Selling brand PeeCee

By: Aseem Chhabra

Described by Guess' CEO as the new Sophia Loren, Priyanka Chopra's PR blitz in the US has been relentless.

It is the season of selling Priyanka Chopra to America. Those wondering why Deepika Padukone is slowly edging her way to become Bollywood's number one female actress and watch Chopra's star dip a little bit (despite her presence in the flop Zanjeer, the current hit Krrish 3, and her item number in next week's Ram Leela) may note that lately the former Miss World has been busy making herself known to America.

There were her two singles In My City from 2012 and this year's much talked and often criticized Exotic. Chopra's critics - mostly in India, were not exactly thrilled with her singing, the simplistic lyrics, and her attempt to pander to the West and to its stereotypical image of Indian women. But Chopra begged to differ. "The song is very much me," she told me earlier this summer. "I like that I'm called exotic!"

But the songs have only gained popularity among Chopra's Indian fans, despite the fact that In My City has been featured in NFL Network's Thursday Night Football ad. And that is quite something for a Bollywood actress who is not a household name in the US.

There was her sweet little role in Disney's Planes and flying over the Taj Mahal to the song Tere Binain Guru. But that film never took off. She stopped the traffic on West Hollywood's Melrose Avenue, and made her own concoction of a milkshake with bananas and almonds. But fans who showed up for the event were mostly desis who already knew about Chopra's Bollywood career. The milkshake named Exotic never reached the wider audience that Chopra was trying to win over.

But her public relations blitz has been relentless. There is nothing organic about how this star from India is being sold to the America. It is all about getting her the maximum exposure which would eventually result in some amount of recognition in the US.

Then on October 28 Chopra was interviewed by the leading fashion industry magazine Women's Wear Daily (or WWD) in which it was announced she will be Guess brand's first Indian model or the "first brown model" as she herself told the magazine.

I have to admit that even for a jaded person like me the black and white images shot by rocker Bryan Adams make Chopra look stunningly sexy. I am sorry I cannot think of any other word to describe Chopra's look in the pictures that have already shown up on the Internet, including on Huffington Post.

Guess' CEO Paul Marciano has described Chopra as the new Sophia Loren. That is a huge complement for the Bollywood star and I am not going to quarrel with it. She is nowhere close to Loren when it comes to acting skills (anyone with doubts, go watch Loren's remarkable performance in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women), but add the magic of makeup, light, and black and white photography, and our desi girl from Jamshedpur does transform into a Mediterranean beauty.

WWD asked Chopra if she felt ready to take on the Western market and her response was exactly what a western publication was looking for. She said she partly grew up in the US and referred to herself as an "amalgamation" of the East and West.

"I'm not too American and I'm not too Indian, but I'm a global citizen, and that's what most people are today," Chopra added. "And I don't want to have to change who I am to try and fit in or cater to a certain audience."

OK, good answer!

Then last week Chopra appeared on ABC's Nightline show - once a serious political news program and now focusing on softer stories. She told the interviewer that she was scared about "going into a completely new culture and see if what you are about will be accepted or not." But then she added she was bringing a "twist of some chicken tikka masala" to her pop music.

And I said to myself - There she slipped again, short-selling herself and pandering to what the West wants to hear.'