Priyanka Chopra agrees ‘Mary Kom’ role should’ve gone to ‘someone from Northeast’, recalls her film playing the role of a ‘sexual predator’ at 21

Global icon Priyanka Chopra recently opened up about her film journey as she called her to hit performance as a ‘sexual predator’ in ‘Aitraaz’ during the initial days of her career. She also talked that in hindsight, an actor from Northeast India should have played the role of boxing champion Mary in her biopic instead of her.
During an interview, the actress reflected upon the most important moments of her career, starting from becoming Miss World to her recently released ‘The Matrix Resurrections’.Recalling her first Hindi film ‘Aitraaz’ with Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, she told Vanity Fair that not everyone was on board with her decision to take up on a negative role so early in her career.

She said, “At that time, big heroines who’d be in the mainstream commercial movies, had to be a lot more coy, pure, good girls. Versus my character in Aitraaz, who was a bad b**ch. At that time, it was a lot.” She added that her character of a ‘sexual predator’ at the age of 21 or 22 made people say things like ‘If you play such a sexually charged character, I don’t know if your audience will be able to see you as the dream girl’. She further described her character as someone who ‘want to take to your parents versus the one you want to take to your bed’ and shared that she was infact shocked by the positive reaction after the film was released. Her surprise had doubled knowing that the film starred much bigger stars than her, including Akshay, Kareena, Amrish Puri and more.
Added to this, she also mentioned her film ‘Mary Kom’ which still holds a special place in her heart as she connected with the boxer. However, the casting of the film was always in the debate. Clearing the air about it, the actress admitted that she looks nothing like Mary Kom and hence someone from the Northeast should have done it.

“In hindsight," PeeCee added. "The part should have probably gone to someone from the Northeast. But I was just greedy as an actor to get a chance to tell her story, because as a woman, she inspired me so much."
On the Bollywood front, Priyanka will be next seen in Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Jee Le Zaraa’ co-starring Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt in the lead.