Actor Priyanka Chopra founded her production house Purple Pebble Pictures in 2015, and she admits that her struggle to find her place in Bollywood as an outsider motivated her to go behind the camera. She shared that the industry is "extremely closed off" to people coming from outside.
When the host on Reddit asked Priyanka about her motive to go behind the camera, the actor shared, “...I started working in Indian movies, Hindi and Tamil movies in India,... This was in 2002, but the Bollywood industry is kind of… was at least extremely closed off to people coming from outside. There are generational actors, generational directors, generational 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..."
The actor revealed that through her production house, she wanted to give a platform to filmmakers and writers who “maybe would not get that big budgeted movie”, and small films that wanted the bigger opportunities.
Purple Pebble Pictures kickstarted with Santosh Mishra's 2016 Bhojpuri film 'Bam Bam Bol Raha Hai Kashi'. It was followed by Rajesh Mapuskar's 2016 dramedy 'Ventilator', which starred Ashutosh Gowariker in the lead role. The film fetched three National Awards, for direction, editing, and sound mixing. In 2019, her Marathi production 'Paani' won the National Film Award for Best Film on Environment Conservation/Preservation.
Priyanka will be next seen in Frank E Flowers’ action drama film 'The Bluff'. She will also be making her comeback to Indian cinema with SS Rajamouli’s 'SSMB 29', which also stars Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran in lead roles.
