Priyanka-Rajkummar Step Back For Co-Star

 Who says actors are self-obsessed  narcissists?  The way Priyanka   Chopra  and  Rajkummar Raohave decided to step back to let  their relatively unknown co-star  Adarsh Gourav take to the limelight  in The White Tiger , is  a lesson for   the  I-me-myself breed  in  Bollywood.

 It is reliably learnt  that  Priyanka and Rajkummar   took a conscious  decision to let Adarsh  take centrestage.

“See, they knew from the start that The White Tiger  was Adarsh Gourav’s  film. They knew  it was his film from the  moment they agreed  to get on board  in the project.  Director  RaminBahrani is  a formidable talent. He  was not going to increase  Priyanka’s role just because  she’s a global  star.From the start she and Raj knew the extent  of their parts. And they were okay with  Gourav taking centrstage  in  the  film, and  now  in the promotions,”  informs  a source  close to the project.

 Gourav is dazed  by all the attention that he’s getting and  how comfortable Priyanka made him  feel all through the  making of  the  film.  She  introduced Gourav to the American  media as the star  of the show.

Shall we say, hats  off to Ms Chopra for breaking the myth  of  the jealous insider versus  the nervous anxious  insecure  outsider?

I remember  Simi Garewal  telling me  a horrendous  story from the  start   of her career about meeting a very beautiful young star  and her even more beautiful mother at a  party.  They greeted Simi with a frosty smile and  a few pleasant words . Simi was  in  one  of  the  cubicles  in the washroom when  the star-daughter and  star-mother walked in.  “Why do  you  even have to talk to  HER?She’s a nobody,” the mother  muttered  angrily to  the star daughter while Simi wept silently  .

 Blessedly those days of insecure stars  are over,Priyanka Chopra represents the democratic welcoming spirit  that I missed when I  became  a film writer. One  of my first editors  had  advised me, “You are from Bihar why don’t you  try Hindi  journalism?”

Dhanavayaad, but  no dhanvyavaad.