I don’t carry my ego or my pride: Priyanka Chopra Jonas on her global success
Mumbai, April 19
Why haven’t other Indian stars done it? That’s the question Priyanka Chopra Jonas says she is asked all the time and one to which she has no ready answer other than the fact that she left the baggage of being a Bollywood star when she crossed over to the West.
The former Miss World, arguably the only mainstream Indian actor to make it big in the American entertainment industry, is now fronting the global spy series ‘Citadel’.
“People ask me all the time, why haven’t other people done it? Why haven’t other actors from India broken the way you’ve broken? I don’t have the answer to that. All I know is that the one thing that I did, which maybe led to it, was I didn’t carry my baggage,” Priyanka told PTI in an interview during a recent visit to India.
“I come from India and I’m a big star here, and I have an entourage of 20 people. I don’t do that (there). I will give an audition. I have no qualms in walking into the room and showing people my work. I’m not afraid of the work. I don’t carry my ego or my pride,” she added.
The 40-year-old decided to explore Hollywood at the peak of her career in the Hindi film industry around 2011-2012. She began as a singer with the single ‘In My City’ and went on to feature as the lead in the American TV show ‘Quantico’ and played the antagonist in the film ‘Baywatch’. Most recently, she was seen in ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ alongside Keanu Reeves.
The actor said it took her eight years of building her “credibility” with “smaller roles and movies” to finally reach a position where she is getting opportunities with big names such as ‘The Matrix’ creators Lana and Lilly Wachowski and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ duo Joe and Anthony Russo, who have produced ‘Citatdel’.
“I’ve been a leading lady for a very long time, whether that’s in Hollywood or in Bollywood. I consider myself a leading lady. It takes time to get there. It took me about eight years working in Hollywood to be able to do leading parts,” the actor said.
In her 20 years in the Hindi film industry, she has starred in films such as ‘Kaminey’, ‘7 Khoon Maaf’, ‘Barfi’, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ and ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’.
Be it Hollywood or Bollywood, the nature of the “beast” that the entertainment industry is remains the same, start with “smaller roles and movies” and build your “credibility”, Priyanka said.
