What if…

A North-Eastern actress was cast in the role of Mary Kom instead of a famous actress Priyanka Chopra, who looked nothing like Mary Kom?

Lin Laishram recently spoke out about this discrimination that was present when the makers cast PC for the protagonist role. True enough, there are many actors from the north-east in Bollywood but instead the makers played it safe by casting PC. Though Lin was all praises for the hard work PC put in, she said it would have been better to cast someone who actually looked like Mary Kom!

I admire Priyanka for her hard work, she really put in a lot of hours in order to look like Mary Kom but I always felt that casting is an important step in film. I believe in authenticity and inclusivity, so a girl from Manipur or the North East could have been surely cast to represent us. – Lin Laishram

Funny thing is, it’s really what we thought when we saw Lin in ‘Axone’ last year, we thought the same thing without remembering she was actually in ‘Mary Kom’. It’s why we are sharing this…If you saw ‘Axone’, there’s no way you won’t remember who she was in the film, she towered over everyone. She’s well-built and would have looked perfect as a boxer.

But here she is not asking to have been cast in the role but asking producers, directors and casting directors to give out meaningful and prominent roles to actors from the north-east.

One is approached to play stereotypical roles like a spa girl, prostitute or a waiter. Not that playing these characters demeans an actor but it’s how we are seen and typecast. Its little knowledge about our culture that bothers us. When it comes to playing an achiever from the Northeast a non-North Eastern person is chosen as seen in Mary Kom. On the other hand, why not cast people from Northeast also as normal Indians in all walks of life which we are. – Lin Laishram

Even though, this movie was quite a long time back, there was still a backlash when it was announced that PC was cast as Mary Kom. Then another backlash when the first official poster released and some more noise when the trailer released after people saw how they had to alter PC’s facial look with makeup to make her look like a north-eastern woman.

I didn’t know I would have a different set of struggles because of my looks. Forget having a godfather in the industry I never had seen or heard of a Manipuri actor working in Bollywood before me. It’s been a decade in the industry. The mantra is to keep striving and hoping that things will change for the better. – Lin Laishram

The question remains, would people still have gone to watch the film if PC was not playing Mary Kom? Would the film have fared the same at the box office? That said, the original casting was meant to be Rani Mukherjee but she backed out since the project was being helmed by a newcomer, a director with no prior steady experience.

Back to Lin…

Apparently, she is Randeep Hooda’s girlfriend. Still is or was, we don’t know for sure since the lockdown happened and things went crazy but they were said to be planning to get married last year.

Anyway, let’s get real here…