No one in Bollywood could have played Mary Kom better than me - Priyanka Chopra

A lot is at stake for Priyanka Chopra with Mary Kom. If the movie does well, Priyanka’s name will etched for ever alongside the greats in Bollywood pantheon. For now, the movie looks all set to receive a bumper opening courtesy the tax exemption granted by two big states, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Tellychakkar.com caught up with this versatile actor cum singer for a free-wheeling chat recently. For an actor, what is the biggest challenge that a biopic poses? As an actor, you are assigned with the biggest responsibility of projecting the life of someone correctly onscreen and that is very difficult to do as compared to a fictional character where you can afford to take some creative leeway. Now in case of Mary Kom, the responsibility doubled up because she is a living and very relevant person. So it was important for me to uphold Mary’s spirit in the film. Were you excited at the prospect of playing Mary Kom too? Absolutely. I very much wanted to do the movie right from the start. And also since Sanjay sir (Leela Bhansali) who I have a lot of belief in was producing the film, it excited me. I have known Omung (director) for a long time now. So there was a comfort level. Omung and Sanjay gave me a lot of creative freedom and always kept me in loop about the story and its development. And after hearing Mary’s story completely, I was dead sure about doing the movie. What would you say is special about Mary’s story? How this daughter of a rice farmer from a small village in Manipur goes on to become a five time world champion and an Olympic medal holder is what I would say is special. Also this story needs to be told because it is the story of a woman who despite being a five-time world boxing champion was taken note of only after she won a medal in Olympics is extremely shameful. Also this is the first time a film is being on a female Indian athlete. How physically demanding was playing Mary Kom? It has been a very demanding film. A female body doesn’t have enough testosterone to develop a body like a man. I had to do build all those muscles in three months flat. So that was a big challenge and it took a toll. Debate still rages on whether a North East Indian actress should have essayed Mary Kom’s role. Your take? We had a big debate on whether a new girl from North East should be launched through this movie. The only problem would have been the budget which would have made not commercially viable for producers had the actress been from North East India. Also if Mary’s story is not told on a large scale, then you would only be undermining her achievements. Also from Mary’s point of view, it was important for her to show that Manipur is in India. Even today people ask her if Manipur is in India. This affects her a lot personally. Just because Mary doesn’t look like the stereotypical Indian does that mean she is not Indian? She is as much Indian as you and me. Mary once shared something which touched me deeply. She told me,’ When I won at the Olympics, people started knowing me. But India started knowing Mary Kom after Priyanka Chopra said ‘yes’ to my biopic. And that shocked me. Even in Bollywood, you will not see a single North East Indian actress in the top 10 list of actresses. And reason behind it is that our viewers are not ready to seeing North Easterners in films. Mary told me that since they look different, people don’t accept them. Then how will they come into mainstream cinema. Our viewers have a lot of stereotypes in their minds so what can a producer do….(pauses) Go on… People say I don’t resemble Mary Kom. Just because I don’t look like Mary it doesn’t mean that I have not embodied her spirit. And Mary herself has accepted me. I had self doubts whether I would be able to portray her well or not. But Mary herself has shared everything about her with me. So I can say it with pride that even though my eyes, nose and other facial features don’t look like Mary, I have identified myself with her soul and spirit so much that I don’t think anyone else could have played this role better. You can go into the controversy that I don’t look like her but atleast watch the movie and my performance in it and then have a say. Special effects have apparently been used to make you look more like Mary... (Cuts in looking a bit irritated) Says who? IMDB credits Prime Focus under the category of special effects... Every film has VFX. We have used it for colour coding. We have not used special effects to make my eyes look smaller. No special effects have been used to alter my body features. So expecting to win a national award with Mary? (Smiles) I don’t do films to win awards. I am very unbiased about awards. When you get it it’s a great encouragement. When you don’t, you feel bad about it.