Singing paeans to PeeCee

Aradhika Sharma

Inspirational stories, especially when these involve glamourous, talented, articulate stars, who are also connected with social causes and are savvy at handling the media and the social media are inherently popular with readers. Many stars pen their own stories and many have commissioned biographies, where they lend their voices to their biographers. 

Before Priyanka Chopra comes out with her own book of personal essays next year, titled Unfinished, Chhabra has outed a biography of the star. And he is not the only one to cash in on her ever-rising polularity. Last year in June there was another biography of the actor by Bharathi S Pradhan, named Priyanka Chopra: The Dark Horse. Pradhan’s book follows the story of the actor from the days she won Miss India (World) in 2000 and subsequently the Miss World contest to her fantastically successful stint in the Hindi film industry and thereafter, her journey into Hollywood. Aseem Chhabra’s book essentially follows the same path. Nothing much could change in an year, after all.

Next up is Chopra’s autobiography, in which, thankfully, we will hear her own voice, because both Pradhan and Chhabra haven’t even interviewed Priyanka even once for their books, but have depended on her interviews and inputs from people connected with her. In this endeavour, Pradhan has been the more successful one.

The reasons that both the authors state for not getting first-person contributions are varied. While Pradhan states that she did not have consultations with the actor or her family because she “didn’t want to lose my independence in the bargain,” Chhabra says that since Priyanka herself is writing an autobiography, therefore, she refused interviews on the instructions of her publishers.

Chhabra’s book is, in fact, quite a eulogy to Priyanka. He’s obviously full of admiration for the actor. For his source material, he seems to read everything in print about his protagonist and watched every interview that Priyanka would possibly have appeared in as well as studied multiple reviews of each film that she ever acted in. Chhabra quotes prolifically from this material and, at times, even draws some conclusions from them.

The author goes into painstaking details, which at times can get rather tedious. Talking about the film Bluffmaster for example, he says: “For the most part, Priyanka looks stunning in Bluffmaster, especially when she is dancing to the ‘Say Na Say’ song at her engagement party, wearing a white sari with silver work on the colourful border, and looking positively hot. The sari is tied low to show her waistline,” etc. etc.

Certainly, the story of Chopra’s life is inspirational and stuff that dreams are made of. No wonder, Karan Johar says about her, “She is our hugest crossover success story... Today, the sky could be her limit.” One cannot but admire her determination, focus, hard work, the talent that she’s honed and developed over the years and her ability to spot and seize opportunities. She’s a chameleon who will as easily learn to box and build muscles (Mary Kom) as dance with rustic sensuality to the item number Ram Chahe Leela (Goliyon ki Raas Leela…) or play the committed policewoman (Jai Gangaajal) or the glamour-addicted model (Fashion). Garnering herself a vast repertory of roles, her success lies in her changeling-like ability to constantly reinvent herself. 

Priyanka transformed herself from a beauty queen to a filmstar, tried her hand at being a pop star, sashayed into Hollywood and is now starring in the third season of an American serial, Quantico. The serial led to Priyanka’s global popularity and she is now feted and celebrated by the western world. She has made it to the coveted Time magazine list of 100 most influential people in 2016. 

The book comes to an end with Quantico being cancelled after Season 3. However, the author says that Priyanka’s is “an ongoing story that she is certainly enjoying.” That is good news for her fans, who are enjoying her journey with her, rooting for her all the way!