Doing something different makes acting fun, Priyanka Chopra

GURGAON: Priyanka Chopra loves challenges. Doing the same thing every day makes her bored, says the actor whose next film with Ranbir Kapoor is rescheduled to release on October 1.

“Doing something different is what makes acting fun. I get bored of doing the same thing every day myself,” Chopra said.

“So when you are challenged with something, you want to perform better, you want to do well. And when you get success out of something which is hugely challenging, the satisfaction and gratification is tremendous. I think that has been an ambition for me,” said the actor, who is currently hosting an action-adventure show “Fear Factor - Khatron Ke Khiladi 3”.

The show was shot in Brazil and involves many challenging tasks, including fighting off insects, as well as underwater and mid-air stunts.

Chopra was in Gurgaon to promote her upcoming film Anjaana Anjaani, where she has teamed up with Ranbir Kapoor for the first time.

Directed by Siddharth Anand, Anjaana Anjaani is about two strangers who bump into each other when they are going through the lowest point in their lives, and have gone to the same place to commit suicide.

“With so many suicides happening, it is a topic of discussion in India now. The greatest thing about this film, I feel, is that it is the window which shows you shouldn’t do that (commit suicide), you never know when life will turn around.”

“Give yourself an opportunity. This message is conveyed in a beautiful way through the film,” she said.

Aamir Khan’s blockbuster 2009 film 3 Idiots also dealt with the issue of teenage suicides.

Chopra says it is flattering to see oneself on top, but she works very hard to be there.

“Being number one is always flattering. I work really hard. I come from nowhere. I come from a very normal middle-class background. I am an army officer’s daughter. It feels great to see where I have reached now. God has given me so much; I feel really blessed,” Chopra, 28, said.

Chopra insists her journey to stardom has not been an easy one.

“It is definitely difficult when you arrive in the film industry without knowing anyone. There is nobody coming to you and saying ‘ok, I am making a film for you’. When people don’t like your work, you are written off. However, at the end you are only known by the work you do,” she said.

Chopra made her Bollywood debut with the Sunny Deol-Preity Zinta starrer Hero: Love Story of a Spy in 2003 and won her first Filmfare award for best female debut in Andaaz, starring Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta, that released the same year. Roles in popular films such as Dostana added to her public appeal, but it was her performance in the Shahid Kapoor-starrer Kaminey (2009) which made her a force to be reckoned with.

Her performance in Madhur Bhandarkar’s film Fashion, in which she played a small town girl trying to make it big in the fashion industry as a model, won her a National Award.

The actor is next set to appear in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Saat Khoon Maaf.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2010.