Priyanka Chopra champions a female James Bond

Actress Priyanka Chopra is urging James Bond movie bosses to consider giving 007 a gender-bending twist by casting a female as the iconic superspy.

The Quantico star would love the opportunity to tackle the coveted role herself, but she would be happy just to see Bond given a feminine overhaul, after taking on a role originally written for a man in the new Baywatch movie.

"Why not?," she posed during an interview on U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America. "I mean, I hope in my lifetime, whether I play it or not, someone (should). I mean... a female James Bond! It would be so cool to see women take on iconic characters in entertainment; I would love that to happen."

Her comments emerge as producers await to see whether current 007 star Daniel Craig will choose to return to the action franchise for the next installment, Bond 25, after previously insisting he was done with the gig following 2015's Spectre.

Meanwhile, Priyanka portrays the villainess Victoria Leeds in the big screen reboot of the beloved Baywatch franchise, and the Indian actress revelled in playing such a tough female in her Hollywood movie debut.

"I've played negative characters in my Indian films a couple of times, but I think what was cool here was my character was written for a guy initially," she said. "It (sic) was called Victor Leeds. Victoria's so much better, if I may say so!

"So that was cool, to be offered a part which was initially written and thought of for a guy, and secondly, she's such a proud feminist and strong character..."

Priyanka added, "One of my favorite scenes is she's talking to one of her henchmen and her heel is inside (digging into) his foot the whole time, and she's just like, 'You will listen to me!' and it was things like that that was so absurd, that it was so much fun."

The actress stars alongside Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Zac Efron in the Baywatch revamp, which hits movie theaters this week (begs22May17).