Deepika calls foreign media “racist” for Priyanka confusion

Over the last few months, on several occasions, the foreign media have mistaken Bollywood star Deepika Padukone for her contemporary Priyanka Chopra. But the actor chose to reserve her reaction on the constant confusion. Until now.

Today, Padukone was not in the mood to ignore this attitude and without mincing her words, she called out the international press and called it an act of racism, reports the Indian Express.

Last month, a video surfaced of local media outside Los Angeles airport confusing Padukone for Chopra as she stepped out. Padukone, however, did not respond to the greetings “Hello Priyanka” and continued walking towards her car. Before this incident, the ‘Piku’ (2015) star was referred to as “Priyanka” during the promotions of her Hollywood debut, ‘xXx: Return of Xander Cage’ (2017). The same YouTube channel posted a video of Padukone arriving at the Los Angeles airport but wrote ‘Priyanka Chopra’ in the video title. It later changed the title but did not make corrections to the description which still read ‘Chopra.’

At the press conference for the Cannes Collection 2017, Padukone, who is the latest celebrity to join the L’Oreal Paris team, said, “It’s not just me who should be offended but each one of you should also be offended because it’s not just ignorance but also racism. Two people of similar colour are not the same people. So, you as fellow Indians should be calling them out and educating them. Instead of encouraging it, you should be educating them.”

Her comment comes a day after Chopra’s interview, where she also slammed the foreign media calling it ignorant. The star said that she saw the video of Padukone being greeted as “Hello Priyanka” and she felt it wasn’t fair. “I did see that and you know that’s just ignorance and it’s not right. I guess I’m the most popular brown face that everyone has known. Every brown girl does not look the same. Don’t mistake it. Let’s try and tell us apart. That was not right and it’s not fair, she is a massive star from India,” she said.

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