You can really see the difference.
Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images
Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images
You can really see the difference.
Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images
Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images
Update: Aishwarya Rai has, in a statement, dissociated herself with the ad. Kalyan Jewellers has apologized and withdrawn the ad from their campaign.
NDTV / Via movies.ndtv.com
Manya Sharan
Jaw, meet floor.
SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP / Getty Images
Forty-one, more like HOTTIE-one, amirite?
Walter Dhaldhla / AFP / Getty Images
Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images
“OH YAAAAAAA”- You.
SAM PANTHAKY/AFP / Getty Images
Dominique Charriau / Getty Images
Shout-out to those who blazed the trail.
Kohli appeared in the Netflix original series Sense8 portraying Rajan Rasal, the fiancé of one of the main characters.
Netflix
Treasury is a recurring contributor on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore which airs on Comedy Central.
Comedy Central
Anil Kapoor is widely recognised as one of the most famous Indian actors worldwide. He's acted in the eighth season of the hit FOX series 24 as well as Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
FOX
Nayyar has become a household name all over the world for his portrayal of Dr. Raj Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory. Nayyar was raised in New Delhi, and left for the U.S. to pursue a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Portland, Oregon.
NBC
First The Dress and now this??? Can any of us trust our eyes anymore? IS THIS THE APOCALYPSE?
STR/AFP / Getty Images
STRDEL/AFP / Getty Images
Vogue India / Via Twitter: @VOGUEIndia
A Tumblr user has pointed out something way creepy.
Yash Raj Films / Via BuzzFeed
Ultra Movies / Via youtube.com
So many dumb ways to Bhai.
Punit Paranjpe / Getty Images
Ugly Chaal Productions / Via youtube.com
Ugly Chaal Productions / Via youtube.com
Ugly Chaal Productions / Via youtube.com
The pain is real.
José Covaco
ABC
She’s a former Miss World; she’s starred in nearly 50 films and won countless awards for those performances; she’s a Guess spokesperson and an UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador; and her music videos have as many views as Taylor Swift’s.
But in the U.S. hardly anyone knows Priyanka Chopra’s name...until now.
On the seventh week of what has been a emotionally charged, action-heavy, grueling shoot for her ABC series Quantico, Chopra pinballed around the Montreal set like it had been anything but — laughing in between takes, snuggling up to the set’s puppy, and launching herself onto nearby gymnastics equipment.
Part of that boundless enthusiasm stems from Chopra’s unbridled love of the promising new fall show, which takes a cue from last season’s breakout hit How to Get Away With Murder by telling its story in two concurrent timelines: In one, an impossibly beautiful cadre of FBI recruits (including Chopra’s Alex Parrish) learn how to become agents, and in the other, Alex searches for the truth behind a deadly terrorist attack on NYC for which she finds herself framed.
But as Friday night turned into Saturday morning on the set of Quantico and that 5 a.m. wrap time felt light-years away, Chopra admitted she was fading. During a rare moment of rest toward the end of an otherwise restless day, she told BuzzFeed News with a laugh, “Nobody prepared me for this. …We’re shooting 16-hour days every day, and we wrap at, like, 5 in the morning. So, I’m a little bit tired at the moment, to be honest. But I’m super excited by everything that’s happening.”
And what’s happening is quite unprecedented. As one of India’s most popular actors, Chopra is easily the most famous to ever star in a U.S. television series.
STRDEL/AFP / Getty Images
“Has there ever been an American show fronted by a relatively unknown actress who happens to be a huge star elsewhere?” film critic Raja Sen wondered to BuzzFeed News in an email. “It’s as if Marion Cottilard was cast on an HBO show before she won her Oscar."
While many American viewers will label 33-year-old Chopra as a “newcomer,” the truth is, she’s been working tirelessly in Indian cinema since being crowned Miss World in 2000. “She’s a bonafide star — and that means a lot in an industry where, despite the number of films produced, there are less than 20 actual A-listers,” Sen wrote. And, he added, “[Priyanka] made it on her own steam, which isn’t the norm in an industry reeking of nepotism.”
That steam, however, took a long time to build. Chopra’s fame didn’t come easily or overnight; it was a slow, uphill climb. She had to prove herself over and over again in Bollywood, an industry that — initially — didn’t seem to want her. “There was this one producer when I just started [acting] who wanted me for a project, but my dates weren't matching and he was like, ‘You know what? Girls are replaceable. And if she doesn't come at this price and on these dates, then I'll just get someone else. And if I don't get someone else, I'll just launch a new girl. That's how it works for girls,’” Chopra recalled with an anger that still brims at the surface more than a decade later. “I didn't want to be replaceable. I wanted to be irreplaceable. So that rubbed me the wrong way, and I think subconsciously that’s why I started doing empowered roles.”
Those carefully chosen roles have showcased dozens of sides to Chopra as a performer, and they’ve elevated her from ingénue to acclaimed actress to leading lady. “I'm very clear about who I am, and I don't like conforming to how I ‘should be’ — I really believe in being flawed and being unique, and I think that's what makes you special,” she said, adding that ultimately, she wants to make sure her performances “entertain people. That's who I am. However I can do it, whether that's through my music, my dancing, my Hindi movies, my show, I realized over time that … I live to entertain.”
At the height of Chopra’s international fame, ABC came calling. But she wasn’t immediately sold on doing American television. “I was very skeptical because TV is a big commitment,” she said. “My career in India is important to me and I'm doing some amazing work, which I'm excited about, so I was thinking in my head about how I could balance it all.”
But ABC wasn’t giving up, and Chopra was at least open to the idea, having built her career on going where the wind takes her. “I am destiny's other child besides Beyoncé. I'm telling you, destiny looks out for me, takes me places, and I say, ‘OK, that's what you want me to do? All right. All right.’ And then I give it my best.”
Chopra winning Miss World in 2000.
Gerry Penny / AFP / Getty Images
So Chopra flew to Los Angeles for two months and read every script that ABC had in development. There were 26 in total, but Quantico was her favorite — by a mile. Not only is Alex Parrish the kind of empowered character Chopra wants to play, but the series presents a world filled with the kind of mainstream entertainment that spoke to Chopra’s sensibilities as a viewer.
“I didn't know anything about movies when I started acting, and I had never been to acting school and I never had friends or family in the business, so everything was super instinctive and I think I developed an instinct about picking things I would want to watch,” she said. “So when I read Quantico … it's not like, ‘I'm art, take me seriously.’ But at the same time, it doesn't take your intelligence for granted. It's fast-paced and had drama on major levels, which I love. I'm a movie actress. I love drama. It just made perfect sense. The artist in me couldn't say no.”
But Chopra’s casting wasn’t a given. Fifteen years after entering the world of show business, she was confronted with a first: auditioning. “I hate that, because it makes me sound so pompous, but when I became Miss World, lots of movie offers came my way and people were like, ‘Oh, she's Miss World, she should be cast because people will come watch the movie just because she's Miss World,’” Chopra said, adding that one role led to the next, and as she became more and more famous in India, auditioning wasn’t really a factor.
She had to remind herself of those very accomplishments over and over again before stepping into her very first audition for Quantico. “I went in the bathroom before I was supposed to go in front of all these people and I looked in the mirror and I said, ‘You've done 40 movies! What are you afraid of? You can make it work,’” she remembered with a laugh. “So I talked to myself for a little bit and then I walked in as if I owned the room.”
The pep talk worked, according to Quantico creator and executive producer Josh Safran. “The way Priyanka walks in a room is different from everybody else,” he told BuzzFeed News over the phone. “I was stunned. I didn't know who this person was, but it was very clear this person had a career — you can just sort of tell. She walked in as if she was sitting down to have an interview as opposed to an audition, where we were in the hot seat — and then she just gave an incredible read.”
Chopra on Quantico.
Eric Liebowitz / ABC
For Safran, Chopra landed the part of Alex right then and there, despite the part being written as an American. So with her help, he set out to tweak the role to reflect Chopra’s roots, and Alex became Indian-American. “I believe the show very much deals in where these characters come from … where they're from is not just a plot point, it's the fabric of their character,” Safran said, adding that the only major change to Alex after Chopra’s casting was that following a childhood tragedy, her character had now spent a decade in Mumbai.
“We wanted to create a person,” Chopra said of those initial conversations about Alex. “She wasn't created for an Indian person; so now that you've cast an Indian girl, should her name be Indian? That's a stereotype to me. Alex is mixed breed — if you would call it that. She's half Indian, half American; her dad is white, so obviously my last name is going to be Parrish. Yeah, I could have had a more Indian name, but I didn't think you actually needed to change that. She's an individual. She could be anyone from anywhere; it's that kind of role.”
Chopra and her om bracelet in the Quantico pilot.
ABC
Still, the Anglo last name paired with the American accent Chopra uses on the show has given some of her many Indian fans pause. But Chopra insists Quantico has gone to great lengths to ensure her Indian roots are front and center. “We've not run away from me being Indian at all. … I wear this om bracelet and the first shot of my show is this bracelet, which is considered lucky in India,” Chopra said, turning her wrist to display the charm. “I'm just really happy the first shot of the show is this. Alex is very close to her Indian roots. She's lived a decade in India, but she's an American citizen. … I still have an Indian lilt, but it's American because she's technically lived her whole life here. So we talked about all of those things before we shot the pilot and came to the consensus that this is how she should be. She's a modern-day global citizen who happens to be an Indian-American, and there are millions of people in this world like that. ”
But television has taken a while to reflect that. Almost more than any other network, however, ABC — with Fresh Off the Boat, Black-ish, How to Get Away With Murder, and Scandal, among others — has been proactive about the better-late-than-never realization that viewers demand onscreen diversity and begun casting actors who mirror global citizens. “It's incredibly important to show all ethnicities on television and be realistic to the world,” Safran said. “The FBI has all ethnicities, so I think it's incredible that I have Priyanka, the actor, as Alex, but I think it's also great to see an Indian woman at the center of a television show. It's important to show diversity whenever possible.”
With Quantico, Chopra joins a network lineup that includes Scandal’s Kerry Washington, How to Get Away With Murder’s Viola Davis, Fresh Off the Boat’s Constance Wu, American Crime’s Regina King, and Blackish’s Tracee Ellis Ross. “We looked at Priyanka and thought, she’s a fabulous actress, she’s incredibly relatable to our audience, she’s empowered and fierce the way only ABC heroines are empowered and fierce,” ABC Entertainment Group President Paul Lee said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in August. “She’s a sort of iconic ABC star, and we think the whole world is going to be talking about Priyanka as we come through into the fall and start our big marketing campaign for that one.”
ABC
The campaign Lee referenced is now in full swing on billboards, buses, and buildings from New York City to Los Angeles, selling Quantico on the strength of a single element: Chopra’s face. It’s a savvy move, given that she boasts more than 30 million fans across social networks and speaks directly to an audience the network clearly believes is underserved. “It’s like hanging out with Beyoncé,” Safran said of his experiences in public with Chopra. “Wherever she goes, people know her, they notice her, they talk to her, they want things from her, yet she takes it all in stride and is so calm, cool, and collected, and so emotionally available and open. She's one of a kind.”
Yes, ABC’s marketing strategy puts a lot of responsibility squarely on Chopra’s shoulders; and while many would buckle under that kind of intense pressure, she clearly takes it all in stride. “I’m not presuming everyone who is Indian knows me and likes me, but we are one-fifth of the world’s population — at least I can get them in,” Chopra said with a laugh.
It helps that she’s used to the promotion of a project hinging on her. This time, however, it’s in new territory. “One of my friends came to L.A. and said, ‘Oh, it feels like Mumbai,’” Chopra said, as a playful smile broke out across her face. “I feel like after working in movies for 15 years, like, whoa, I’m coming to another country and feeling those same jitters that I did when I saw my first billboards go up.”
Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images
But she wants to make clear that having an American series doesn’t mean she’s leaving Bollywood behind — in fact, Chopra is working twice as hard to maintain her place in Indian cinema while working on Quantico. All her spare weekends are spent flying home to complete two upcoming movies (adding to the 15 flights per month she generally averages), and she’s already reading scripts for the movie she plans to make once filming on the series wraps. “I want to balance both my careers because I love doing Indian movies and I get withdrawal symptoms if I don't do a song,” Chopra said. “It doesn't matter what language I speak. I don't think art should be restricted by borders or language or race or creed or anything. I could be anywhere in the world. I go wherever the work takes me. Like this, for me, isn't my big chance to make it in America. I don't want to prove a point.”
Chopra may not have set out to prove something with Quantico, but the effects of its potential success are widespread. From a financial standpoint, ABC could have a show with innate global appeal and the ability to sell it to international markets that might not otherwise buy a series about FBI trainees. Additionally, if Quantico is a hit, it could mean a lot more work for Indian actors in America. “Most Indian actors … fare like Aishwarya Rai, who had a big American launch with much publicity and pomp, only to be reduced to embarrassing bit-roles,” Sen wrote. “Because of this, Indian actors declare they’d rather stay in their own backyard where they can call the shots as loudly as they like.”
Now there’s a chance Quantico could change all that. “If Chopra does strike gold, you can bet a lot of them will hire accent coaches overnight and start rolling their R’s,” Sen wrote.
But regardless of how the show fares in the ratings, sells internationally, or immediately influences Hollywood’s casting practices, Chopra has already broken down a significant wall for burgeoning Indian actors who can now see that breaking into American television is at least possible. “I feel very privileged to be in this position,” she said. “When I was in high school in America and watched TV, I never saw anyone who looked like me. I feel very privileged that I'm one of the first few people to do that — but that's not the reason I'm doing it. I come from an extremely small city called Bareilly in India. Both my parents were army officers. I come from humble beginnings, and to sit in front of Sunset Boulevard and see my face the size of a building is pretty nutty. I have no blessed beginnings or superpowers that have brought me to where I am, except for the fact I'm not afraid to work hard. I'm not afraid of being tired or being pushed. So I feel like I’m saying that if I can do it, anyone can. I really believe that.”
All your ’90s, ’00s and ’10s dreams came true.
Amitabh Bachchan / Via Twitter: @SrBachchan
Karan Johar / Via instagram.com
Preity ZInta / Via instagram.com
Preity Zinta / Via Instagram.com
The grand tale of a school RENOWNED for producing only successful graduates… Starring Uday Chopra, Jugal Hansraj, and Kim Sharma.
Yash Raj Films
Jimmy Sheirgill
That’s a solid hug.
The two acted in Mani Ratnam's Guru that year.
What purple lips look like when they’re NOT on the most beautiful woman on planet Earth.
@lorealmakeup
@lorealmakeup
@bollywood / Via instagram.com
She probably deserves another crown for her answer, tbh.
Alberto Pizzoli / AFP / Getty Images
Never change, Abhishek. Never change.
Rebecca Hendin / BuzzFeed
Like every girl, I spent many nights through adolescence leaning into my bedroom mirror, wondering why my body looked nothing like it should.
Why does my belly crease? Why do my arms jiggle? Why am I not fair? Why are there dark patches under my eyes? Why am I taller than boys my age? Do stretch marks ever go away? Will this cellulite stay forever?
“Itni lambi, itni kaali,” a relative casually let slip at a family gathering. “Shaadi kaun karega?” It confirmed that my greatest insecurities were well-founded.
I didn’t know much at 15. But I knew I could never look like a Bollywood actress.
When I was 13, my family took a trip to Goa. Aishwarya Rai was there vacationing with a friend, and we spent an evening with her. I still remember that in blue jeans and a white tank top, she looked like royalty. It baffled me.
I didn’t know much at 15. But I knew I could never look like a Bollywood actress.
Two years and some surprising life decisions later, Sanjay Leela Bhansali cast me in Saawariya.
Despite being on the cusp of actually being a movie star, I didn’t believe I looked the part. I constantly worried that, if asked to dance in a backless choli, rolls of back fat would give me away as an imposter to the industry. Nobody lines up to buy tickets to see cellulite.
Sonam Kapoor at 23.
So I embarked on a series of unhealthy behaviours. I dieted serially; sometimes South Beach, other times Atkins. Once, in desperation, I tried a diet that had me eating pineapples all day.
I pushed myself too hard at spin classes, did power yoga for hours at a stretch, and developed an unhealthy relationship with food. Some weeks, desperate to drop a couple of kilos, I would simply not eat.
At 18, I went on a date that I thought went well. Later, the boy told our mutual friend that “Sonam is too big”. I didn’t eat for a day.
(Now, thanks to those dumbass teenage decisions, I’m stuck with acidity for life.)
I had assumed that the self-loathing goes away once you’re on billboards at Juhu Beach. I was so wrong. Far from accepting my body once I was making a living as an actress, I was shown new reasons to hate it.
I had assumed that the self-loathing goes away once you’re on billboards at Juhu Beach.
Articles surfaced online, photos zoomed into my arms and thighs, red circles drawn around the slightest hints of a blemish.
When I had a couple of movies out, Shobhaa De wrote a blog post saying that Sonam Kapoor “just doesn’t cut it in the sex appeal stakes”.
People started calling me flat-chested. I’d never been insecure about my C-cup but I got defensive about it on Koffee With Karan.
Eventually, I didn’t even need the tabloids to point out my flaws – I could look at myself on camera monitors and predict what would be criticised. I still remember the frames I hated immediately: the tight silver dress from Bewakoofiyaan, the song with Neil Nitin in Players, the swimsuit and shorts in Aisha, to name a few.
Burmawala Partners
Of course, scrutiny of female bodies isn’t new, or even restricted to celebrities. I mean, raise your hand if you’ve ever been called “healthy” by a relative, or been given unsolicited advice by a friend about how to lose weight.
Raise your hand if you were told to stay out of the sun so you don’t get dark.
Raise your hand if you started hating your body after somebody else told you how.
Here’s what’s gone wrong:
We’ve been taught that women need to be flawless even when our flawlessness is wildly implausible, sexy even when our sexiness is a break from plot. We're sprinting through Jurassic Park in heels, fighting supervillains in strapless corsets, being stranded on deserted islands for days without a hint of stubble. Real female bodies are so taboo that hair-removal-cream ads show hairless legs even before the cream is applied.
We’ve been taught that women need to be flawless even when our flawlessness is wildly implausible.
The rules of beauty are strict and it’s almost impossible to win. Anushka Sharma has been skinny-shamed, Sonakshi Sinha has been fat-shamed, Katrina Kaif has been fit-shamed. These are women who are and always have been staggeringly beautiful.
But where there’s a broken system, there’s a solution. The problem is in mainstream culture’s rigid definitions of female beauty. The solution, for me, has been in the women I know.
It’s been a decade since I entered the film industry with my awful self-esteem in tow and, thanks to the female support I’ve had throughout, that self-esteem is in a healthier place now.
I’m lucky to have had my friend and makeup artist Namrata Soni, who sees my face from hyperclose quarters and goes out of her way to make me feel good about it. When I whine about my laugh lines or dark circles, she tells me they’re natural and that’s why they’re beautiful. I have a forcep scar on the right side of my face and my lip lifts up on one side (you notice these things when you’re in front of a camera a lot). When I float the idea of getting them fixed, Namrata reminds me that they make me me.
Instead of letting me interpret my body’s quirks and changes as “flaws”, Namrata helps me celebrate them as unique markers of unique beauty.
I’m lucky to have had my sister and sometimes stylist Rhea, the hottest girl I know. When I’m beating myself up for being too lanky, for not having her curves, she shuts me down and insists I look good in everything she makes me wear. When I start complaining that I don’t look like I did when I was 21, Rhea tells me I look better now.
All the women who’ve championed me have taught me that kind, genuine support can change your friend’s or sister’s or colleague’s life.
(Think of how much better your day is when it starts with a compliment. Think of how easy it is to give that to someone else. Do it every chance you get.)
Francois Durand / Via Getty Images
Today, at 31, I like my body because it’s healthy. I’m done celebrating thinness or flawlessness. I’ve embraced a fit lifestyle, clean eating, and the pursuit of waking up every morning feeling energised. There’s beauty in good health.
The ball is in the media’s court to celebrate fit bodies rather than thin ones, and to know the difference.
I know now that there’s nothing wrong with stretch marks, cellulite, or scars. They’re markers of our growth. There’s beauty in their realness.
And, for the record, I’m not writing this to discourage the pursuit of glamour. Anyone who knows me knows I love feeling pretty – fashion can lend power, makeup can become motivation, a fun accessory can become your source of confidence for the day.
But pursue prettiness for yourself, by your own definitions – not to meet culturally preset notions of “flawless”.
Because flawlessness is a dangerous, high-budget myth, and it’s time we shattered it.
Flawlessness is a dangerous, high-budget myth, and it’s time we shattered it.
So, for every teen girl leaning into her bedroom mirror, wondering why she doesn’t look like a celebrity: Please know that nobody wakes up like this. Not me. Not any other actress. (Not even Beyoncé. I swear.)
Here’s the real deal: Before each public appearance, I spend 90 minutes in a makeup chair. Three to six people work on my hair and makeup, while a professional touches up my nails. My eyebrows are tweezed and threaded every week. There’s concealer on parts of my body that I could never have predicted would need concealing.
I’m up at 6am every day and at the gym by 7:30. I exercise for 90 minutes and, some evenings, again before bed. It’s someone’s full-time job to decide what I can and cannot eat. There are more ingredients in my face packs than in my food. There’s a team dedicated to finding me flattering outfits.
After all that, if I’m still not “flawless” enough, there are generous servings of Photoshop.
I’ve said it before, and I will keep saying it: It takes an army, a lot of money, and an incredible amount of time to make a female celebrity look the way she does when you see her. It isn’t realistic, and it isn’t anything to aspire to.
Vogue India
Aspire, instead, to giving your body as much sleep as it needs. Aspire to finding a form of exercise that’s actually fun for you to do. Aspire to knowing your body and how to live well in it.
Aspire to confidence. Aspire to feeling pretty and carefree and happy, without needing to look any specific way.
And the next time you see a 13-year-old girl gazing wistfully at a blemish-free, shiny-haired Bollywood actress on a magazine cover, bust the myth of flawlessness for her.
Tell her how beautiful she is. Praise her smile or her laugh or her mind or her gait.
Don't let her grow up believing that she's flawed, or that there's anything she's lacking for looking different from a woman on a billboard. Don’t let her hold herself to a standard that’s too high, even for the women on the billboards.
Tell her I definitely didn’t wake up like this. She won’t either. And that’s totally, completely fine.
As told to Rega Jha, by Sonam Kapoor.
Karan Johar shows us the journey of a man learning about love, friendship, and being a borderline abusive crybaby.
After all the controversy, Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, finally released this past weekend to mixed reviews. The movie is undeniably great looking, with talented actors such as Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma (playing leads Ayan and Alizeh) leading the show. The story, however, is more than a wee bit problematic, and not just because of how much it resembles literally every film Kapoor has starred in since his debut. (How many years can you keep coming of age, bro?)