SunstarTV Bureau: Sometimes people put others down because of their accent. But a lady from India is now ruling country and globally with her fluentness, beauty and by her talent skill. Priyanka Chopra was bullied for being an Indian. Her childhood hasn’t been so easy as she had opened up about being bullied at her American High School on various occasions and how it stripped off her confidence and led to low self-esteem.
She was 12 year old when she experienced racism first hand even before she understood its meaning. She went to high school in Boston for three years where she was bullied. The journey from a Bareily girl to a sudden change in foreign country was usually not a cup of tea for her that time.
The actor said, “I did not even understand race and the differences of that when I first came into America. The only thing she could hurt me with, which I couldn’t change is the color of my skin.”
Her fellow classmates used to call her ‘brownie’ and ‘Curry’ and point fingers at her.
“She used to call me curry and brownie. And also said go back to your country on the elephant you came on,” she added in an interview.
Wanting to end her suffering from being called names, eating in the bathroom alone, and being attacked she had no choice rather into go back to India. But India was the place where she gained confidence and dedicated most of her time to boost self-esteem.
“Confidence is something I taught myself over the years. I started becoming okay with which I am and I became the best version of me,” she said.
True enough, because of her newly gained confidence, Priyanka became Miss World at an early age of 18.
“The fact that my personality and the way I speak and my confidence is what won me that crown made me feel like confidence is your best accessory. There is nothing else to need. The only thing you need to wear well is your CONFIDENCE,” she said.
After being crowned as Miss World, she got an opportunity to work in Bollywood industry and also bagged honor as a good actress. But the opportunity won’t make her full to her desire. This time she wasn’t bullied for her accent and ethnicity, but was about her being a woman. A time came when Priyanka’s hard-earned confidence was being tested.
“A producer/director for example telling me if I didn’t agree to the ridiculous terms or painfully low salary in his movie, that he would replace me. Because girls are replaceable in the entertainment business. And it made me decided to make myself irreplaceable” She counter backed by her guts, said.
After many years of teaching herself how to be confident, she mastered the art of it. Then she auditioned for a Hollywood movie, and her accent came in the way. This time she knew exactly how to deal with it.
Priyanka, in order to encourage the students and boost their confidence, told them that they don’t have to be perfect and that it is completely okay to have flaws and concluded saying, “I was a gawky kid, had low self-esteem, came from a modest middle-class background, had white marks on my legs, but the only thing I knew was to work hard and learn. I didn’t know how to act or win a beauty pageant, but I was damn hard working. Today, my legs sell 12 brands”.
