Priyanka Chopra: I don't follow rules, I make my own

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Priyanka says she likes variety in the roles that she plays

With her Bollywood movies and a budding international music career, Priyanka Chopra is into many places all at once but the actress says she has no plans to slow down anytime soon.

Priyanka, who is in the middle of promoting her first release of the year Gunday, begins shooting the next schedule of Mary Kom soon and plans to bring out her next single by April this year. She says she loves juggling different things and playing difficult roles.

"I guess it is a bit of conscious thing because I get bored doing the same thing. In my films too, my characters are always different looking be it Agneepath, Barfi! or in Gunday. I enjoy versatility and variety. I am not like others. I don't follow rules and paths. I make my own rules," Priyanka told PTI in an interview.

The 31-year-old former Miss World, who has been working since she was 17, jokes that unless someone handcuffs her and makes her stop, she would not be able to slowdown her breakneck speed.

"I had a 200 crore release last year in Krrish 3 and the year before I had Barfi! and Agneepath. I think the last two years have been amazing for me. I had my singles. Exotic won triple platinum in India. I feel my pace is absolutely fine. I think I need to increase it," she said.

She is the object of affection to two of her leading stars - Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor- in Ali Abbas Zafar directed Gunday that hits the screens this Valentine's Day.

Priyanka plays the role of Nandita, a cabaret dancer in the Kolkata of the '70s in the Yash Raj film which is set in the world of coal mafia.

"I enjoyed doing the film. It was tremendously satisfying to have so many shades in a character but it was difficult also because there is so much going on in the movie. She is very pivotal to the story as all the conflict happens because of Nandita. You don't know whose side to take," she said.

Priyanka says she took reference from her mother for fashion in the film while European cabaret inspired her dancing.

"Cabaret was very popular in that era in Kolkata. We did not want to make it Indian cabaret because Helen ma'am has such a stamp on it that we could never match up. Lot of Anglo-Indian girls who came from Europe would perform in Kolkata at that time.

"We did very European cabaret in the movie while my mother inspired my clothes. She used to dress like that with sarees, bindis and curly hair," she said.

Ask her whether it was tough to match up the energy of two actors, who are good friends and known pranksters, and she jokes, "I am sure it was difficult for them to match up to me. I was always one up."

After her collaboration with singers like Will.i.am (In My City) and Pitbull (Exotic), Priyanka plans to bring out her next single in next couple of months.

A trained singer, Priyanka does not feel that her music career happened late.

"There never was a plan. You don't sit down at the beginning of your career and say this is my plan and this is what I want to do. I am too shy and plus I wanted to focus on my acting career. I was still learning about how to act. Today working with Ranveer and Arjun, I realise that they know so much about acting and craft than I ever did in my first film when I started. But I was very young," says Priyanka.

The actress says both Arjun and Ranveer are phenomenal actors. She does not find it surprising that she is the more experienced one work wise despite being in the same age group with her two co-stars.

"Arjun has been in the industry and Ranveer has known he always wanted to be an actor. It is funny all three of us are almost of the same age group yet I have done more work than both their careers combined but they are such phenomenal actors.

"They are fun, positive and I think they would be able to do anything they put their minds to. But when it comes to me I am happy doing different things."