PC did an interview following the RRR Oscar win and associated fanfare, and promoting her new TV series, in which she gave her thoughts on the Indian film industry and so on. It’s a podcast and I can’t seem to find a full transcript anywhere, and I also can’t bring myself to listen to it, but I did see a few excerpts. Mostly I’m thinking “why is it that I find myself exhausted at the thought of doing more research into this? What is causing this fatigue?”
Everyone has a right to speak from their own experience and their own perspective. And podcast interviews are looking for that, it’s an intimate longform interview, but it is also not a prepared interview. They want you to say what is in your head at this moment, mistakes and all.
That’s how I feel seeing the wide-ranging quotes from this interview between PC and Dax Shepherd. She spoke about what she was thinking about without doing any larger preparation or consideration or anything. Where I think I feel the fatigue is that she is just one person speaking from her experience, but because she is the only voice speaking in certain forums, her words are over-weighted. I don’t want to say she can’t talk about what she is feeling, but it does make me feel stressed and overly obligated to give a counter-perspective that is lacking. In a way I don’t when reading interviews in the Indian press, because I know the Indian media and social media and other celebs will all be giving their own views and I don’t need to add my voice.
(to de-stress, I will be dropping stupid Dad jokes my father has sent me through out this post)
So far as I can tell, the Indian press mostly jumped on her referring to RRR as a “Tamil” film. It’s not just a slip of the tongue either, she corrected the interview when he called it “Bollywood” to say it was “Tamil”. She went out of her way to present herself as an expert, superior to him, and made a really stupid error instead. And I think this is what bothers me? I don’t care that she said the wrong language, I’ve made similar errors loads of times myself. But she did it in a way that said “I am the expert, I know more than you, assume whatever I say is correct”. And, it’s not. It’s more correct than “Bollywood”, but it’s still wrong. And that’s how, I think, I take the whole interview. It’s not necessarily the gospel truth, it’s just one person talking AS THOUGH they are saying the full truth.
From the little excerpts I was willing to make myself read, it sounds like she talked about colorism, cliqueishness, and a “toxic ten year relationship”. The colorism is interesting because one of her most famous ad campaigns is for Fair & Lovely, and she explicitly rejects that campaign in this interview while at the same time framing herself as a victim of colorism. And that makes me itchy, makes me want to provide context around colorism in India, around her various film roles, and to ask her to take more responsibility in her own role in creating this dynamic, not just through Fair & Lovely but through Miss India and all her public appearances where she wasn’t being “made” to look more fair but chose it and so on. Again, if she had given this interview in a world where many many Indian actress were also speaking, the audience would understand her very specific place in that world and her perspective.
Cliqueshness, similar. Let’s talk about that. Yes, she was on the outs with multiple folks in the Industry at the time she left. But she also dropped Bharat, a plum plum film role, with no notice right before filming began. So she was being offered things, and she removed herself in a way. Again, I’m not going to dispute that Hindi cinema is a very “who you know” kind of industry, but there are layers I feel that are missing.
And finally, the “toxic ten year relationship” which is a dog whistle phrase for those who follow the SRK affair rumors. As I said I think ages ago the last time she said something like this, I can accept the possibility that SRK and she had an affair at some point. But it is truly impossible for it to have lasted ten years. SRK is too carefully tracked by the media and fans to have been able to keep that up. I don’t think PC is lying here, but I am irritated by her allowing this mistake to continue. Either say “toxic ten year relationship with a famous married actor whose name rhymes with ‘Raruk’” or “ten year relationship with [not SRK person who she has never publicly acknowledged]”. Make the lie explicit or tell the truth, don’t try to play both sides.
All of this is why I really really hate most interviews given by Indian movie stars to western reporters. They can’t provide full context, they are just one person who had one experience in the world. And the reporter doesn’t know enough to give that context either. Most of all, the reporter is too cowardly to push it obvious gaps in a way they might if they felt more comfortable with the topic. You don’t have to be an expert on Indian film to hear PC talk about not being offered roles, and then pull up imdb and say “can you clarify on that a little, because I am seeing a lot of big movies after the time you talk about not getting roles?” I don’t want a “gotcha” moment, I want a real answer, I want to know what she is talking about because it isn’t film roles, it’s something else that I don’t understand.
I feel like, again just based on little quotes I have found, that PC is very much riding a wave here in a way public figures often do. Colorism, nepotism, Indian film, it’s all hitting the western discourse more lately. So she’s repeating the catchphrases and molding her experience to fit with that, which is something non-introspective people tend to do a lot. They aren’t lying, they just accept external explanations rather than looking for internal ones. And that would be okay if she wasn’t the ONLY voice speaking out and so suddenly her superficial comments and limited experiences (limited because she is just one person) become fact and reality.
What I would love, and which won’t happen, is for Preity or Deepika to also give a similar interview talking about their experiences. PC isn’t the only voice of Indian film actresses come to America, she’s just the one who talks the most to the American press, and it’s slanting the narrative.
Anyway, that’s why I woke up and saw comments about PC talking about Indian film and immediately wanted to pull my covers up and go back to sleep.
What was your reaction?
