Reflecting on an acting career built from the ground up without industry connections, Priyanka Chopra Jonas expressed profound gratitude to her younger self for her tireless dedication.
Speaking at a media summit, she detailed her journey, which began with her Miss World win in 2000, leading to a Bollywood career where she accepted all kinds of roles in order to survive. After a brief foray into American pop music, she returned to acting, both in Bollywood as well as Hollywood, a path she credits to her unwavering hard work.
The actor, whose last project "Heads of State" is the fourth most watched title on Prime Video with more than 75 million views, said the 2008 hit "Fashion" was a pivotal moment that changed her career trajectory.
The 43-year-old actor recalled how when she started working in movies 25 years ago, she didn't have anyone to guide her.
"Mumbai was terrifying when I entered this. I had to do a lot of work to survive. There was a time when my six movies flopped back to back and I realised I had to do something different," she said.
"Then came 'Fashion', which had two women in the lead, and people thought my time must be bad that I was doing a women-led movie, but the rest is history as I gave my best to it. Similarly, when I thought of Hollywood, I gave my best," she said.
Priyanka said it was not that opportunities presented themselves to her, rather they were taken away from her.
"I had to create them. I have to fight continuously to get out of the box." On being selective with her roles, the actor said she was not so when she started out as she just wanted to get the work.
"But now, I feel like I'm on the other side of my sacrifices. I missed so much, family time, festivals and so many things. But there is time for everything and at that time, I needed to work and make sacrifices. And if I had not done that, I wouldn't have been at this place when I can be selective. So I thank my younger self a lot."
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Priyanka said no human on this earth can be right all the time. "You need to believe in yourself, talk to yourself and weigh the pros and cons of what you are going to do. That's good enough. I did burn the candle on both ends as people said that's the only way you succeed. But today I can say that work hard but only to the extent that it doesn't harm you," she said.
As an advice to the younger generation, Priyanka said young people need to go easy on themselves and not bother about each comment on social media.
"I know it's not easy to do that, including for myself, but you need to keep your sanity. Take everything with a pinch of salt, choose the healthy side of social media," she said.
Recalling her early years in the US, Priyanka said she was doing pop music but then she realised she should go back to what she was best at. "Promise me, you won't google it (my pop music)," she said jokingly.
"When I started looking for work in America, I had to say so many no's, including for the notion that there is an Indian girl with a certain ascent etc, but then I got what I wanted to do. You need to decide yourself what kind of work you want to do and what's the room you want to be in," she said.
She said her family is her crystal ball and she sees building contentment at home as her biggest achievement.
"Biggest things that protect me are my family and my sanity," she said.
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