Priyanka Chopra says she stopped shoot of a film when co-actor tried to impose a scene on her: ‘I don’t like to get bullied’

“I have had a couple of co-actors of mine who did solo performances. They came in, and they decided this is the scene that they want to do, and everyone else have to cater to that and ‘vo solo performance kar rahe hain’. They don’t wait for you to finish your lines in your time, and they don’t wait for you to take a pause or breath because they have decided how to do the scene,” shared Priyanka.

When moderator Bhumi Pednekar interrupted and asked if she had also been told by a co-actor how to do her scene, Priyanka nodded in affirmative and said, “That’s the worst.” The ‘Desi Girl’ of Bollywood shared that she is all ears for a suggestion from her director, a senior actor or someone she admires but not from someone “who wants you to cater to their scene, ‘ki maine ye decide kar liya hai'”.

And, when someone tried to make her do her scene as per him, she protested, but “gently”. Priyanka narrated, “This has happened to me.. the shoot was stalled..it was a monologue.. I won’t name the person, guess if you can…it was a monologue of the actor on how he feels about me, but he decided not to even look at me. He was doing it and doing it and I had to get my line in. But I couldn’t. So, I finally went to the filmmaker and told him, ‘I admire the actor I am working with, but it is really tough for me. I need my co-actor to listen to how I am saying my line.'”

The director saw that and the shoot for the day was cancelled. “We stopped the shoot, went back to the hotel and had a reading of the scene. We created a collaborative environment during the reading and the scene was shot the next day and it was amazing. The movie did very very well,” added the actor.

Priyanka shared that she took it up with the director because she doesn’t like to “get bullied”. She said, “I am not someone who takes bullying while sitting down. But I am also not someone who fights in an aggressive manner. I am a solution-oriented person and I am a talking person. I know my job and at least I can say that now, when I was young, I couldn’t. After reaching a point, when you know you have given successful performances, don’t allow anybody else or your co-actor to tell you that they are better than you, whoever they might be. Have a sense of confidence.”

Priyanka Chopra is looking forward to the release of her next Hollywood film Heads of State, with Idris Elba and John Cena. She was recently in India for the MAMI Film Festival.