I still remember her as a struggling 24-year old in Bollywood. She would call in the morning on her way to her Kathak class, and ask about prospective projects.When she lost J P Dutta’s Umrao Jaan to Aishwarya Rai, she wept. She cried easily.
Her first batch of co-stars didn’t think of much of her. One of them,now a nobody, told me she needed to look after her grooming. “She comes to the set with chipped nails, yaar!” his shock at the transgression of beauty guidelines still rings in my ears.
Another of her co-stars told me, “Do you know what we call her? The Other Side Of The Moon! Have you seen her without makeup?”
I admitted I hadn’t , and had no wish to. I liked her immensely the way she was: warm, unpretentious, full of giggles and gossip. When I first got to know her she was dating Harman Baweja. She was sure she would marry him. She would go shopping with Harman’s sister and planned a life together with him.
Of course, her life panned out quite differently.Doesn’t it always!And it wasn’t entirely of out her own will. At one point during her career in Bollywood, Priyanka found herself completely isolated. She moved to the West,out not only because she was ambitious(she is, but not to the extent that she appears to be ) but because none of the A-list leading men wanted to work with her.
By the time she played Ram Charan’s love interest in his Hindi debut Zanjeer, Priyanka had hit rockbottom in Bollywood. She had nowhere to go , except westwards where her career has not exactly zoomed, but she has succeeded spectacularly in marketing herself as Bollywood’s global face.
Watching Priyanka hold her own on the international platform makes me very proud. I have virtually watched her grow. At one point of time, no visit to Mumbai of mine would be complete without a visit chez the Chopras. She would chatter nonstop. During one visit I was running late and I was exhausted after an entire day of socializing . I wondered aloud if I should skip my next appointment which was with Karan Johar.
“Are you crazy? Who misses an appointment with Karan?! ” she admonished me.
Ironically Karan Johar never cast her after Dostana, for reasons best left unstated. Priyanka has moved on. Today she is a happy wife and a proud mother, far away from the madding masala of desi movies.
But at some point Priyanka needs to return to Bollywood. She has nothing left to prove, except to show us what we missed out on while she was gone.
