Not a Drill: Priyanka Chopra Is Making a 'Wild Wild Country' Movie

Photo credit: Getty | Netflix
Photo credit: Getty | Netflix

From Cosmopolitan

Priyanka Chopra’s first major project of 2019 will take her to the world of cults. In January 2019, Chopra announced on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she is in talks to develop and star in a film based on Wild Wild Country, the six-part documentary series that took the world by storm after it premiered on Netflix in March 2018. The actress will play Ma Anand Sheela, the right-hand-woman to the Rajneesh cult’s leader Bhagwan Rajneesh.

The series is a must-watch for anyone who's ever been curious about cults, what rural Oregon was really like in the 1980s, and why a mysterious group of folks who wore orange became a nuisance to their neighbors. Below, a brief breakdown of the insanely wild (sorry) journey that is Wild Wild Country.

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Where did this religious group come from?

In the 1970s, as the free-love movement continued to grow out West, an Indian guru named Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (also known as Osho), whose spiritual teachings included openness towards human sexuality, had already gained thousands of followers, or “neo-sannyasins.” After spending some time in Mumbai and Pune, where he had an ashram built for him and his followers, Rajneesh was met with pushback from the Janata Party in India and began plans to relocate.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Why did they move to Oregon?

At the insistence of his personal assistant, Ma Anand Sheela, Rajneesh agreed in 1981 to purchase Big Muddy Ranch, 64,000 acres of land in Wasco County, Oregon, with the intention to build a utopian society that had its own currency, police force, and postal code. After three years, Rajneeshpuram, was born. Some 19 miles away, in the small town of Antelope, Oregon (population at the time, less than 50), locals, most of whom were just trying to enjoy retired life, began feeling uneasy about their sexually free, orange-clad neighbors, who arrived to Rajneeshpuram by the busload.

Who are some of the key people in Wild Wild Country?

In addition to Rajneesh, who claimed that he achieved spiritual enlightenment while sitting under a tree in Jabalpur when he was 21, there’s his personal assistant, Ma Anand Sheela, who later became president of the Rajneesh Foundation International. In the first episode of Wild Wild Country, Sheela, who first met the guru when she was 16, is described as “a very trusted lieutenant” who “couldn’t believe anybody would get in her way.” Sheela, now in her late-60s, is interviewed extensively from an undisclosed location in Switzerland.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Other followers are also featured in present-day interviews, including Australian Jane Stork (Ma Shanti B), who says she first joined the ashram in India with her husband when they had marriage issues; Ma Prem Sunshine, who says she was attracted to the efforts in Oregon because she was truly interested in building a community “from the ground up”; and Sami Prem Niren (Philip Toelkes), Rajneesh’s attorney.

Locals in Antelope, including rancher Jon Bowerman (son of Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman), former mayor John Silvertooth, and ranchers Rosemary and Kelly McGreer are also prominently featured in the series.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Why did the group wear orange?

Followers of the Rajneesh movement were required to wear orange or red as the colors represented sunrise. The requirement stopped in 1985 when Rajneesh made the surprise announcement that in addition to no shedding their red clothing, his followers were no longer required to wear a locket holding his photograph. According to an Associated Press report at the time, Rajneesh also renounced the Book of Rajneeshism, a small red book outlining his beliefs, since the idea for the book came from Sheela, who left the commune weeks earlier.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

What should I do after finishing Wild Wild Country?

Go outside, see your friends, experience the fresh air around you. Then read The Oregonian’s 20-part investigative series spearheaded by journalist Les Zaitz, who himself became one of the targets of the Rajneeshees at one point. There are also several books on the Rajneesh movement, including Tim Guest’s My Life in Orange (he grew up in the movement and lived in several communes with his mother, including the ranch in Oregon); Hugh Milne’s Bhagwan: The God That Failed (he was Rajneesh’s bodyguard from 1973 to 1982); and Marion S. Goldman’s Passionate Journeys: Why Successful Women Joined a Cult (featuring interviews with women who left high-paying, powerful jobs and their families to live in Oregon).

Buy My Life in Orange by Tim Guest

Buy Bhagwan: The God That Failed by Hugh Milne

Buy Passionate Journeys: Why Successful Women Joined a Cult by Marion S. Goldman

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