When she first started her career, Miss World 2000 Priyanka Chopra was once sexually propositioned by a Bollywood director during a movie shoot. She called it an “inhuman moment”.

Priyanka Chopra was once forced to show her underwear in a Bollywood film. Photo: TZR.

In an interview with The Zoe Report on May 23, Priyanka Chopra revealed an uncomfortable situation with an unnamed Bollywood filmmaker in the early years of her acting career.

“It was probably 2002 or 2003. I played a secret agent, who had to seduce a guy – that’s what girls do when they’re undercover. In the scene where I seduce a guy, I was asked to take off my clothes piece by piece. I wanted to wear more clothes, but the director said, ‘No, I need to see her underwear. Otherwise, why should people watch this movie?’. He didn’t say that to me, but to the stylist in front of me. It was an inhuman moment. I felt like I was nothing but a way to be used, that my art didn’t matter, and that my contribution didn’t matter,” the actress, born in 1982, said.

The Citadel star said the indecent request led her to quit the project two days later. It was her father who urged her to do so. Of course, the price was Priyanka paying out of her own pocket. “I couldn’t look at that director every day,” she said.

Earlier, in a conversation with Dax Shepherd on the Armchair Expert podcast in March, the Indian beauty queen explained why she left Bollywood because she felt “cornered” by that work environment.

“People didn’t hire me for movies. I also had conflicts with people. I wasn’t good at that game so I felt tired and said I needed a break,” she said.

Priyanka Chopra then embarked on a music career. Though short-lived, it helped her break into Hollywood.

“Music gave me the opportunity to go to another part of the world. I didn’t crave movies that I didn’t want to do, but I forced myself to join certain clubs and groups. It kept me down. I worked for so long that I didn’t feel like I wanted to do it. So when that music came along, I was determined to go to America,” she added.

This turning point opened up new horizons for Chopra. Nick Jonas’ wife was assigned many leading roles in major projects. She left her mark with her role in the hit ABC series Quantico from 2015 to 2018. She continued to participate in the films Baywatch, Matrix: Revolutions and The White Tiger . Currently, she is attracting attention with Amazon Prime’s Citadel .

Before becoming famous in Hollywood, Chopra spent time working in Bollywood. Photo: Getty Images.