Female-centric roles not much welcomed in Bollywood: Priyanka

Actress Priyanka Chopra, whose upcoming biopic on boxing champion Mary Kom has generated a lot of sensation, today said that woman-oriented roles are still not much welcomed in Bollywood.

"Mary Kom is a film obviously about Mary Kom. First and the foremost, female-centric roles are not welcomed in Bollywood," Priyanka said while interacting with the students of Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad here as part of the promotion of the film.

"While I was coming here, everybody was telling me that you are doing a fabulous woman-oriented film. When you get to watch 'Pee Kay' or 'Kick' do you say that 'I am going to watch a male-oriented film'. Nobody says that," the actress said.

'Mary Kom' is biopic on the Manipur-based pugilist who has been a five-time world boxing champion and also a Olympic bronze medallist. During her interaction with students, Priyanka stressed the need to weed out gender bias from Bollywood.

"Things will change for women in Hindi film industry the day when we go and watch a movie after seeing its trailer, without having any gender bias in our minds," she said.

Priyanka said that in the male-dominated society, talent of women is not getting recognised in contrast to their male counterparts.

Directed by Omung Kumar and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the film will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, which will be held from September 4 to September 11.