Love her or hate her; you can't ignore her. Former Miss World Priyanka Chopra is arguably India's biggest star in Hollywood. The actor, who has several tinsel town projects under her belt, has managed to win hearts in the industry and beyond, primarily due to her undying passion for the craft and persistent hard work.
Chopra, who made her Hollywood debut with a life-changing role in Quantico, shared in a recent cover story with Vanity Fair that it hasn't been a bed of roses for her. In fact, making it big in the estimated $32.5 billion industry has been nothing short of a struggle – both, when she first joined up until now.
“It’s taken a lot of pavement pounding to be able to get people’s attention, and to be able to get an acceptance of the fact that someone like me can be the lead of a Hollywood feature,” she told the publication. “There’s very few of us from South Asia who get to do that. I hope that the part that I play in it will sort of push the envelope a little bit.”
But she wasn't really seeking work in the US. She was an award-winning star in India and the thought of crossing continents didn't really cross her mind. “I wasn’t looking to do work in America,” Chopra commented, recalling how her manager Anjula Acharia gave her an idea of starting a music career. “I was at this amazing point in my career. I was doing critically acclaimed work and winning awards. So she called me, and I kind of laughed at the idea.”
But Chopra ended up signing a record deal with Universal Music Group soon after. The world then witnessed the Bajirao Mastani star releasing singles in collaboration with Pitbull and will.i.am. “It was just magical. So those three, four years just went by. I was being serenaded by this rock-and-roll lifestyle.”
She then signed the crime thriller, Quantico, which served as her first big project in the West. “Quantico for me was a really big win,” the actor continued. “Not just because of being the first time an Indian or South Asian actor was lead of a network show, but, more than that, because I was not put in the box like the show wasn’t My Big Fat Indian Wedding.”
Now, she's seeking to produce more shows focused on telling predominantly South Asian stories and ones centered on women with her own production house. “I’m looking at doing very hyper-specific storytelling," she remarked. “I may make my mistakes because this is not a mantle I was looking for. But I think collectively, each one of us can push Hollywood and push the powers that be, and be demanding and not just polite about it. I’ve been polite for a very long time. Now it’s time to say, ‘I’m sorry, that doesn’t work,’ and to fight for your characters. As a producer, I’m so grateful that I get the opportunity to do that, to be able to make stories and look for stories that normalise different cultures of the world.”
But as an actor, she is now ready to embrace her ethnicity after once shying away from it. "When I first came here, to get the attention, I had to sort of shed my ethnicity a lot more so that it was not alien,” she said. “I had to play parts which were more American to get a seat at the table. Now that I’ve got a seat at the table, I’ve reverted back to playing parts that embrace my ethnicity.”
However, she is done with the narrative of deciding to marry America's popular pop star Nick Jonas, for an easy entry into Hollywood. She's not being humble about being sidelined anymore and if anything, she will not take it lightly. “I’ll be mad, I’ll be angry, I’ll be annoyed,” Chopra retorted. “I’ll speak about it to my family. I might cry a little bit, but it doesn’t change my relationship with my work and what my actual quest is. My quest is not people’s opinions. My quest is my job. My quest is making sure that when someone watches something that I have done, it moves them or they enjoy it. My personal life, who I am, all of that is not my job.”
She also went on to answer the million-dollar question. Does the couple plan on having children any time soon? “They’re a big part of our desire for the future,” said the Fashion actor. “By God’s grace, when it happens, it happens.”
Coming back to choosing the roles she would be playing, Chopra is all about challenges. “I think as an actor, it’ll be a really crucial time for me,” she said. “I want to do movies that are not always bright and shiny. I want to be able to unravel as an artist onscreen, I want to work under the tutelage of really brilliant minds. And I want to be pushed. I’m ready to be pushed.”
But she doesn't want her work to be the defining trait. “I’ve always been such a worker bee,” she quipped. “My priority has always been the next job. I’m a very, very ambitious person. But I think the woman in me is craving balance. I’m craving my family life. I’m craving being able to do things for the soul that I didn’t do because I was just ‘blinders on’ and working.”
But the star admitted the same trait has left her with some bruises and scars. “I think maybe that’s why I’m becoming a lot more introverted as I go along on this journey in the entertainment business now,” she went on. “I’m starting to protect myself a lot more because I realize how much it takes out of you. It takes a part of your soul, constantly trying to make sure that you say the right thing, do the right thing, dress the right way, not make a mistake, not trip because the whole world is going to watch. Or not fall when you’re walking up on a red carpet or say something wrong or have a bad day.”
But all that is about to change for the renowned actor. 2022, Chopra said, will be different. “I feel like I am at a precipice of reinvention,” she concluded. “What is the new me? I’m very excited about the future. I’m terrified of it too. Change is always scary. But I’ve done it multiple times in my life.”
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