$55,000,000
Priyanka Chopra
Net Worth
Born in (City)
Jamshedpur
Born in (Country)
India
Date of Birth
18th December, 1982
Date of Death
-
Mother
Madhu Chopra
Father
Ashok Chopra
About
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, or better known to Bollywood fans as Priyanka Chopra, or just PC or even Piggy Chops, is one of the crèmes del le crème of Bollywood, rivaling even the men and their influence in the Hindi Film industry. If Bollywood stars are to be judged by global influence alone, then she is perhaps at the top, after having made a mark in both Bollywood and Hollywood and becoming a darling of both. This multi-talented actress has a wide social media following and global influence. At 57.6 million followers, she is the second-most followed Indian celebrity on Instagram after cricketer Virat Kohli.
Early Life
Priyanka was born on 18th July 1982 to army physicians in the Indian Army- Ashok Chopra and Madhu Chopra. Due to her parent's profession, her family moved around a lot, settling in different places where the army stayed. This allowed Priyanka to learn and experience a lot of the cultural and traditional diversities in India. When she was 13, she moved to the United States to live with her aunt and experience education there; she was tired of the school uniforms in India. Since her aunt’s family also moved around a lot, Priyanka also moved with them, attending schools in different places like Newton, Cedar Rapids, and Queens. While she was in Newton, she took part in several theatre productions and studied Western classical music and choral singing. Due to her being Indian, she also received racial abuse in America, the worst of which was from an African-American classmate.
At age 16, Priyanka returned to India to finish the senior year of her high-school education at the Army Public School in Bareilly. She then participated in the local May Queen Pageant and won the competition. This is what probably led to Priyanka Chopra’s destiny-changing moment. Chopra, who by her own admission, did not really have good self-esteem at that time and did not really think much about her looks, wanted to be an engineer but her mother and destiny had different plans. After noticing the blossoming flower that Priyanka was becoming, and her ability to do well in a pageant, her mother Madhu Chopra secretly entered her into the Femina Miss India Competition of 2000. She was subsequently shortlisted and went to train and participate in the pageant. In a year when the level of competition in the pageant was very high, Priyanka shone through the competition with her confidence and smart answers. She was placed 2nd in the pageant, earning a right to represent India in the upcoming Miss World Pageant of that year.
Road to Success
As she started dabbling in films in 2002, she got better and started to receive recognition for her acting. For her performance in Andaaz in 2003, she received the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut (along with her co-star in the film- Lara Dutta) and a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.
For her performance in Aitraaz, she won the Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and also received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. Besides this, she also got the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role, becoming the second and final actress to win the award after Kajol in Gupt (the category was discontinued in 2008).
Her trajectory to the top began to stabilize a little after films like Fashion and Dostana. She has also not shied away from playing unconventional roles, like portraying an autistic woman in Barfi or racebending to play the role of Olympic boxing medallist Mary Kom in Mary Kom. She is also perhaps the only Bollywood star to also become a star in Hollywood, starting with her own show called Quantico on ABC. She has appeared in films like Baywatch, where she played the role of a seductive villain again. A Kid Like Jake and Isn’t It Romantic are some of her other Hollywood films. With all these activities in Hollywood, she has still managed to keep one foot in Bollywood, starring in films like Bajirao Mastani, where her acting got critical praise. Her production company called “Purple Pebble Pictures” has also had successes like Ventilator, a film which won several awards. Her music career has also had moderate successes with songs like In My City and Exotic becoming club hits.
Challenges
Some of the issues faced by her include:
-Due to her being Indian, she also received racial abuse in America, the worst of which was from an African-American classmate.
-Since India already won the Miss World title in 1999, the pressure was upon her to achieve a back-to-back win for India. Again, her confidence, beauty and smart answers came in to save the day and she won the pageant, achieving a historic back-to-back win and becoming the first Miss World of the new millennium.
-Her habit of taking as many roles as possible in her early film career resulted in her not being able to give her best and her films and her performances suffered predictably. Having taken too many film roles in 2004, her first three releases- Plan, Kismat, and Asambhav- were all flops. However, her last and final release of the year-Aitraaz was a commercial and critical hit.
Failures
In the Miss World 2000 pageant, when she was asked "Who do you think is the most successful woman living today and why?", Priyanka answered, "There are a lot of people I admire, but one of the most admirable people is Mother Teresa, who has been so compassionate, considerate and kind." At that time, Mother Teresa had already been dead for 3 years. While promoting her film Pahuna, she claimed that the shoot location i.e. Sikkim, was “plagued with insurgency” and that she was the “first person to make a film there”. She had to apologize for these two incorrect statements. Her taking on the role of Mary Kom was also criticized as she was a mainland Indian portraying a northeastern Indian Asian. The race bending and prosthetic makeup applied as compared to the notorious practice of black face and yellowface in Hollywood. Many added that she could have actually allowed an Indian Asian actress to take the role and get the rare opportunity of starring in a mainstream Bollywood film. When she posted her support for Black Lives Matter, she was called out for her hypocrisy of endorsing whitening products and keeping mum about political issues in her own country.
Achievements
She was honored with the‘National Film Award for Best Actress’ for her role in the movie ‘Fashion’ (2008).|She has won four Filmfare Awards in her career: Best Female Debut for ‘Andaaz’ (2003)|Best Performance in a Negative Role for ‘Aitraaz’ (2004)|Critics Award for Best Actress for ‘7 Khoon Maaf’ (2011)
Quotes
- You can be an absolute woman and also be smart and tough and not lose your femininity.
- Don't try to squeeze into a glass slipper. Instead, shatter the glass ceiling.