Priyanka Chopra is one of the biggest names in Indian cinema to have made a successful crossover to Hollywood. After impressing fans and critics alike with her inspired performances in Hindi films, the actress made her debut in the music industry in Hollywood with her 2012 single In My City. While many assumed that scaling Hollywood was the natural progression for Priyanka Chopra after ruling Bollywood, in a new podcast the actress has revealed that she shifted her base and career to the US because was tired of the politics in the Hindi film industry and had “beef with people”.
Speaking to Dax Shepard on the podcast Armchair Expert, Priyanka Chopra said that she was sharing the reason behind her deciding to work in the US for the very first time. During the course of the podcast, Dax Shepard asked: “So how do you decide you want to even put yourself through that? Why’d you decide to put yourself through that and then what was it?” To this, Priyanka said, “I’ve never said this so I’m going to say it because you’ll make me feel safe.”
Speaking about the circumstances around her move to Hollywood, she revealed: “I was being pushed into a corner in the industry (Bollywood). I had people not casting me, I had beef with people, I am not good at playing that game so I kind of was tired of the politics and I said I needed a break.”
The actress explained that during this phase, Anjula Acharia of Desi Hits – who is currently Priyanka Chopra’s manager – saw her in a video and contacted her. At this point, Priyanka Chopra was shooting for Vishal Bharadwaj’s Saat Khoon Maaf. Explaining that she had heard Priyanka Chopra’s demo, Anjali asked if the actress would be interested in a music career in the US. The actress said that the offer came at a time when she was looking for options outside Bollywood.
She added, “This music thing gave me an opportunity to go into another part of the world, not crave for the movies I didn’t want to get but I would require to schmooze certain clubs and cliques of people. It would require grovelling and I had worked a long time by then that I didn’t feel like I wanted to do it.”
“So, when this music thing came, I was like ‘f*** it, I am going to America’,” Priyanka Chopra confessed candidly.
The official Instagram page of Armchair Expert Podcast shared some behind-the-scenes images of Dax Shepard and Priyanka Chopra from the session. The caption says, “Starting off this week with a banger — Priyanka Chopra joins us today. Super smart, spunky as hell…we loved our time with Priyanka Chopra.”
As we know now, Priyanka Chopra’s move to Hollywood was not confined to just the music industry. The actress cemented her place with her ABC series Quantico, and with the show become the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series.
The actress followed this up with a mix of Bollywood and Hollywood projects such as Bajirao Mastani, The White Tiger, The Sky Is Pink, Baywatch, and The Matrix Resurrections, among others. Priyanka Chopra will be seen next in the film Love Again and the web series Citadel. In Bollywood, she will be seen in Jee Le Zaraa.
Priyanka Chopra also found love in Hollywood. The actress married singer Nick Jonas in 2018 and the couple welcomed their daughter in 2022.
