JOIN USOn the global stage
Typically, Priyanka Chopra, a true team player, takes the blame on herself when she is delayed for almost two hours at the media meet for Baywatch. Disarmingly, she says, “I was travelling from town and somehow thought that I would be here in 30 minutes, but did not realise that the time to commute now is more than an hour for the same distance!”
As earthy and grounded as always, the actor answers our queries candidly, and with great enthusiasm and honesty. To begin with, she makes everyone’s day on her entry by stating that she was “so delighted to reconnect with you all (the Mumbai media) after so long.”
After her much-acclaimed singles, beginning with ‘In My City’, ‘Exotic’ and a cover of ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’, she bagged the protagonist’s role in the serial Quantico, which is now being shot for its third season. After flings with dubbing for Hollywood cinema (Planes, The Jungle Book), she moved on to a crucial film assignment, Baywatch, in which she plays the principal antagonist, Victoria Leeds, and is said to have green-lit another film days after this interview.
Playing the baddie
The actor even makes bad look good in Baywatch as she plays the villain opposite the team of lifeguards. Says the actor: “She is most unlike a villain — that’s the beauty of Victoria. She doesn’t take off her shoes to go on the beach, she doesn’t like sand, and she only likes to wear couture. When she gets off the jeep, somebody puts a stool, so she can stand on it — she’s that much of a diva.”
Her long innings abroad since 2015 are pragmatically explained. “Work overseas was not part of any plan, but just happened in a chain of sequence after I got an offer from ABC for Quantico. Now, as per my contract, I will be playing Alex Parrish in it for whatever number of seasons they have.”
She adds, “Baywatch was the best of all film offers I received after that. As an actor, I am open to any good role, anywhere. So, yes, I have locked three films in India, but I cannot talk about any of them until June. I will, of course, consider good offers even there.” Priyanka clarifies that her primary interest remains Hindi films. Buzz is that she is doing a biopic on Kalpana Chawla and another (produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali) biopic on Sahir Ludhianvi, in which she plays his objet d’amor, well-known author Amrita Pritam. But, as of now, she will not confirm anything, she smiles.
Letting a crucial cat out of the bag about film-making in India and overseas, she says, “The shoots of Baywatch were as languidly done as ours, and it is a myth that it is a nine-to-five thing there. What was actually challenging was television, where we had to report on sets at 5 am. We would be free only as late as 8 or 9 pm!”
One of the topmost queen bees of Hindi cinema pretty much since her Hindi debut in 2003 with The Hero: Love Story Of A Spy opposite Sunny Deol (she had done the Tamil Thamizhan before that, and her first signed film, Deewana Main Deewana, with Govinda, was released after a huge delay and her mammoth co-operation in 2013!), Priyanka first won acclaim in 2004 for her negative turn in Aitraaz, picking up most awards for the best performance in a negative role.
With hits as varied as Andaaz, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Waqt: The Race Against Time, Bluffmaster!, Don, Fashion (for which she won the National Best Actress award), Dostana, Dil Dhadakne Do, and movies in which she played the central character — the biopic Mary Kom and Jai Gangaajal, she also is one of the undisputed queens of the 100 crore club, with Don 2, Ra.One, Agneepath, Barfi!, Krrish 3 and Bajirao Mastani (besides a cameo in Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-leela).
What is, however, infinitely more important is that Priyanka is growing as an actor throughout her career, with spectacular and either award-winning or award-worthy performances in so many of the above films, and a solid impact even in her flops Kaminey and What’s Your Raashee?
Despite all these achievements, the actor always kept a level head on her shoulders when she stepped into the international arena. “I knew when I first went there that no one would recognise me,” admits the grounded actor. “So, I had no qualms about introducing myself to people as ‘I am Priyanka Chopra, and I am an Indian actor’.” She was amused as well as irritated by the foreigners’ myopic view of India as a country wherein elephants still strolled around in streets. “But even the mediapersons there quickly warmed up to me, and Dwayne Johnson was among my most considerate and warm co-stars,” she says with a broad smile.
Doing it all
About her productions (all in various regional languages so far), which are making waves every other week, either with their achievements (the Marathi Ventilator picked up three National awards and many more honours besides becoming a hit) or mere announcements (the first Sikkimese film ever, a project in Bengal, a second Marathi film, her first Hindi production based on Rabindranath Tagore’s love letters and others), how has she managed to overview their creative aspects from America?
She laughs and says, “Oh, I have an effective remote control!” she tinkles with another laugh. “We have agreed on my mom (Madhu Chopra) looking after the business aspects, and me being in charge of the creatives. We are in touch all the time, at all levels. I do make quick trips to India occasionally to meet these people,” she added. About Ventilator, she reveals that the film mirrored her own reality — when her father Dr Ashok Chopra was on a ventilator, and all her relatives from his side (Punjab) and her mother’s side (Bihar) came together!
The actor says that when she had entered the film industry in India, she knew nobody, and only her Miss World title had given her some credibility. Because of this, she has decided that all her productions would feature new talent as much as possible. “My Sikkimese film has only a few HODs from among established names. It is the first film ever made in that language, and after this, the local talent will have the confidence to make more films on their own,” she sums up.
Here is one global talent whose heart remains in India and feet planted firmly on the ground despite all her globetrotting. More than her, it is her ambitions and noble intentions that are flying higher with each passing year — and film.