Priyanka Chopra Is Excused For Baring Her Legs, But Not For Her Holocaust Memorial Selfie

To American audiences, Priyanka Chopra is becoming a household name for her roles in Quantico and Baywatch, but, back home in India, the international actress is as famous as Angelina Jolie is in the west. Ms. Chopra has maintained a strong presence in India and, in so doing, brought a brighter light to the Bollywood film industry that hasn’t been previously seen. All of that may have influenced the India prime minister, Narendra Modi, to overlook Priyanka’s underdressed appearance, as Chopra’s fellow Indian actor, Varun Dhawan, suggests.

Priyanka Chopra’s Bare Knees Offended Bollywood Fans

When Priyanka Chopra and Narendra Modi met in Berlin for an interview on Wednesday, Hindustan Times reports that the actress forgot her Indian customs and appeared scandalously dressed. To westerners, the medium length dress wouldn’t have caused much of a stir, but Indian custom frowns upon any attire that bares a woman’s knees.

Social media has since fired a strong backlash at Chopra for her inappropriate attire with many from Priyanka’s homeland angered over her dress. It has been suggested that the Quantico star should have dressed more demurely to meet someone of Modi’s standing, even if Priyanka has forsaken Indian customs.

As Priyanka comments in an Instagram post, however, the meeting wasn’t planned in advance and the two met only out of the chance that Mr. Modi happened to be free. The picture shared by Ms. Chopra shows the meeting in which the Bollywood star is seen wearing the offending dress.

“Was such a lovely coincidence to be in #berlin???????? at the same time as the Prime Minister. Thank you @narendramodi Sir for taking the time from your packed schedule to meet me this morning,” Chopra captioned the image.

The backlash couldn’t have been anticipated, but, upon learning about it, Ms. Chopra poked fun at her online haters with a second picture. This photo showed Priyanka and her mother wearing dresses with shorter hems, intentionally meant to ridicule the custom.

Varun Dhawan, known among Bollywood circles for Dilwale (2015) and Dishoom (2016), has come to Chopra’s defense, suggesting the actress should be honored for her work, instead of ridiculed for her fashion sense. Varun points out that Priyanka has brought a positive light on India through her work in western cinema.

“All this is very stupid and social media trolling is not something that needs to become a national issue,” Dhawan says of the backlash.

Baywatch Star Priyanka Chopra Upsets The Twitterverse With Holocaust Memorial Selfies

If her short dress wasn’t bad enough, NDTV reports that Priyanka’s trip to Berlin turned into an even bigger nightmare, when she posted selfies from the Holocaust Memorial and shared them on Twitter. Priyanka was in Berlin to promote Baywatch and had brother Siddharth Chopra along for the ride, so, during the star’s downtime, the siblings went out to see the sights.

Among their stops, Ms. Chopra and her brother visited the Holocaust Memorial, but they soon learned that sharing that visit on Twitter was a mistake.

“Priyanka Chopra took selfies at the Holocaust memorial.. is this a another attention seeking stunt??? Shouldn’t have done that..,” replied one Twitter user.

Another Twitter critic, Vakul Garg, suggested that posting selfies from the memorial was an obvious mistake and suggested he’d expected more sense from the Baywatch star.

Another user, Sparkling Diamond, suggested that Priyanka Chopra is known for attention-seeking stunts and said she wasn’t surprised by the selfies.

“Why is it okay for @priyankachopra to take selfies at the #Berlin#holocaust #memorial? She isn’t striking yoga poses & all that but really?” asked another critic.

Ms. Chopra hasn’t responded to the backlash. Instead, the Baywatch star removed the selfies and has moved on from that P.R. nightmare.

[Featured Image by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images]