Bollywood star apologises over Hindu terror plot row
The Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra has apologised after a furore over a US TV series that showed her uncovering a terror plot hatched by Indian Hindu nationalists.
The episode of the spy thriller Quantico showed Chopra’s character, an FBI agent named Alex Parrish, thwarting the plan and noticing one of the terrorists wearing a Hindu rosary. The terrorists had tried to frame Pakistanis for the attack planned ahead of a summit on Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan territory that arch-rivals India and Pakistan both claim.
Kashmir has been a source of historical tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours, who have fought two wars over it.
The episode, which aired on 1 June, triggered outrage in India with many fans calling the Indian-born actor a traitor.
Chopra, a former Miss World, said she was “a proud Indian and that will never change”.
“I’m extremely saddened and sorry that some sentiments have been hurt by a recent episode of Quantico,” Chopra, 35, wrote on Twitter. “That was not and would never be my intention. I sincerely apologise.”
ABC Studios, the producers of the crime drama, also offered an apology while defending Chopra.
“The episode has stirred a lot of emotion, much of which is unfairly aimed at Priyanka Chopra, who didn’t create the show, nor does she write or direct it,” US media quoted the studio as saying in a statement.
“The show has featured antagonists of many different ethnicities and backgrounds, but in this case we inadvertently and regrettably stepped into a complex political issue. It was certainly not our intention to offend anyone.”
Chopra has been trolled on Twitter since the broadcast and a street protest was held in Delhi on Saturday by a fringe Hindu group that demanded she be sent to Pakistan as a punishment.
“Sellouts like her are an insult to India. She consciously consented for the act. Shame,” tweeted Jagriti Shukla, a journalist.
The government “should cancel @priyankachopra passport amp; should not allow her to enter our nation... Let her stay in Hollywood amp; lick Pakistan boots. Traitor,” Sumit Kadel, a film critic, said on Twitter.
Chopra, the first Indian to headline a US network series, is hugely popular in the country and feted for having made it in the western entertainment industry.
Hindu hardliners recently criticised her, however, for visiting Rohingya Muslims but ignoring persecuted Hindus during her visit to Bangladesh as a Unicef goodwill ambassador.
She was also accused of disrespecting Indian sensibilities by wearing a dress that exposed her legs during a meeting with the Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, in Berlin last year.
Chopra, who is one of the highest-paid Indian actors, featured last year in Baywatch, based on the television series of the same name.