A complete nomad at heart is how Priyanka Chopra likes to describe herself. “I don’t have roots, I only have wings,” she tells The Hindu on a long-distance call from the shoot of the second season of ABC’s Quantico in New York City. With two flourishing careers in the world’s largest entertainment industries; two homes over 10,000 miles apart; and promotional events, endorsements and philanthropic causes that take her the world over, Chopra says she has found a “weird” third home in airports — specially LA, JFK, Heathrow and Chhatrapati Shivaji, where she claims to be on first-name terms with a bunch of staff. “My passport is jammed, I must be taking 10 flights a month on an average. I board planes like others use cars,” she laughs.
It’s not something she is complaining about. On the contrary, Chopra is enjoying her 16-hour work days that are “packed with a million things to do”. Weekends, spent in promotions, are also all about work and no play. When time is at a premium, there is bound to be all-round chaos and there is no dearth of it in her life either. But beneath the seeming madness and disarray lies an invisible method and orderliness. Chopra does have an efficient staff to manage the nitty-gritty of schedules but, finally, it all boils down to her own life that pivots on discipline. “Whatever I choose to do, I do it diligently, I am not afraid of putting in hard work,” she says.
Making her mark
But is that enough to be able to achieve the near impossible that she has — the first time, arguably, that an Indian actor has been so widely accepted in American popular culture? From being the first South Asian to headline a mainstream American TV series to winning People’s Choice awards for it, from appearing on high-profile TV chat shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, to hosting the Emmys, presenting the Oscars and sharing front-row seats at New York Fashion Week with Diane Kruger and Sarah Jessica Parker — Chopra is everywhere in America.
Alarm bells have been ringing of late about the dip in Quantico ratings, but the next big act is round the corner — playing antagonist Victoria Leeds in the Baywatch film, co-starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Zac Efron. It has indeed been a dream run. How did she manage to pull it off? “Wow, you sound surprised at my success,” she laughs, telling us to instead put the question to the people who made it happen for her. “I am just a girl doing my job,” she shrugs .
What does seem to have been crucial in this job is the timing. She could have easily done so back in 2000 after becoming Miss World. “I was 18 then. I got opportunities from Bollywood at that time, took them up and learnt on the job. There has been no big strategy or pursuit,” she says.
However, the acceptance of the opportunities, back then and now, has not been unconditional. Her own terms and conditions do matter: “I have tried not to do conventional stuff and stood my ground in both places.” It may well be the reason why she seems to have escaped the traditional, quite often “comical” trap and the “ghettoisation/racial clichés” associated with South Asian actors; right since Peter Sellers’s mockery of the Indian accent.
“It’s not as if such offers didn’t come my way. I deliberately chose not to pick them up. I was clear that I would play ethnically ambiguous roles,” she says. The idea was to break the stereotype of an Indian actor in the audience’s head and escape the pigeonhole: “I am an actor first. I can play any role,” she says. The stress on ‘can’ and ‘any’ is obvious.
But racial labelling in an alien land may not always be easy to shrug off. “All of us experience it at some point of time while travelling,” she says.Any fears about the future as an immigrant actor in America under the new regime? “I hope it turns out smooth for all those who come here for work or for other reasons,” she says.
A tale of two worlds
The inherent discipline in her and the ability to adjust and be comfortable, than feel conflicted or alienated, between two starkly different worlds and cultures, stems from the early years of being an Army kid, of having homes across India, wherever her father’s posting took them — Delhi, Chandigarh, Ambala, Leh, Lucknow, Bareilly, Pune. “There was a beauty and excitement in starting life all over again in a new place,” she remembers.
Right now, she seems to be riding two boats rather dexterously. What if she were asked to choose between the two? Pat comes the response: “The beauty of my job is that I don’t need to choose. There is no division of place or country, I could be doing my job anywhere. My work is my world.”
But eventually, it is the drive to Juhu from the airport that defines coming home for the itinerant soul. Friends, family and the familiarity of India are what she misses in the US, and the fun at the shoot is what she looks back at fondly when in India. “My life is a constant amalgamation of the East and the West. I carry it with me wherever I go.”
At 34, she has been awarded the Padma Shri, and been voted by Time as one of the most influential people in the world. The flip side to success seems to be the invasion of privacy — with her relationships, nose and accent all under the public scanner.
But, instead of being swayed by either facet of her life, her immediate focus is Baywatch . The blink-and-miss appearance in the trailer may have left her fans disappointed, but the poster featuring her in a red gown has them excited again. How would Victoria Leeds take things forward for her from Alex Parrish? “I take on things that excite me, not what they might do for me. Baywatch was super fun, about playing a Bond-like villain. It’s not the kind of role that you do for growth,” she says.
The only thing that has taken a backseat for her in this rush-hour life is music: “I don’t have the time and bandwidth for it, not for a while.” So, where does she go from here? The Oscar ceremony? She is giving even that a miss this year. There are the last four episodes of Quantico to wrap up. Meanwhile, back in Mumbai, post her debut production last year — the Marathi film Ventilator — she has six more projects on the floors as a producer under the banner Purple Pebble Pictures — three children’s and three regional films. Most importantly, there are some “incredible, amazing” scripts waiting for her to get on board as an actor. “I am in a major predicament on which to pick.” Clearly, in the world of Priyanka Chopra, the only problem, at the moment, seems to be that of plenty.
Subsequently, Priyanka Chopra did make the time to attend the 89th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 26, 2017.
