Priyanka Chopra-Jonas' strategic steps to... global domination

As the Indian actress turns 38 [July 18], we take note of Priyanka Chopra-Jonas' rise from unknown small-town girl next door... to the most followed female Indian celebrity on the planet.    

P.Ramakrishnan writes. 

Just a little over a decade ago, when Priyanka Chopra came to Hong Kong for a stage show in 2009 along with a handful of other Bollywood stars, she was so far down the totem pole, her face barely registered in the flyers and posters studded around places where the Indian (and Bollywood-viewing) diaspora clustered; tantamount to about 40,000 people in the 852. 

Today, (as we go to print) she has 54.8 million people following her every move on Instagram (26.3 million on Twitter, 46,997,451 people follow on Facebook). To put that into perspective, Spain has 8 million fewer people within her borders.  

Her gladrags to riches story can be boils down to a handful of strategic points; unbeknownst to her, her family collected photos and filled up a form to submit her unsuspecting name to the Miss India pageant back in 1999. Curvaceous and confident, she wins first runner up and heads to the Miss World pageant where she secures the title and bejeweled crown in 2000. 

Typical of most beauty queens in India, Bollywood beckoned almost immediately and she signed a handful of films. Her first Hindi film, The Hero: Love Story of a Spy is released in 2003 which is a box-office smash; and there was no looking back.  

Early on, she was known primarily for her looks and received mostly mixed reviews, but a wicked turn in Aitraaz (Objection, 2004) had critics take note. The Bollywood-ised version of Disclosure (sure, she’s ambitious and ruthless but she sings and dances on cue!) proves successful on all accounts. A spate of films followed till 2008 where six of her big budget Bollywood films... tanked.  

However, a modest budget flick Fashion, running purely on the steam of Chopra (and a then little-known actress Kangana Ranaut – who went on to become a phenomenon) garners her the National Award for Best Actress, given to her by the President of India in 2009.  

A steady flow of leading roles in memorable films follow as she establishes herself as a leading lady, a career unaffected by fluctuating numbers at the box-office as her performances remain noteworthy. A film like 7 Khoon Maaf (7 Murders Forgiven, 2011) barely registered in the tills but Chopra’s performance received reams of stellar press.  

Throughout her life, frequent trips to America were norm for the actress where she not only shot several Indian films, but visited her extended family studded around the United States. Chopra studied in America as a teen and she was familiar with its beat; when the opportunity to do an album came about, she signed the dotted line in August 2011 with Universal Music Group for a worldwide recording agreement. With rapper will.i.am, Chopra debuted In My City, which she also co-wrote, inspired by her gypsy life of frequent travel, referring to her meteoric rise from small-town girl to global celebrity. 

Her musical aspirations didn’t exactly hit the top spot (her second single with Pitbull, Exotic, didn’t break the Top Ten charts) and her reworked auto-tune filled I Can't Make You Love Me was unquestionably awful... but American agencies took note of the exotic singer.  

Her role as FBI agent Alex Parrish, for ABC Studios series Quantico made her the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series and she went on to win the People's Choice Award for Favourite Actress in a New TV Series. The following year, Chopra followed it up with a second win, People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic TV Actress.  

Though the show was pulled after three seasons, Chopra’s steady climb continued with crowd pleasing roles in Baywatch with Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson and Zac Efron and A Kid Like Jake with Claire Danes and Jim Parsons.  

The symbiotic relationship between film and fashion being such, Priyanka Chopra was invited to the Met Gala for the first time, under the auspices of Anna Wintour, in 2017. On a bumpy ride to the red carpet through the arteries of New York, the powers that be at Ralph Lauren, who dressed her for the event, seated her with Nick Jonas, also dressed to the hilt by the iconic American brand. 


There was much denied in the early days of their blossoming romance – with the Indian tabloids having a field day with the age disparity between the two. Chopra brushed off the inherent sexism in the headlines pointing out she was a decade older, by forging ahead not only with her burgeoning romance, but her career in the West coast too. 

The time frame from when they met to the palatial wedding Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra had is a bit fuzzy, but what wasn’t fuzzy is the record viewership as the multi-cultural, colourful and gloriously grandiose nuptials was seen across all social media platforms online by millions. 

They had two ceremonies, one Christian and the other, a traditional Indian one at Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The outfits, the diamonds, the scale (75-feet tulle veil by Ralph Lauren!), everything was fodder for idle gossip and idol worship.  

Prior to- and soon after the wedding, Chopra hyphen Jonas, continued working like an unstoppable machine; she acted in the American film Isn’t it Romantic with Rebel Wilson and completed The Sky is Pink in India. 

A reflection of the true grit of the actress, looking back, Chopra’s career is always on an upwardly mobile trajectory; her work ethic is second to none as she’s undaunted by minor failures and always looking to top prior success. 

We haven’t even touched on the columns she wrote for newspapers and magazines while she was juggling careers en route from New York to New Delhi. Her philanthropic efforts in Africa and South-East Asia, her production company that’s producing regional films to give rise to local talent, her motivational talks, her enduring friendship with ex-royal Meghan Markle....

At any given day, there are various plates that are constantly spinning around her orbit as the one thing she’s not good at is abundantly clear; taking a break.  

For her profile piece in TIME magazine, “The Rock” put it best, “She has drive, ambition, self-respect, and she knows there’s no substitute for hard work.”  

Chopra will next be seen in an adaptation of Aravind Adiga's satirical novel The White Tiger and Robert Rodriguez's superhero film We Can Be Heroes; both to hit Netflix this year. With Game of Thrones star Richard Madden, she’s set to star in Prime Video's series Citadel. In Barry Levinson's film Sheela, produced for Amazon Studios, she’ll essay the title role of convicted criminal Ma Anand Sheela, which is bound to test her talents as she has to balance the fine act of being a spiritual guru and possible killer and sexual predator. To top it all, she dives into The Matrix 4 with Keanu Reeves.   

As we go to print, it was also announced that Priyanka Chopra-Jonas has just signed a two-year multimillion-dollar first-look television deal with Amazon making her one of the most influential celebrities on the planet, let alone Bollywood. 

Bollywood's brightest stars heading for Macau awards extravaganza

A constellation of Indian stars will be shooting over to the Venetian Macao for the annual Zee Cine Awards on Saturday. A ceremony honouring the best and brightest of the Hindi film industry and its all-singing, all-dancing escapades of the past year, the show will feature a roster of top acts, led by the unofficial king of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan, and former Miss World Priyanka Chopra. They will be hosting a 31/2-hour show with music and dance acts.

Also appearing will be young heartthrobs Ranbir Kapoor (tipped to be rewarded for his performance in Rockstar), Shahid Kapoor (no relation), Vidya Balan (also expected to win for her scintillating act in The Dirty Picture) and gorgeous leading lady Katrina Kaif, who is set to perform her chart-topping dance numbers. Old-school Bollywoodites will perhaps be more thrilled to see the still-stunning Zeenat Aman, a former Miss India and Miss Asia Pacific, who is expected to grace the stage to dish out a few gongs.

The Zee Cine Awards celebrates a billion-dollar film industry, with 14 million Asians estimated to visit the cinema daily and 1,000 films produced annually. If the overwhelming success of the subtitled Hindi film 3 Idiots in Hong Kong and the mainland is any indication, the local cinema circuit will be spiced up with regular Indian features in 2012. Sunil Datwani, a Hong Kong-based Indian film promoter and distributor, said: "I plan to showcase some of the best and most anticipated Hindi films in regular cinemas this year. There's clearly an audience for it."

Ticket prices for this Saturday's show range from HK$988 to HK$6,888. For details go to www.venetianmacao.com/zee_cine_awards.

Byline: P. Ramakrishnan

January 18, 2012

My life: Priyanka Chopra: Bollywood Icon Interview in Hong Kong

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.