her three seasons with the ABC’s thriller series Quantico – from 2015 to 2017 – where she won the People’s Choice Award for two consecutive years for her role.
But apart from this role, her career in Hollywood has been lacklustre. She didn’t shine in Baywatch. And she played ordinary roles in two other Hollywood films – A Kid Like Jake and Isn’t It Romantic.
So where is Priyanka headed as an actress?
Let us be honest. She was never an A-lister in Bollywood. All her hit Bollywood films had strong male stars.
“Priyanka is not Madhuri Dixit or Sridevi who can draw audiences. She is beautiful, but she hasn’t that intensity as an actress that Madhuri or Sridevi had. Deepika comes close to them, not Priyanka,’’ says an Indian film critic.
According to this film critic, Tabu or someone else should have been chosen for Priyanka’s role in The Sky is Pink. “The very reason that this film has not done well is Priyanka. She cannot do intense roles. Tabu would have done a much better job in The Sky is Pink.’’
The film critic says Priyanka is an overhyped actress. “She was never among A-listers in Bollywood and she is a C-grade actress in the West.’’
So is her career finished in Bollywood?
“In Bollywood, only a male star can pull crowds on his own. Bring in Salman Khan and you get a hit film. But that’s not the case with actresses – barring Madhuri, Sridevi and a few others in the past. The current crop of Bollywood actresses needs a strong male star to deliver successful films,” says the film critic.
But many current A-list actors in Bollywood won’t work with Priyanka because of her past history with them – Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, etc.
Salman Khan could have helped her, but she pissed him off by walking out of his film Bharat at the last minute before her engagement to Nick Jonas in 2018.
After she walked out of Bharat, an angry Salman Khan told a Mumbai newspaper that Katrina was the first choice for the film, not Priyanka.
Salman said, “It was sweet of her (Priyanka) to tell us five days before the shoot that she couldn’t do Bharat. I’m glad Katrina is part of the film. She was Atul’s (producer Atul Agnihotri) first choice, but Priyanka called Ali (Abbas Zafar, director) and said she wanted to do Bharat. So we considered her.’’
Looks like Salman Khan will probably never work with Priyanka again. And Aamir Khan is the kind of actor who chooses his films carefully.
So is there any A-list actor with whom Priyanka can work and revive her Bollywood career?
