Deepika Padukone, who made her Hollywood debut with “xXx: Return of Xander Cage”, playing alongside Vin Diesel, has lashed out at Hollywood for offering stereotypical ethnic roles such as "exotic assistant to a detective” and lacking diversity.
The Bollywood star, who is currently in the UK for the biopic film “83” with her husband Ranveer Singh, also said that she doesn't think Hollywood is the goal anymore and “the whole world is starting to look East”, Deepika said in an interview to US-based magazine PorterEdit.
“While the conversation about diversity seems to happen in Hollywood now, I feel there is still a long way to go before they truly understand"
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In fact, whenever she attends meetings in Los Angeles, she tries to make people understand that there are far more opportunities in the world other than in America.
“I am going to meetings to let people know not just about me, but that there is a whole big world beyond America. And they need to see that.”
The 33-year-old actress, who gave a head-turning appearance at Cannes 2019 and the camp-themed Met Ball, said that the whole idea of moving from Bollywood to Hollywood is a bit of a dated concept.
— Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) May 8, 2019
The actress also set the record straight for Bollywood and said she is not content to take biddable and traditional female roles in the industry. It angers her to see influential people from the industry, not speaking out against it.
"I feel like a lot of actors are just satisfied with what they do for themselves. I'm not that person. I feel if I am in a certain place today, I would like to take advantage of that. It makes me angry sometimes to see extremely influential and talented people who don't really try to do anything beyond what they want to do. That's a personal choice, but it makes me sad."
The actress, who has faced criticism for speaking up about social concerns, said she stopped striving to fit the model image of being an Indian film actor and decided to stay true to herself.
"I was trying to be someone I was not, by trying to fit the model of being an Indian film actor, wearing certain clothes. Everything started to fall in place after I decided to shed all that."
Deepika's maiden production venture "Chhapaak", in which she is also acting, will be released next week. She is playing an acid attack survivor, inspired by the life of Laxmi Agarwal, who survived such an attack in 2005 when she was 15 after she rejected the amorous advances of a 32-year-old man.
Thank You @priyagupta999 !🙏🏽 https://t.co/8wXGDRTHRr
— Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) March 25, 2019
