From beauty queen to Bollywood royalty, the actress is enjoying fame across the continent. P.Ramakrishnan spent the day with Indian actress Priyanka Chopra and she tells him how she and her friends have coped with her meteoric rise.
A DIFFERENT PATH I never thought I'd be an actress. My parents are doctors and I was academically inclined - I was an engineering student. I always knew I didn't want to be a doctor; I can't stand the sight of blood. Seeing my parents at work, knowing that they held life in their hands, I couldn't bear that responsibility. It's like being second to God, the expectations the patient's family has of the doctor.
But I was into music, a bit of acting on stage - I did many musicals, not only in India but when I studied in the US. I was in the choir, a soprano, I toured across the States singing in my high-school choir [in the 1990s] and had a mix of Indian and international friends - most of whom I'm still in touch with.
FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS They get a huge kick out of my fame and when I go visit them, when they see the Indian community react to me, it amuses them endlessly. My friends work on Wall Street, have businesses and I go off to the film industry. They send me lovely, funny, strange messages, reviews, opinions. It's all bizarre to them - especially when they Google me and hundreds of images pop up.
The joy of Indian musicals transcends language and culture barriers and I've seen how western, non-Indian fans turn up at Indian shows and movies. It's very sweet and encouraging. Song and dance - we all need a little of that, don't we?
ON TOP OF THE WORLD When I was 16 or 17, my younger brother [by eight years] and mother conspired and sent in this horrible shot of me to the Miss India pageant. I was accepted. They convinced me to go and I did. I won. Weeks later I was flown off to the Miss World pageant and I won that as well. It was 2000. I was told by the press that I was very sure and poised but, honestly, I was a duck. A complete duck - paddling away furiously underneath but calm and composed above water. No one knew how nervous I was, how I blanked when they would ask me questions and when I won, even I couldn't believe it. At 17, I was the youngest Miss World. I guess that's when I realised I could be an actress. I faked being calm and was on autopilot.
After my year's tenure as Miss World - which literally means travelling the world, promoting the charity and cause 'Beauty with a Purpose' - I kept getting great offers from respected filmmakers in India. Being the fifth Miss World from India over a period of seven years, it was sort of expected, I guess.
JOB SATISFACTION I did a Tamil and Hindi film for a lark; just to see what would happen. I loved every moment of film-making.
The myth of the Indian film industry being a chaotic, script-less mess is rubbish. It is more organised than ever before and I work with production houses that will see a film is not only well made but well marketed and projected, too.
I am one of the few people who is lucky to have found a job I love. When you find your vocation, your purpose, every day is a great day. I work seven days a week, I haven't had a holiday for the past five years and I don't have a single complaint. My friends do. I never meet up on time, shoots never end on time and I send apologetic messages. Luckily, my family is understanding but my friends get rejected, I feel bad too but when a shoot doesn't end on time, I can't just pack up.
AND... ACTION Initially, when I started, I'd get very [self]-conscious in front of the camera - especially when complete strangers would appear en masse on a film set. The greatest victory of an actor is to commit to the moment and forget that people are watching you. You think of it as a real situation, not a film set, what you say and do will be on camera, seen by a billion people [with the expanse of the Indian film industry, that's no exaggeration].
I found inner strength in time. Everything I know, I learned on the set. Nothing scares me anymore. If a director says, 'You'll dance like a maniac on the streets of New York, cry in the rain wearing a sari next to a Jaipur palace' - I'll just do it. If I made mistakes, I learned from them. How to present myself, my dialogue delivery, my costumes, how to appear on the red carpet - who teaches that? You live and learn. When the press writes unkind things, I laugh it off. Initially it hurt but now, who cares? FUN IN THE SUN I generally wake up around 6am and head off to work. When you get stuck in Mumbai traffic on your way to the studio, you can get a lot done.
One of the many perks of my job is I get to travel. For my last film, Dostana, we had a 60-day outdoor shoot in Miami and I stayed in a rented flat. I have so many friends and family in the US that my place became the party house. The movie's success means so much more as we had so much fun making it. I prefer outdoor shoots. In Mumbai, I have to multitask; interviews, photo shoots, dubbing, rehearsals, outfit fittings, premieres, family, friends, all need your attention. On an outdoor [shoot], you have to make the movie within a time frame and budget - its complete concentration and you're cut off from the rest of the world.
DOWN TO EXPERIENCE I stand by even my worst movies. We all do movies with the conviction that its going to be good and when it fails, I cry. All that effort and love and dedication you put into a role, it kills when it's rejected. When it works, it's fantastic.
Published in Post magazine, Hong Kong.
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