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.
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