.jpg "Priyanka Chopra")
Priyanka has won multiple titles and tags in her life, but the one that left the spirited actor speechless for the first time is her latest — the Padma Shri.
Padma Shri Priyanka Chopra” — as a journalist addresses the Quantico star using the two new prefixes to her name, her eyes light up with an overwhelming kind of happiness. “I’m still processing that!” she says with a chuckle, but her acknowledgement of the gravity of the title is unmistakable. In the capital recently to accept the honour, Priyanka cheerfully spoke to a group of journalists about taking a little Bollywood to Hollywood, introducing it to Indianness like it hadn’t seen before and more.
HONOUR AND RESPONSIBILITY “I don’t think you need an award to remind you to be responsible,” she says in response to a question about whether being conferred with the Padma Shri has made her more acutely aware of her responsibilities as an artiste. She affirms, “I have always been very responsible when it comes to my work. I am very serious about what I do and never take it for granted. For me, the most important thing about this award is the fact that it is a form of recognition from my country and that is extremely special to me, especially since I’m the daughter of an army man. I cried a lot when I received the award, in fact, because I knew that my father would have been very, very happy if he were here today.”
ON MERIT Beginning with a beauty pageant and steadily making her way up the incline towards becoming a successful Bollywood actress and now an international household name, are there any people in Bollywood to whom she owes any portion of her meteoric success “If you’re looking for me to give credit for my career to someone in the industry, then I’m sorry but I really can’t. I haven’t had anyone helping me along my journey and have got to where I stand today, on the basis of my own capabilities and hard work. My parents are the ones who have always stood by me through thick and thin, and my family has helped me a lot,” she says.
She adds, “Having said that, I have worked with incredible filmmakers in Bollywood who have made me the actress that I am. That is an absolute fact and I will always be thankful to them all for it,” she asserts. Ask her if any other actress’ potential success in India as well as internationally has sharpened her competitive spirit and she responds with a wry smile, “As crude as this might sound, I really have no time to track the careers of my fellow actresses in order to be able to compete with them. I just do my work as well as I’m able, and that’s all I have space for in my head. Besides, I don’t think anyone else’s success or failure is any reflection on my success or failure. Another actress experiencing failure will not make me any more successful than I am.”
ON HOLLYWOOD “Hollywood isn’t all that different from Bollywood when it comes to making films,” Priyanka points out while talking about her experience in the American film and entertainment industry so far. “The real difference for me was television, really. The process of making a film — here or there — involves a much more languid approach to things, while television is really fast and really hectic. For films, I feel like I’m in familiar territory call sheets, call times, assistant directors outside your vans asking for you to come out it’s not very different from the experience of being in a film here in India. Also, I always turn up 15 minutes later than my call time, so in that sense I’ve taken a little Bollywood to Hollywood because now they’re all accustomed to the fact that Priyanka comes 15 minutes late to the set!” she chuckles and adds, “I’ve always lived my life on my own terms. I don’t believe in changing myself, no matter where I go.
And because I’ve been trained in the biggest, most prolific film industryin the world, I never feel afraid or apprehensive in front of a camera. I know how to do my job, no matter where I do it.”
QUINTESSENTIALLY INDIAN As she continues to recount her Hollywood journey, the actress observes that the international film industry doesn’t understand India as well as it thinks it does. “I don’t think the world knows Indians very well. At least not who we really are! They have stereotyped ideas about how we talk, how we dress, how we behave and it’s not that people don’t want to know. Everyone thinks India is all about meditation, yoga and spirituality. And we know that’s not true!
“I’m toh not at all Yogi, for example, so I’m a bit of an anomaly to most people there. I make them wonder, yeh kaise ho gaya So, I’m having a very good time with people discovering who I am and through me discovering what the Hindi film industry as well as being Indian is really about. Even general viewers — they see me in Quantico, then they Google about me and then see my films I’ve had so many people watch some of my Hindi movies online and then begin to really like Hindi movies in general because they discovered something different from what they were expecting! It’s an amazing cultural exchange that is happening for me,” she avers and adds, “I mean, of course, I can’t change everything — I’m just one girl! But I’m a very proud Indian and I take my Indianness with me wherever I go. I love achaar, for instance, and my achaar goes with everything, whether it’s a burger or spaghetti or a paratha and I eat it like that. I flaunt my Indianness, and through me people see more of India than they saw before. I’m not nearly qualified enough to educate anyone about all of India, given how diverse India is I mean, it’s a little world in itself. But just being able to explain that to people is amazing. It makes me feel really proud and really happy.”
BUSINESS MATTERS Responding to a question about whether we are presently in a phase that has a lot of potential for Indian actors finding work in Hollywood, Priyanka opines, “I don’t think it’s as simple as that. It’s business. The international market has opened up right now, that’s the main thing. For any industry, the domestic market is not the only source of revenue. That applies even to Bollywood — the international market is extremely important for us too. Similarly, for international industries, the global market is very important. Entertainment comes to you directly on your smartphone today — that’s the era we live in. And that makes international factors interesting. That was what ABC did with me — they picked an international actor and positioned her the way she is used to being positioned internationally. Now, Quantico has gone to almost 120 territories and has been dubbed in 44 languages before we’ve even completed our first season! And this has never happened before — there is no precedent.
This usually happens after a show has completed at least one whole season. So, taking me was a really lucrative business decision. Personally, I think this is a great time for worlds to collide, and Indian talent needs to be seen out there and show the world who we really are.”
