The argument, however necessary, is always on loop. Filmmaker Onir believes the film industry’s toxic culture and treatment of those not belonging to film families is a universal truth everyone is aware of– but nothing really changes in that regard.

Actor Priyanka Chopra had opened up about moving to the US because she felt “cornered” in Bollywood. Her comments had sparked a discourse on social media regarding the functioning of the Hindi film industry, its internal politics and gatekeeping attitude.

Onir said Priyanka’s comments about the workings of the film industry were true and offered an insight into the functioning of those in power, who “create” walls for others.

“A truth everyone is aware … once in a while the discourse surfaces and then the world goes back to the same practices and much of the media that criticises busy being paparazzi to star kids and media refusing to talk to “outsider” newcomers. While those successful gets cleverly appropriated by the same people who have created these walls and the rest … keep trying to break the wall with studios / platforms /financiers of how to become ‘viable,’” the filmmaker tweeted.

Speaking with Dax Shepherd on his podcast Armchair Expert, Priyanka Chopra, without taking any names, had said she faced opposition in the Hindi film industry as people stopped casting her in movies, forcing her to eventually go to the West.

“I was being pushed into a corner in the industry (Bollywood). I had people not casting me, I had beef with people, I am not good at playing that game so I kind of was tired of the politics and I said I needed a break. This music thing gave me an opportunity to go into another part of the world, not crave for the movies I didn’t want to get but I would require to schmooze certain clubs and cliques of people. It would require groveling and I had worked a long time by then that I didn’t feel like I wanted to do it,” she had said in the interview.

Several people from the industry came out in support of Priyanka and shared their experiences, including actor Kangana Ranaut, editor-writer Apurva Asrani, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and musician Amaal Mallik.