'If you can say Oprah, you can say Chopra, but they called me Shapra': Priyanka Chopra

On Monday, actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas participated in a video call with veteran actor Kabir Bedi to promote his upcoming memoir, Stories I Must Tell. They discussed how difficult it was for them to get into Hollywood during the talk. They also discussed how names played an important part in getting roles in Hollywood and how one had to be ready to give up their identity at times to get a role. Priyanka Chopra pointed out that she did not have to change her name to get a role in Hollywood but she did have to put up with a lot of people mispronouncing her name at various times.

Priyanka Chopra and Kabir Bedi discuss names at the launch of his book

Speaking about names, Priyanka Chopra told Kabir Bedi, “But let me tell you. This is a couple of decades later when I decided to go and seek work in America. I didn't have to change my name but I did have to teach people how to say my name. Everybody would be like Priyanka 'Shapra-Shapra'. I said it is not Shapra. If you can say Oprah, you can say Chopra. It's not that difficult."

She continued by saying, “What I had to do as well--so funny that you are saying you had to do at that time-- was I had to be ethnically ambiguous to a certain extent, to be able to get mainstream roles. In Quantico, I played a half-Indian, half-American. All my bigger work when I initially joined Hollywood, I could not step out there with being Indian, because it was too alien for Hollywood. I don't think, for a very long time, they understood casting an Indian person in a mainstream role in a leading part. So even now, it was extremely hard."

Priyanka Chopra said all of this in response to Kabir Bedi’s statements about getting work in America. He said, "In those days Hollywood just wasn't writing roles for Indians, or Asians in general. So how do you get a role if it is not written for you? When they did have a role for an Asian, they had no hesitation in painting a white actor brown. The way I got the roles was telling my agent that forget the Indian bit. Cast me in anything that is foreign-looking to Hollywood," he said in the video by Bollywood Hungama, talking about how he has portrayed an Indian, a Moroccan and other foreign characters. "In those days, a Ben Kingsley had to change his name from Krishna Bhanji to Ben Kingsley to be taken seriously and get roles. Today, Priyanka Chopra does not have to change her name for her success in America.”