Few words have been as heavily trafficked in the quest to define Priyanka Chopra’s career as Miss World—an homage to her landmark victory in 2000—but her ascension to the precipice of global stardom isn’t as luminous as the sapphires that shine supreme on her tiara. In a new episode of Dax Shepherd’s podcast, Armchair Expert, the star conceded that she finally felt “safe” enough to reveal the real reason behind her move to Western shores.
While most know of her rise to Hollywood royalty after Quantico made her one of the few Indian names to have her face splashed on Times Square, few are acquainted with the reason behind the move. “I was being pushed into a corner in the industry. I had people not casting me, I had beef with people, I am not good at playing that game, I was tired of the politics and I said I needed a break,” she opened up in the podcast.
When the opportunity to make her music debut with ‘In My City’ cropped up, Chopra gladly hopped on the train but admits to being disillusioned after a while. “This music thing gave me an opportunity to go into another part of the world, not crave for the movies I didn’t want to get, but I would require to schmooze certain clubs and cliques of people. It would require grovelling and I had worked a long time by then that I didn’t feel like I wanted to do it,” she shares. The star’s sobering revelation ties in with her previous comments on The Ranveer Show about people who have wanted to “jeopardise my career, take away from my work, make sure I wasn’t cast just because I was doing well in what I was doing.”
In an industry that is formed in the crucible of clout, the rise of this anti-Chopra cadre would have spelt career suicide for many but in the years since, she has masterfully manoeuvred the ultimate career coup—moulding Hollywood to her will. With a single red carpet appearance, the star can book herself a berth in Google’s most searched lists. If she quirks a finger, global endorsement campaigns for illustrious fashion houses like Bvlgari will show up on her doorstep. Someday, if she wakes up and puts her mind to it, you will find her swapping thoughts with US Vice President Kamala Harris at a leadership forum.
Juxtaposing a long-standing history of Bollywood icons who have failed to cut their teeth in Hollywood with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos, Chopra’s name is today mentioned in the same reverent breath as career-building franchises like Baywatch and The Matrix. But if you were to ask her what she knows that others don’t, she would simply credit it to her refusal to let obstacles weigh her down. “Maybe I will cry one night when an opportunity was taken away from me, but I don’t sit in the shit. You have to shut off the noise. Focus on the one person who believes in you. Focus on light, a little bit of inspiration that you might see and that’s the hardest thing to do because you are bogged down by baggage and shackles of people holding you down.”
And as she juggles projects with industry legends like Celine Dion and Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden in the palm of her hand, Chopra offers irrefutable proof of an old adage—the best revenge is to live well.
