As a newcomer starting out in the harsh City of Dreams, there’s much that a newbie has to experience – most of it hurtful, even insulting. Priyanka Chopra was no different. She recalls how a certain big producer once bluntly told her that girls in Bollywood are interchangeable. That affected her badly.
The desire to be anything but irrelevant was sparked here and then on, PC knew she wanted to be taken seriously as an actor. Those words made her determined to be known as a professional, as a human being and not just for flippancies like who she was dating or whose party she had attended. The need to be known for her work assumed greater importance – and she worked towards that goal almost doggedly.
She accepts that people will talk about her personal life, will even write reams about it, and speculate about it – and she welcomes them to do so! She really couldn’t be bothered by the marginal musings as long as she continues to be known by her work. And she has gone about it with careful thought…
Her belief is that the day you have everything, you should quit. She herself is nowhere close to that state of belief and never wants to be. Instead, she hungers for newer achievements, coupled with the rousing motivation to be good at everything she does. Yes, she could fail but that wouldn’t faze her too much because it will be her path that she chose to walk, after all!
An outsider in B-town to start out with, she learnt everything she knows on the job. As a female actor, she understood that she had two choices – to either do all the correct safe films guaranteed to work, or to carve a path that is uniquely one’s own. Clever girl that she is, she decided she wanted both!
So striking a balance alongside a regular money-making potboiler, she would do a film that was special to her, one that ran the risk of going completely wrong. If she struck success with BARFI and MARY KOM, she tasted defeat with SAAT KHOON MAAF and WHAT’S YOUR RAASHEE? but, she points out, at least she tried!