Everybody thinks I have a fake accent: Priyanka Chopra

With her nails painted in 50 shades of pink, PeeCee was as bright as her orange playsuit, when Mirror met her at Mehboob Studios. She even playfully took a dig at her own accent, which has found many more detractors since the trailer of the American TV show Quantico, toplined by her, released earlier this month. Excerpts:

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, you said that your diary entries expressed a lot of exhaustion and loneliness. Is it very lonely at the top?

Yes. In a way, it's the price you pay for success. They say that the higher you go, the lonelier it gets and I never understood it before. The fact is that nobody is living your life with you. Nobody realises how much you do and what you go through to get where you are. My mom is with me, well, because she's my mother and my family too because we are bound by blood. But how often can you explain missed birthdays, missed events or erratic mood swings because you haven't slept or eaten and are grumpy? Eventually, the people, whom you want to keep, are the ones who understand you. I'm not going to sit and explain to you that I've just got off a flight and why I don't have time to make it to one dinner. Why do you think they say that in the movie business, no one is anyone's friend? Because it's really hard. It's been an extremely solitary journey for me.

Buzz was that you have a 20-minute role in Quantico. You could've shut everyone up at any time by announcing that you're the lead in the production...

I am not that kind of actor. I always knew it was going to be the lead role. I did the talent development deal in 2013 itself, but did not know what show it was and whether it would ever get picked up by a channel. Quantico's pilot was one of the 25 odd pilot episodes that were screened and was a part of the final six that were short-listed.

What's playing a FBI-agent with an American accent like?

My character demanded that I have an American accent, a little bit more than my natural one! (Guffaws) Everybody thinks I have a fake accent, anyways. I was going schizophrenic because I was doing Marathi dialect training for my role as Kashibai in Bajirao Mastani and American dialect training simultaneously. I was losing my mind and forgot what I was supposed to sound like.

Will this be a long innings in LA?

I have only shot one episode, yet. We will shoot 13 episodes, starting July and the show airs in September. If the series becomes big, we might shoot episodes 13 to 28. If it does not work, they may scrap it.

You and Ranveer Singh have become frequent collaborators...

Ranveer and I give each other our space. We've shot for over 300 days altogether and everyone talks about his energy and enthusiasm, but deep down, he just loves his job so much that he tries his damn best. There are a 1000 people who want our job and we're lucky to have it. It irritates me when actors don't give it their best shot and I love Ranveer, because he's not one of them.

Are you worried about being side lined as the third wheel in Bajirao Mastani?

The love story is about Bajirao and Mastani, but the complexity is that there is another woman, me. It was Paro and Devdas's love story but there was a Chandramukhi too. (Laughs) Unlike Quantico, I won't suddenly be the only one on the poster!

So, is Gangaajal 2 the only Hindi film you are starting this year?

I have my hands full and my time management skills are terrible. I am about to sign a Hindi film for next year. And no, it is not the Sarabjit Singh biopic.