‘It is my quest to influx Hollywood with Indian talent’
1 min read 11 Dec 2020, 11:37 PM ISTPriyanka Chopra's production house works in both India and the US, in multiple languages and across mediums
PremiumWhen she joined the film industry, Priyanka Chopra noticed that there were plenty of opportunities for the “big guns" but not always for the ones with talent.
“It takes time for talent, whether it’s in writing, direction or acting, to be able to get through the doors," the actor said on the final day of the HT Leadership Summit 2020, in a session alongside her musician husband, Nick Jonas. “My company, Purple Pebble Pictures (PPP), was all about giving opportunities to smaller, more quaint stories. That’s how the regional cinema (production) started," she said.
In the five years since she started producing films, PPP has established itself as a ready financier for innovative projects across languages such as Marathi, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Nepali, Assamese, Hindi, and English. The 2016 Marathi-language feature Ventilator won three National Awards. Biographical drama The Sky is Pink released the same year received almost universal praise. Up next is The White Tiger, based on Aravind Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning novel by the same name.
“At that time (of PPP’s launch), not a lot of Hindi movie producers were backing regional movies," the actor recalled. “I grew up all over India, so it was a dream of mine (to produce regional language cinema)." Today, the production house works in both India and the US, in multiple languages and across mediums.
“The idea is to take a story that moves you, that’s disruptive, that doesn’t exist," said Chopra-Jonas. “My greatest joy with Purple Pebble Pictures is being able to create movies and TV shows with an all South-Asian cast in Hollywood. We haven’t seen that very often. It’s my quest to influx Hollywood with as much Indian talent as I can," she said.
