Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has apologised for a cover she did with an esteemed travel magazine after it caused an outrage on social media where users were accusing her of being insensitive towards refugees and migrants.
The 34-year-old former Miss World is featured on the cover of the Condé Nast Traveller India’s October edition wearing a white T-shirt with the words, “refugee”, “immigrant” and “outsider” crossed out in red, leaving only the word “traveller” behind.
The message on the T-shirt she modelled sparked a wildfire on Twitter where users accused Chopra of belittling the predicament of refugees forced to leave their homes.
Priyanka, who was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and also an ambassador for Unicef, said the message had been misconstrued as the main point of the message was addressing racism.
“They (Condé Nast) specially got this (T-shirt) made and implored me to wear it. They said they were addressing xenophobia which is a big issue that is happening,” Chopra told NDTV in an interview.
“So their idea was that. And I bought into it, I guess. And I am really, really apologetic about the fact that sentiments were hurt … The point the magazine wanted to make was actually something good.”
Later on, Condé Nast Traveller said in a statement that they were merely intending to highlight the labelling of people and did not mean to offend anyone.
“At Condé Nast Traveller, we believe that the opening up of borders and the breaking down of walls can help us discover the world, and open up our minds and hearts,” the magazine said.
“So, when we had actor Priyanka Chopra wear a T-shirt we created on the cover of the 6th anniversary issue, we had a point to make.”
Priyanka is one of Bollywood’s biggest stars who have broken into mainstream Hollywood and currently starring in TV series Quantico and a film based on the Baywatch series.
