Not only a successful actress and singer, Priyanka Chopra looks to be adding some behind-the-camera work under her belt too.
It seems like the Quantico actress has officially signed a major deal with Amazon, meaning that she is set to work on many new projects for the streaming website.
Rumoured to be a “multimillion dollar” deal spanning for two years, the agreement will provide Chopra with the creative freedom to star and produce shows that highlight important issues to her, such as increasing South Asian representation on mainstream television.
As one of the few actresses to successfully balance Bollywood and Hollywood throughout her impressive career, she became the first Bollywood actress to lead a prime television show in America.
However, her desire to increase representation isn’t a new venture. In an interview with ELLE U.K., Chopra opened up about her passion to transform the faces of Western television, saying:
“My life’s dream is to be able to make or produce a movie that has a predominately South Asian cast. I’m so glad that I’ve been put into the position where I have the ability to open those doors.”
She elaborated, “I want to do it because no one was able to do it for it for me. That’s my life now. To develop characters that normalise different cultures. Everyone’s talking about diversity, but it’s not a check in a box. I see so many amazing South Asians: Aziz [Ansari], Mindy [Kaling] … But there’s still maybe 10 of us, max, that have actually ‘made it.’ That number needs to increase.”
As she spoke to Variety about the deal, Chopra said, “As a teenager, I didn’t see representation of myself in American pop culture or even global pop culture outside of the stereotypical caricatures of South Asians.”
But it doesn’t stop there, the global deal will allow Chopra to produce and work on content in multiple languages, which is something she has always wanted, saying: “I can do Hindi language, I can do English language, I can do whatever language I want”.
Amazon Studios head, Jennifer Salke also told the industry publication that she and Chopra bonded over “a shared passion for diverse global storytelling.”
Some of her projects that are already in the works, include a television series with husband, Nick Jonas, all about Indian pre-wedding traditions, called Sangeet.
Until then, we’ll be waiting to see what impressive strides she takes next.
