A look at the titles backed by Priyanka Chopra and her Purple Pebble Pictures highlights one thing: she does not see or approach movie production as a means to merely churn out large sums of money. Instead, she focuses on lending a helping hand to those meaningful projects that could soar to great heights with just a slight push. With the Priyanka Chopra brand label attached, these works have been travelling across the world, allowing a broader audience to witness their splendour.
Recently, Priyanka herself opened up about her decision to venture into film production, which, she said, was inspired by her struggles as an outsider in Bollywood. In a video from the event that has since gone viral on Reddit, she was seen stating that the industry is “extremely closed off” to those trying to find their way into show business without having flashy film family names attached to theirs.
Priyanka Chopra on her production house & Bollywood industry at the recent workshop.
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She said, “I won a beauty pageant in the year 2000, and that kick-started me into the entertainment industry and catapulted me into it. Thus, I started working in Indian movies, particularly in Hindi and Tamil… This was in 2002. But Bollywood is kind of… was, at least, extremely closed off to people coming from outside.”
“There are generational actors, directors, and producers. So when you want to break into the industry and get cast, it wasn’t the easiest. But somehow I broke through. I was ambitious. I didn’t like failing, so I was persistent and kept at it. I made it somehow. And when I did, Purple Pebble Pictures was my way of creating that space that I never had. I wanted to work and provide the industry with filmmakers who, maybe, didn’t have access, or writers who wouldn’t get a big-budget movie,” she added.
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“I wanted to be the shoulder for entertainers around the world to be able to get the limelight that they want. I’ve been very proud of the films that we’ve been associated with and produced over time. They’ve been wonderfully received and we have given them the limelight that they deserved,” the actor maintained. Purple Pebble Pictures has bankrolled projects such as Ventilator (2016), Sarvann (2017), Pahuna: The Little Visitors (2018), Bhoga Khirikee (2018), Firebrand (2019), Paani (2019), Evil Eye (2020), The White Tiger (2021), and To Kill a Tiger (2024), among others.
Last seen in the buddy action comedy Heads of State, where she shared the screen with Idris Elba and John Cena, Priyanka Chopra is currently awaiting the release of her swashbuckler action drama The Bluff. Over half a decade after The Sky Is Pink, Priyanka is set to make a comeback to Indian cinema, playing a key role in the SS Rajamouli-Mahesh Babu project, tentatively titled SSMB29.
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