Quantico: Will Priyanka Chopra break stereotypes?

The trailer for Quantico has been garnering praise in celebrity circles, while fans of Priyanka Chopra seem to be finding new ways to trend hashtags related to the show. Picked up by the American network ABC to be a part of their fall line up, Quantico is a tale of Alex Parrish, who goes to the FBI training centre to be a detective in the country's crucial security service, but gets pinned in a corner for being a suspect in plotting and executing the most severe terrorist attack in the history of America since 9/11.

In my opinion, Quantico and Priyanka Chopra will definitely prove to break the mould in American TV. The lament about ethnic stereotypes has been a long standing one. In the early examples, Kabir Bedi was made to don a turban in the James Bond movie Octopussy to show his Indian identity. Naseeruddin Shah had scarves and a beard to portray the 'magical and mystical India' in the 2003 movie The League of Extra Ordinary Gentlemen. Even Kal Penn who also sat as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement couldn't break that barrier. He played Kumar Patel in Harold and Kumar, and Kevin Venkataraghavan in How I Met Your Mother. And who can forget Kunal Nayyar playing Rajesh Koothrapali in The Big Bang Theory.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Irrfan Khan and Anil Kapoor definitely have a better record in this area than Indian acting stalwarts like Om Puri or Amitabh Bachchan whose cameo role was easily forgotten as Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby. Aishwarya managed to grab attention in Pink Panther 2 as Sonia Solandres, a criminology expert. Irrfan Khan on the other hand, has been a perfect export from India doing substantial roles in Hollywood movies like A Mighty Heart, New York, I Love You; and Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire of which even Anil Kapoor was a part. But one cannot really categorise these roles as breaking the stereotype - be it in The Darjeeling Limited or The Amazing Spiderman, Khan is still the “Indian guy”.

Anil Kapoor was part of the wildly popular series 24 which he brought to India, playing the Indian Jack Bauer - Jai Singh Rathore. In the original version, Kapoor played Omar Hassan, president of the fictional Islamic Republic of Kamistan (IRK). Though he portrayed someone from middle-east and not an Indian, it didn't do much to break stereotypes. He also appeared in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol playing Brij Nath; a small role in a big franchise where he had no scope to do anything but bring a slight cheekiness of Lakhan that we know so well.

Priyanka Chopra made her entry in Hollywood from a very different gate. She started with singing singles like 'Exotic' which featured her collaboration with Pitbull and ‘In My City’ with Will.I.Am. She then gave her voice to a plane named Ishani, a pan-Asian champion inspired by AeroCad AeroCanard plane in Disney's 3D animated movie Planes. And then she went on to land Quantico.

In Quantico, Chopra plays Alex Parrish, a half Caucasian half Indian girl training at FBI's boot camp. Yes, an American character. Priyanka Chopra's accent and demeanour looks convincing and from the trailer, it looks like she is the character around which the series revolves. I'll consider this as a breakthrough like Hugh Laurie and Idris Alba playing Americans on American TV shows. This could very well pave the way for other actors and it will be very interesting to see the dynamics of a character written change in American entertainment industry.     

If Quantico is continued for a couple of seasons, landing a full-fledged Hollywood movie will be the most logical and obvious next step for Ms Chopra.