Priyanka Chopra’s film ‘Anuja’ earns Oscar nomination

On March 2, Priyanka Chopra will be cheering and supporting her third production to bag an Oscar nomination. In the last decade since she turned producer, the actress has been committed to promoting new talent and showcasing South Asian stories.

Priyanka Chopra came on board the short film Anuja as executive producer with her production house Purple Pebble Pictures. She joins producers Guneet Monga Kapoor and Mindy Kaling on the live-action short directed by filmmaker Adam J Graves. It has been nominated at the 97th Academy Awards being held on March 2 in Los Angeles and will compete against other live-action shorts, A Lien, I’m Not a Robot, The Last Ranger, and The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent. This marks the actress’s third project to score a nomination at the Oscars. We take a look at Priyanka’s commitment to backing newer voices and diverse stories.

After she shifted base to Hollywood as an actress, first with the American TV series “Quantico” and later the film “Baywatch”, Priyanka started her own production company, Purple Pebble Pictures, in 2015. In the past decade as a producer, she has pushed smaller films in languages like Bhojpuri, Nepali, and Assamese. Her first big breakthrough as a producer was Rajesh Mapuskar’s Ventilator in 2016, starring Ashutosh Gowariker. It won three National Film Awards, including those for Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Sound Editing.

Since then, Priyanka has always set her sights high for her productions. As an actress, Priyanka also starred in Shonali Bose’s The Sky is Pink (2019) and Ramin Bahrani’s The White Tiger (2021). The latter premiered on Netflix on January 22, 2021.

Based on Aravind Adiga’s award-winning novel, it was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 93rd Academy Awards. She starred in the film alongside Rajkummar Rao and Adarsh Gourav. This was a breakthrough role for Adarsh as he also landed a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Her next production to land a nomination was the documentary film “To Kill a Tiger” by Nisha Pahuja last year. While it lost out on the main award at the 96th Academy Awards, the film once again highlighted the prevalent issue of rape and the stigma victims face in villages and smaller towns. The empowering documentary showed one family’s fight to get justice for their daughter, despite the odds and their hostile neighbours.

The 22-minute short film is the story of two sisters played by Sajda Pathan and Ananya Shanbhag, It tells the story of two sisters living in Delhi who dream of a better life. The younger sister, Anuja, ponders about the chance of a lifetime when she gets offered a scholarship. Anuja is also presented by Mira Nair’s Salaam Baalak Trust, and the child star Sajda is one of the beneficiaries of the trust. (Agencies)

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