Priyanka Chopra on the cover of Cond Nast Traveller India

Priyanka Chopra: at home in the world

An exclusive excerpt of our interview with CNT's 6th Anniversary issue cover star

Priyanka Chopra comes into the restaurant"Riverpark, which has a gorgeous view of the East River"wearing a white top and sunglasses. It's her day off. This is a rarity in the life of the actress who's managing a career in two places simultaneously"in Mumbai and the US. So she's relaxed, and happy to drink two glasses of wine at lunch, and order bread twice. She could be any Indian-American young woman today: confident in her place in life, and in the country. Over a fine meal of oysters, she talks about where she came from, and where she's going.

You love boat trips?
Love! For my 30th birthday, I did one in the south of France"Nice, Monaco, Porto Fino"over 10 days with six friends. It was amazing. I think I want to own an island one day.

What would you do on an island? You'd be bored.
I have these really weird, ostentatious dreams.

Such as?
I want to own a plane.

What about a house? Where do you see yourself living?
You don't need a house. You just need a great travel agent who knows amazing hotels, or rental apartments, and you travel the world. I don't really have vices, but I like the good life. That's important to me.

What's been the hardest part about playing Alex?
The hardest part for me was to convince America every Sunday that I'm an American. But then, last Halloween, I had so many young girls dressing like my character, writing to me or arriving on our set. It was so much fun, and so cool that my character had become so aspirational.

Do you still think America is as open a country, even in the age of Trump? Are you a Hillary supporter?
I've always been apolitical. I'm Indian, and I don't have a dog in this fight. I do have opinions, though, definitely.

What are they?
Well, it's extremely cool that the US has a female Presidential candidate"and it's extremely sad that in 2016, we find that progressive because we've had such few female leaders globally.

Between shooting in India and the US, do you spend a lot of time up in the air?
Yes, and it's my favourite time. I use it to sleep, especially on the 16-hour Mumbai-LA flight. You can sleep eight hours and still have eight hours when you wake up. I read scripts and decide what films I'm going to do. And I usually land and head straight to work. For example, when I was finishing work on Bajirao Mastani, I also was taping for Quantico. Even Baywatch I shot on the weekends of Quantico. I have nine passports! I'm on at least six flights a month.

How do you cope?
Because I don't have roots at all, I have created an island for myself. So that island"my team, my staff"is my support system, my constant. These are the people who prop me up so I can do the insanity that I do. My life is a schedule that my assistant sends me every day. I can tell you seven-and-a-half months in advance where exactly I'm going to be on some day at 2pm.

If you had to pick one city that's home? New York? Mumbai? LA?
I'm more of a West Coast kind of girl. I like the chill of LA. But I'm a nomad. And look at the world we live in today, we can literally get on a plane, go somewhere for five hours, have lunch, and come back. Why do you have to commit? I have commitment issues anyway.

To read Priyanka Chopra's full interview, grab your copy of Conde Nast Traveller India's 6th Anniversary Special, the October-November 2016 issue. Out on stands next week.

Photographs: Anders Overgaard
Styling: Cristina Ehrlich
T-shirt design: V Sunil
Hair: Dennis DeVoy
Make-up: Yumi Mori
Location: JW Marriott Essex House New York