PRIYANKA: I never had time to give importance to

Priyanka Chopra Completely Intimate

"If Google Were A Man I'd Marry Him!"

She's gizmo-savvy but won't do e-mail interviews.

She's right. You can't e-mail warmth, can you?

And Priyanka Chopra does exude plenty of it.

She is 'A' for articulate, also agile, mentally.

'B' for beans, she's full of it.

Go right up to 'Z' for zestful as PC skillfully thinks aloud what every alphabet means to her.

A is for Ashok, my dad, who for me is my strength, my weakness, both. Someone I completely adore and look up to. I've always been daddy's little pet.

'A' is also for Andaz which holds a very special place in my heart because it was my first film. Actually Hero was my first, Andaz was released one week later.

It seems like I've come a long way since Andaz but it's actually been just seven years. In terms of time it hasn't been long but in terms of achievements and experience it's been a lot and I'm grateful for it.

"A is for Ashok, my dad. I've always been daddy's little pet"

"A is for Ashok, my dad. I've always been daddy's little pet"

B is for Box-office, commercial success means a lot to me. I don't think anybody's career gets set up by one blockbuster and I want to be consistent in my career.

As an actor you have a very small part to play in a movie which is just the character that you play and of course the brand that you bring along that gets attached to the film.

So I want to have box-office successes with credibility in my performances and in the films that I do. That is very important for me.

There have been so many box-office successes in my career. Don, Krrish, Fashion, Waqt, Dostana, Aitraaz, Andaz, Mujhse Shaadi Karoge' I've been blessed with so many films that have worked really well. When a film doesn't work, it breaks my heart because for me, all my films are Mughal-e-Azams, each one of them bigger than the other!

C I hate cooking, so it'll never be 'C' for cooking!

It's stupid but it's the most important part of my life ' so 'C' is for Catnaps. I work so much that I have the ability to sleep even for 10 minutes.

I'm really blessed that way. Like if I'm sitting here I can doze off and have my 10 minute power nap. But I've never got caught, I'm very good at not getting caught. I hate being caught when I'm sleeping, I really hate it, it's one of my best peeves. I hate to be seen when I'm sleeping!

"B is for Box-office, commercial success means a lot to me"

"B is for Box-office, commercial success means a lot to me"

D is for Dance, a very important aspect of my career. I couldn't dance at all. I could dance for like, fun. I remember an incident during Andaz, my first film where I did about 32 takes.

It was a jimmy jib shot where all I had to do was run towards the valley, run back, look at Akshay, run into his arms, smile and say my lines.

I simply couldn't do it! I remember the choreographer just threw the mike and said, 'Pack up! Just because you're Miss World you think you can act? Learn how to dance first and then come into movies.' That night the schedule was called off because I think Akshay's baby was going to be born.

"I've always said that every actor should in his lifetime work at least once with Vishal Bhardwaj!"

"I've always said that every actor should in his lifetime work at least once with Vishal Bhardwaj!"

I went back to Mumbai. After that incident, I was very scarred. I started learning kathak the next day. Pandit Viru Krishen was my guruji.

I used to dance almost eight hours a day, I started learning it with a vengeance. Any form of dance will always give you rhythm. When I went back after 20-25 days the same choreographer came and told me, 'I don't know what you've done, there's such a huge difference'.

So dance plays a very important part in my life. I love dancing. In my movies, the dances and songs are a form of expression for me. And I love doing stage shows.

"I hate cooking, so it'll never be C for cooking!"

"I hate cooking, so it'll never be C for cooking!"

E is for Emotion. I am very emotional. It's a good thing and a bad thing for me. I am hyper-sensitive, I get stupidly emotional over the smallest of things. The Cancerian in me takes over. Anything can set it off. I'm a self-made person, so there's a lot of pride.

I don't like asking for things just in case I don't get them. I like living life on my terms in a way. So I guess I am very sensitive in a lot of things. It works because I'm very attached to people, I'm warm, I care. And it works in the kind of work I do. I'm emotional, not practical and detached and I prefer it that way.

I like being delusional, I'm completely dervish to my work, my life is almost constantly surrounded by dreams. Practicality is not a part of it!

F It's a tough choice between Food and Films. Food is also a very important part of my life. Where does it all go? I think it goes to my heart!

"It's one of my best peeves, I hate to be seen when I'm sleeping!"

"It's one of my best peeves, I hate to be seen when I'm sleeping!"

I'd go with 'F' for Films because that's all I know how to do, I've never known how to do anything else. I started working in films at 19, I became Miss World at 17. I was very young, I learnt everything on my own, nobody taught me anything, nobody supported me.

I didn't know anybody in Bollywood, I still don't. I mean I have friends but I don't have anybody whom I can call up and say, please make a film for me. So my failures and my successes are my own. That's why films play such an important part in my life.

I didn't grow up as a film fiend or as someone who watched every movie. I grew up as a very academic child, I wanted to be an engineer, I was studying Science. My world just changed after I came into films. I guess someone up there just wanted me to find my vocation in the movies!

G I hate gourmet food, I'm more of a junk food person. I love Indian food any day. Hyderabadi, Punjabi, South Indian, I love fish curry and rice, love, love, love! So 'G' is not for Gourmet, 'G' for me would be Google, I can't live without Google. Google is my answer to every question.

I have information about everything because of Google. I google for anything. Like I google to know why is there an H in Jesus H Christ. I like trivia. It actually comes from Holy, different sects believe different things. If Google was a man I'd marry him!

"This is the best time of my life. I'm having a ball right now. I started working when I was 17 and I've done an amazing body of work and I'm still so young!"

"This is the best time of my life. I'm having a ball right now. I started working when I was 17 and I've done an amazing body of work and I'm still so young!"

H is for Hobby. I like reading, I'm a very voracious reader. I read a lot, fiction and non-fiction. I prefer non-fiction, I read a lot of biographies. I can spend a lot of time in a bookstore, I buy all sorts of books.

I have a lot of favourites. One of my all-time favourites is Letters To A Daughter by Jawaharlal Nehru, it's lovely and I found it very interesting. I don't follow authors as much as I follow books. I love reading, so I read a lot of screenplays for my friends, I do a lot of proof reading for them because I enjoy it.

Reading is my world away from everything.

"During Andaz I did about 32 takes. The choreographer threw the mike and said, 'Pack up! Just because you're Miss World you think you can act?' I was very scarred"

"During Andaz I did about 32 takes. The choreographer threw the mike and said, 'Pack up! Just because you're Miss World you think you can act?' I was very scarred"

I is for Interviews. I love giving interviews, I just love it. I get to know myself when I give interviews. I never get to think about myself, I don't have the time. I'm not one of those actors who only think about my life and talk about myself, I don't. I'm a real girl with lots of things in my life. So when I give interviews I get to know myself better. When you ask me things which provoke my mind, I think about it and say, oh, do I actually like that? I didn't think about that. So I like to give interviews. What I don't like are people who haven't done their homework. I hate those, 'how are you feeling', kind of questions. 'How do you feel coming to the industry?' I hate those generic questions!

J for Jealousy, it's an emotion I've never felt. Envy maybe, but I'm never jealous. Like I'd be envious of say, Rihanna who is so young, so cool, she's done some amazing work.

I've never felt the need to be jealous, maybe because I've been lucky enough to have contentment in what I do? Because I've always got the best I could at any point, or because I'm doing the best work I could? Sometimes I feel I've even got maybe more than I've ever thought, so I've never had space for jealousy. Not even as a kid because I've always been really blessed. I've never had the time to give importance to someone else's life because mine has been so consuming!

"I don't have anybody whom I can call up and say, please make a film for me. So my failures and my successes are my own"

"I don't have anybody whom I can call up and say, please make a film for me. So my failures and my successes are my own"

K for Kaminey, it was a special film for me. For the first time I played a character which I had to get so involved with. I had to play a Maharashtrian girl which I knew nothing about, that too a lower middle-class Maharashtrian. I've lived in Mumbai but I don't know the language.

And I had to play the part convincingly. Plus, it was just about eight scenes and I had to make an impact in an all-boys' film. It was an important film for me.

L Without even thinking, L is for love. I'm always in love. I love the idea of love. I love doing this interview with you. I love the fact that people are watching my film. I'm a die-hard romantic. Everything for me stems from love!

M is for Miss India, my biggest stepping stone. I was 17 years old and I was taking a vacation from my pre-Boards. I was studying at the army school in Bareilly, I'd just come back from America. I went for the contest because I had two months off, I thought I'd come back and study.

I was in my 12th Std. I never thought I'd win. I won and my life just completely changed. Arre, how did this happen? The first thing my mother said when I won Miss World six months later was, who's going to study now? At 17 who becomes Miss World? I tried to study again but I started working in films at 19 and my career just took off!

"If Google was a man I'd marry him!"

"If Google was a man I'd marry him!"

N for National Award. It was the turning point of my life, I cried when I heard about it! I was shooting Anjaana Anjaani in LA. Madhur called me, it was 4 am there, and he said, it's happened, jalwa ho gaya hai, jalwa. And I started crying. Nobody was with me. I was sitting alone in my room, I didn't know who to scream at or who to tell!

My Nana had just passed away 10 days before this. Something told me to call my grandparents, my Dadi and Nani. When I went to collect my National Award, I took 25 people from my family! My Chacha, Chachi'I am very close to my family. We're a Sooraj Barjatya film! Everybody was applauded but when I got my award there was the loudest ovation. I ignored it, pretended it was my popularity and not my family!

My Dadi passed away just two weeks after the National Awards. She told me before she passed away that this was the best experience of her life. She cried and held me, so it was a very special moment for me.

"I hate gourmet food, I'm more of a junk food person"

"I hate gourmet food, I'm more of a junk food person"

O Sometimes I am 'O' for Obnoxious with my close ones. I'm always so correct with everyone, and I like it that way because I like being on my guard, so when I'm with my family, friends, my team, I can be pretty obnoxious. I will yell, I'll throw a tantrum. My mom will come and hold me and I'll go sit on her lap, I behave like a six-year-old.

I've locked myself in my room when I had to go somewhere. When my team was at the door asking me to come out, I was like, I'm not coming out, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to cry, I don't want to go there, I don't want to talk to you. And I love doing that! I know I can get away with them, I won't get away with it anywhere else!

"Zzzz, I have miles to go before I sleep. I'm an energiser, I should endorse Boost!"

"Zzzz, I have miles to go before I sleep. I'm an energiser, I should endorse Boost!"

P is for Passion. No matter what I do, I do with tremendous passion. Like I have blinkers on. If I'm tying a shoe lace, it should be the best shoe lace ever, the bow must be just correct. Not OCD, but I have huge passion and intensity in everything I take on.

Like I want this to be your best interview, I'm very excited about it! I'm very passionate about every moment I live. So my films also show that. When I get angry, I get angry with passion. When I love, I love with passion. When I hate, I hate with passion. So everything is extreme in my life. It gets magnified tremendously.
(FSJ: You're also passionately politically correct! Priyanka laughs.)

"I just love giving interviews. I get to know myself when I give interviews"

"I just love giving interviews. I get to know myself when I give interviews"

Q is for Quest. I'm on an eternal quest. To discover, to find me. I've never known me. Even in the company I keep, there's a strange solitariness I have. In a way I'm very aloof and a loner but I'm a very friendly person. There's a certain quality of looking at everything from another point of view like almost as if I'm not there.

So I may be surrounded by a million people but I'd still feel like I was all alone. Recently I've become a little more aware of it. When I was 15-16 I was just an obnoxious teenager.

It's not a quest to find me in a spiritual sort of way. I'd like to know what I am capable of, I'm learning about myself. Like my acting, my career is my acting school. I didn't know the A of acting in my first film, I just followed instructions. I can't be objective about myself but I'm enjoying the process of creating.

Like I've created Sussanna. I know how much I've put in, I know how much of her I've discovered along the way because I was willing to.

There's so much more to do, so much to learn. Every day when I walk on to the set I'm petrified. Will I be able to live up to my own expectations? I want to be the best. If somebody asked me to be a wallpaper, I'd want to be the best wallpaper ever!

"I've never had space for jealousy. I've never had the time to give importance to someone else's life because mine has been so consuming"

"I've never had space for jealousy. I've never had the time to give importance to someone else's life because mine has been so consuming"

R is for Restless. I work 20 hours but I'm still restless. I think very fast. Like I'm doing your interview but my mind is on four tracks. I'm impatient, I need things done right now. I need people to keep speed with me. I need things to be done as fast as I think. I'm like I'm on coffee, I don't drink coffee but it's like I've got caffeine in my blood. I need instant results, super fast!

S Let's say 'S' for 7 Khoon Maaf, my latest release. As a film initially it scared me when I took it on, I didn't know if I could pull it off. As a heroine, to do a film that's entirely on my shoulders. If it would be accepted, if it would get the kind of opening it should. These days they say the opening should be good and heroine-oriented films they say don't get an opening.

But it happened to me with Fashion. People were like, opening lag gayi. Fashion and 7 Khoon Maaf were two films that didn't have a lead pair. The main protagonist was just one person and that was me. I was nervous about the fact that 7 Khoon Maaf was in a genre of its own, a film with the ability to transcend safe cinema.

It was 4 am in LA when Madhur called me and said, jalwa ho gaya hai, jalwa. And I started crying!

It was 4 am in LA when Madhur called me and said, jalwa ho gaya hai, jalwa. And I started crying!

T for Twitter. When I first started with Twitter nobody else in India was on it. I'm a bit of a gadget freak, I like anything that's a little new. When a friend of mine spoke to me about it, the idea was to do it for a film. I'd been on Facebook and I was thinking of going on Twitter, so when a friend suggested it, I said, let's try it.

Once I went on it, I got completely addicted to it, I just loved it. I spoke to all my friends, I spoke to everybody about it, I almost became their brand ambassador in India. And then it really exploded in India. I think it's really cool. I'm very happy with the kind of followers I've had very consistently.

"When I went to collect my National Award, I took 25 people from my family. We're a Sooraj Barjatya film!"

"When I went to collect my National Award, I took 25 people from my family. We're a Sooraj Barjatya film!"

I think I'm one of the highest in Bollywood. (She is the highest.) I don't want to use Twitter as a medium only to promote my films. It's to interact with my fans. Unfortunately for them, my films are my life, so if I'm going to be talking about anything it'll be about my films!

U for Unapologetic. I am completely unapologetic about anything I do in my life. I have huge amounts of courage of conviction and I stand by even my mistakes by saying, okay, you may think it's a mistake but I did it. Even if it's a mistake, it's mine.

"I want to be the best. If somebody asked me to be a wallpaper, I'd want to be the best wallpaper ever!"

"I want to be the best. If somebody asked me to be a wallpaper, I'd want to be the best wallpaper ever!"

So whether it's my films, or my decisions, my life, my family or my friends, I'm very unapologetic about anything that I do. I may be tentative about taking a decision, I need everybody's opinion before taking a decision. But once a decision is made, whether it's to go on board a film or to take on something, it's mine. Whether you like it or hate it or abhor it, it's mine. I'm unapologetic.

V for Vishal Sir. He is one of the few with whom I share a tremendous director-actor relationship. We have an unsaid understanding of each other where if he's cut a shot, I know exactly why he's done it, he doesn't have to come and tell me. Or if I'm doing something and I say, Vishal Sir, just watch, he'll know why I'm doing it. We don't have to explain anything to each other.

"I'm always so correct with everyone, so when I'm with my family, friends, my team, I can be pretty obnoxious. I will yell, I'll throw a tantrum"

"I'm always so correct with everyone, so when I'm with my family, friends, my team, I can be pretty obnoxious. I will yell, I'll throw a tantrum"

On 7 Khoon Maaf and even on Kaminey, he just put me on the set and said, do it. There was no direction whatsoever. I'd go by my natural instincts as an actor, I'd do what I thought Sussanna should do. He'd of course tweak it after the first take was over.

But he sort of just throws you into it. That's why I've come out with my best performances in his films. I've always said that every actor should in his lifetime work at least once with Vishal Bhardwaj. He's someone who'll teach you so much more about yourself as an actor because he just throws you there. Most directors will tell you what to do.

"I'm impatient, I need things done right now. I don't drink coffee but it's like I've got caffeine in my blood!"

"I'm impatient, I need things done right now. I don't drink coffee but it's like I've got caffeine in my blood!"

Vishal Sir doesn't direct because he believes that your instincts as a human will come out when you're on the set. He's someone who makes the kind of cinema he completely believes in. He doesn't at all feel, I must change my film or tweak my story because people may feel this way or that way about it.

He has the courage of conviction about his own product. Whether people like it or hate it, you'll never be able to ignore a Vishal Bhardwaj film!

"I'm impatient, I need things done right now. I don't drink coffee but it's like I've got caffeine in my blood!"

"I'm impatient, I need things done right now. I don't drink coffee but it's like I've got caffeine in my blood!"

W for Wicked because that I am! I have a very wicked streak in me, maybe that's what came out in 7 Khoon Maaf! I've always been very naughty since I was a kid. Over the years naughty has turned into wicked but in a fun way.

I'm not a witch, I am never evil, I wouldn't deliberately hurt anybody, it would kill me if I did. I do things for fun because I'm not malicious. I do things from the heart, I don't do wicked things seriously, I don't do rubbish things to people. I get away with it because my intentions are always right. Most people let me get away with murder!

"No matter what I do, I do with tremendous passion. If I'm tying a shoe lace, it should be the best shoe lace ever. Like I want this to be your best interview, I'm very excited about it!"

"No matter what I do, I do with tremendous passion. If I'm tying a shoe lace, it should be the best shoe lace ever. Like I want this to be your best interview, I'm very excited about it!"

X for Extreme, in my behaviour, in everything that I do. I'm a complete extremist. I'll either suddenly be hot or suddenly very cold. Anybody who has to keep up with me will go crazy. My mood swings are extreme. Also being an artiste, I think most artistes are a little warped. I use it sometimes as an excuse to gain sympathy!

Y for Youth. It's the best time of my life. I'm young, I'm zestful, I'm feisty, I have a hunger for my work and for my life. I'm having a great time, I'm having a blast, a ball right now in my life.

"I got completely addicted to Twitter, I just loved it. I almost became their brand ambassador in India!"

"I got completely addicted to Twitter, I just loved it. I almost became their brand ambassador in India!"

Actually I never thought about it till now, it's amazing that I started working when I was 17 and I've done an amazing body of work and I'm still so young! So it's fab. I'm working with great people, making amazing movies, having fun, yeah, making money too, fending for myself, looking after me and my family. It's amazing to be young and in films right now!

"Fashion and 7 Khoon Maaf are two films that didn't have a lead pair. The main protagonist was just one person and that was me"

"Fashion and 7 Khoon Maaf are two films that didn't have a lead pair. The main protagonist was just one person and that was me"

Z Zzzz. Zzzz, sleep, which I will not do for many years to come because I don't just get the time for it. When I say I work for 18 hours a day, I really do. I'm not saying it as an exaggeration. I'm a living example of the adage, I have miles to go before I sleep. I'm an energiser, I should endorse Boost.

I have huge amounts of courage of conviction and I stand by even my mistakes. Whether you like it or abhor it, it's mine. I'm unapologetic"

"I have huge amounts of courage of conviction and I stand by even my mistakes. Whether you like it or abhor it, it's mine. I'm unapologetic"

Of course I get tired but sleep is something I miss because I love to sleep, love to have an afternoon nap. But I don't remember the last time I did it. I feel, I'm young right now, this is the time to work the way I do. Poori zindagi hai na sone ke liye! So it's never like I'm dying to go home and sleep.

This is the time to be on the set, to meet people, to do things. Even when I'm sleeping, my mind doesn't sleep. I wake up suddenly at 2 am and write something in my To-do list and go back to sleep!

Footnote: As Priyanka comes to rest with zest, what stays is the quote, 'many more miles before I go to sleep'. For it's clear that this irrepressible, self-made actress with pizzazz will be planting many more milestones on the way!

so is PC...😆