4 min readNew DelhiFeb 17, 2026 12:56 PM IST
Priyanka Chopra started her career in Indian films in the early 2000s and while in those days, the word ‘nepotism’ wasn’t used as often, it was practiced quite liberally. This resulted in Priyanka getting fired from some films because the makers or actors favoured some other female actor over her, and theirs was the final word. Priyanka recently recalled one such incident where she was fired from a Hindi film after she had signed the contract. She recalled that her male co-actor told her that the director had made a “mistake” hiring her as the film was meant to star some other female actor. Priyanka found herself in a strange position as she was heartbroken, but despite having a legal contract, she could do nothing about this situation.
Priyanka Chopra was fired from Bollywood film after signing a contract
In a recent chat at Harvard Business School, Priyanka recalled that her male co-star from her supposed next film visited her on the set of the 2007 film Salaam-E-Ishq. Priyanka thought he was there to support her as they were supposed to start filming for their movie next month, but that wasn’t the case. “He goes, ‘The director gave you this movie by mistake. It was his mistake. This was always supposed to go to this other girl but we will do another one together, don’t worry about it. I just wanted to tell you myself.’ And he ate some food and left,” she recalled.
Priyanka said that she was 22 at the time and this was a “really important movie” for her that was just taken away in an instant. “My heart just crushed and I was like, ‘I signed a contract. Like, what do you mean?’ But that’s how it was,” she shared and added that this happened many times over. At this point, Priyanka had appeared in many successful films and was still building her career but since she was young enough to go back to college, she shared that she thought of that as a possibility. She shared that she was “rethinking” her career at that point but decided to “focus on my craft” which eventually paid off. “That took me through my carer and got me more work,” she shared.
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Film were ‘taken away’ from Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka made her debut in 2003 with Andaaz, also starring Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta, but in that period, there were many newcomers who came from film families, including Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Zayed Khan among many others. When asked about nepotism, she shared, “I didn’t know what nepotism meant at the time. I just knew that every parent wants to make sure that they give their children the best future that they can, which is normal. My parents did the best that they could to make sure that I have a choice in my future so I didn’t understand what that meant or the limitations that came with it.”
Priyanka recalled that early on in her career, a few movies were “taken away” from her. “I was cast as a lead and suddenly, I was cast as a second lead because somebody else… You know, the politics of it just struck me and I realised that no one is making a movie for me. This person is not my uncle or I haven’t been to their home since I was 4 years old and that started becoming really apparent when you met friends and colleagues,” she said. But amid all of this, PC realised that she was starting to get good reviews for her work and she decided to stick with it. “I started looking for a variety of roles,” she shared.
Priyanka Chopra has not been working in Indian films since 2019’s The Sky is Pink. She will next be seen in SS Rajamouli’s upcoming film Varanasi, slated to release in 2027.
Priyanka Chopra was fired from her supposed next film on the set of Salaam-E-Ishq. (Photo: Express Archives)