Bollywood has no place for Priyanka Chopra

The sad truth about Priyanka Chopra’s talent is, there are no takers for it in  Bollywood. A hotshot producer-director who is said to be very close to Priyanka,  when asked about the possibility of working with her replied, “Am I mad? She lives in LA now. She is of course ravishing. But she can’t have a long-distance career.”

As Priyanka Chopra’s career grew in Bollywood, she rapidly became ‘unsign-able’. The A-listers opted  out. After a string of hits with Priyanka, Akshay Kumar couldn’t/wouldn’t work with her for reasons that we won’t go into here.

Salman Khan wouldn’t work with her because she refused to pander to his  gargantuan ego. Even after the success of 'Don', Shah Rukh Khan wouln’t work with  Priyanka  because …well, he couldn’t.  Aamir wouldn’t work with Priyanka because Salman and Shah Rukh wouldn’t.

It was all very internecine, messy and unsolvable. Priyanka had no choice  but to start afresh in another part  of the world. Her career in the West was not a professional strategy. It was the only means to her survival. In hindsight, the decision to head West was the best decision Priyanka took in her life and career. No one from Bollywood has attained even a grain  of  her success in the West.

 It’s not about the films she does in Hollywood. It’s not being married into one of the most successful families in the American entertainment industry. It’s about being Brand Chopra, the most recognizable Indian name in the West.