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POSTED INCELEBRITYPriyanka Chopra On Love, Peace and ‘Proud Mom’ FaceBY Jessica MichaultFebruary 1, 2022
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She has led a very full life; actress, author, producer, philanthropist, wife… and now mother
Priyanka Chopra Jonas and I were ostensibly meeting up to talk about jewellery. She is an ambassador for Bvlgari and the face of its recently launched Jannah fine jewellery collection. But from the moment we sat down to chat, it was clear that the actress was in a pensive and reflective mood. An understandable frame of mind considering that, unbeknownst to the world at that time, she was expecting her first child with her husband, the musician Nick Jonas. A daughter, born via surrogate, on the 15th of January.
The news, which the new parents announced simultaneously on their respective Instagram feeds to their combined 105 million followers, was a total surprise. And yet, all the signs were there that the duo had been preparing to grow their family for a while. Looking back at our conversation, the furtive glances and the overall energy of the interview, not to mention Priyanka’s contemplative answers, now have a deeper resonance. Particularly as, over and over, we seemed to circle back to the concepts of peace and love: what those two states of grace mean to the actress and how she wants to embody them in her life.
“Seeing the havoc that this pandemic created around the world, I think peace is of utmost importance at the moment. And I know that in my life, that’s become my quest,” said Priyanka. “That’s all I look for. I’m looking for people that give love, I’m looking for people that are peaceful. I’m gonna surround myself with just joy and light. And, you know, I think I’m starting to look for that now. And as a human being, it changed me as I’m sure it changed most of us. I don’t know if I can do that chaotic pace and chaotic world anymore. I want to prioritise what’s important.”
Necklace in pink gold with akoya white cultured pearls and round diamonds, POA; Earrings in pink gold with round diamonds, POA, both Bvlgari High Jewellery. Dress, POA, Nicole + Felicia
What has always been important to Priyanka is family. At the end of 2019, she and her husband purchased an impressive 20,000-square-foot, reportedly $20 million (Dhs73.5 million), home in Califonia’s San Fernando Valley. It was chosen, and updated, with family in mind. “We’ve built the home that we dreamt of, we built the home that I guess has space for everything that is in our lives. And I feel most at peace when I’m at home,” said the actress. It’s a nest that features the ubiquitous Hollywood infinity pool and movie theatre, but also a two-lane bowling alley, game room and indoor basketball court. She has definitely created an abode that will easily accommodate visits from her daughter’s many cousins and extended family.
“I’ve always felt very loved. I’m very privileged that I can give that answer to you,” said Priyanka about her own childhood. “I was raised not just by my parents, I was raised by my grandparents, I was raised by my mother’s sisters, my mother’s brothers, my father’s brothers and sisters. Because my parents were studying, they were doing their medical degrees at that time when they had me. I went from family to family and I always had so much love and support in my life. I really do feel that it gave me a sense of balance in my relationships as well.”
Being surrounded by love growing up surely gave Priyanka the courage and self-confidence to enter the world of beauty pageants in her teens, with the encouragement of her mother and brother. This resulted in her winning Miss India and then she took the top title of Miss World in 2000. A prize that opened up the doors of Bollywood to the actress, where she excelled. She defied being stereotyped as a ‘good girl’ by taking on roles that challenged her as an artist, but also physically and mentally as well.
For her first film Tamizhan, Priyanka learned the Tamil language, for Kaminey she learned Marathi. Her lead role in Aitraaz saw her playing the bad-girl seductress, something that was daring at that time, for someone so young. While for the film Don and later in Mary Kom, where she played the real-life Indian boxer, she took on the physical challenges of doing her own stunts and transforming her body into centre ring-ready shape. That career versatility ended up making her one of the biggest box-office draws in India.
“She’s just really cool, you know,” said Law Roach, the famous Hollywood stylist who has worked with Priyanka on a number of occasions. “Her beauty is only matched by her intelligence. She is probably one of the smartest women I’ve ever met.”
That intelligence saw Priyanka make the bold choice to try her luck in Hollywood right when she was at the height of her fame in India. Her first big break came in 2015 when she landed the lead in the ABC television show Quantico. She played FBI trainee Alex Parrish and the role made headlines because it was the first time in history that an Indian or South Asian actress had starred in an American network drama series. From there, Priyanka popped up in a number of films playing smaller yet pivotal roles in Baywatch, A Kid Like Jake and Isn’t It Romantic. Most recently she did it again in The Matrix Resurrections, playing a grown-up version of the character Sati from the original trilogy.
“I remember being perplexed when I watched [The Matrix]. And I was like, how did they do that?,” said Priyanka. “It changed how we see cinema and changed technology in cinema. So I’m really excited to just be a fly on the wall and be a part of this incredible cast. I remember the first time when I walked out. And [the cast] was all standing in front of me. I was just like… I took a moment, I turned back and I sat in my chair and gathered my strength. I came back to set, saying to myself, ‘Wow, don’t fangirl here Pri’.”
Jannah long pendant Necklace in pink gold with mother-of-pearl and diamonds, POA; Jannah stud Earrings in pink gold with mother-of- pearl and diamonds, both Bvlgari Fine Jewellery. Dress, POA, Zuhair Murad Haute Couture
But the actress isn’t waiting for roles to fall into her lap. She is actively hunting out stories she wants to tell. With her mother, Dr. Madhu Chopra (her father Dr. Ashok Chopra passed away in 2013, thus the “Daddy’s Little Girl” tattoo along her arm in his handwriting), Priyanka started the production company Purple Pebble Pictures. Already she has produced and starred in the film The Sky is Pink in 2019, and 2021’s Oscar-nominated film The White Tiger, which was adapted from the novel by Aravind Adiga and deals with India’s caste system. Her company also has a deal with Amazon where her upcoming TV show Citadel will debut. She stars alongside Richard Madden in the action series, which centres on the world of international spies. It will undoubtedly benefit from the language skills and stunt work Priyanka has done over the span of the more than 80 acting credits she currently holds on IMDB.
One credit that Priyanka is very excited about is her upcoming lead role in the rom-com Text For You, where she stars alongside Sam Heughan as a bereaved fiancé who sends text messages to the number of her deceased husband-to-be and ends up connecting with the man who was reassigned the number. Besides this being her first Hollywood romcom lead, what the actress is really thrilled about is that this is the first film for someone else. “It’s Celine Dion’s acting debut and it will be in my movie,” she exclaimed. “She’s so funny. And she’s an amazing actress. She definitely needs to do more of this. I love rom-coms. And I’ve done a lot of rom-coms in my Bollywood work, but I’ve never had [the chance] yet in America.”
Priyanka’s extensive body of work shows that she is very driven and clear-eyed when it comes to her goals. But it was during the lockdowns of the pandemic, when she was holed up in her home with her husband, that she did some soul searching and began to reflect on what she really wanted out of life at this point in her career. This deep-dive manifested into a book. She published Unfinished, her New York Times best-selling memoir, last year.
“It was terrifying, there were many times where I was just like, I can’t do this,” admitted the actress about how she struggled to write the book. “I wanted it to be more than what I’ve said in my interviews. I wanted it to have real things that I’ve never mentioned. And that was terrifying. When I was writing it, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, the world is going to know my innermost fears, insecurities, failures’. Things that I never admit in my public life. Because, as a woman, you always kind of have to have a stronger front, we have to have a thicker hide to survive. Especially in the public business as an actor, a female actor, it is not the easiest. So I think I developed that shield or a wall to protect myself. And I allowed my guard to come down when I wrote the book, I think because I was on the other side of 35. So that made me a lot more solid on my feet and comfortable with myself as a woman.”
Necklace in pink gold with mother-of-pearl elements, mandarin garnets and diamonds, POA; Bracelet in pink gold with mother-of-pearl elements, mandarin garnets and diamonds, both Bvlgari High Jewellery. Dress, POA, Nicole + Felicia
Female empowerment has always been something that Priyanka has been invested in. And now, considering that she has her own daughter to raise, that commitment is sure to become even more laser-focused. Her years working and travelling around the globe with UNICEF is the perfect example of how she has tried to uplift other women, particularly girls in India, and it has shaped her world view.
“Before I became their global ambassador, I was their India ambassador for almost a decade. And before that, I volunteered just because I think that the kind of work that UNICEF does is life-changing,” said the actress. “My mom always told me that no matter how badly off you are, there will always be someone worse off than you. And that’s just something I was raised with. But those trips shifted me, they changed me, they made me feel like I’m useful to the world. It’s my purpose that I can provide this incredible platform that I have been given and use that to magnify a message that otherwise maybe would be missed. I feel like a vessel, a means to an end almost.. but the means, not the end. So I feel like it really shifted me and moved me and changed me. And I’m very, very privileged to have done that work.”
And what about the Bvlgari jewellery that we were slated to talk about in the first place? Even Priyanka’s choice to work with the brand was impacted by the fact that a woman – Lucia Silvestri, the brand’s Jewellery Creative Director – has been leading the vision of the house for over 40 years. The partnership between Lucia and Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the Jannah collection also drew the actress to the project. “What is really exciting to me is that this collection was made by two incredible women, both of them are so powerful. Both of them stand for creativity. They stand up for themselves, they have integrity. And I look up to both of them. And I think you can see that in this collection that has come from some incredible female power.”
Necklace in pink gold with akoya white cultured pearls and round diamonds, POA; Earrings in pink gold with round diamonds, POA, both Bvlgari High Jewellery. Dress, POA, Nicole + Felicia
As Priyanka seems to be in such a contemplative frame of mind during our entire conversation, I ask her one final question about love. Where is she the most at peace and feels the most loved?
“I feel most loved when I look at my mom, whenever I’m doing something my mom just has this face, which is like the ‘proud mom’ face. Sometimes I see it with my team as well, when I’m having a conversation and they’ll have this face. Even my husband, it’s just a silent thing. They don’t have to say anything, it’s the look, the face, and so I do have to say that I have felt very loved my whole life.”
And as of January 15th Priyanka has finally discovered the most precious and profound form of love that exists – that of a mother towards her child. I imagine she has already mastered her own ‘proud mom’ face.
Photography: The Morelli Brothers. Editor-in-Chief: Olivia Phillips. Deputy Editor: Jessica Michault. Fashion Director: Anna Castan. Styling: Law Roach. Art Director: Oscar Yáñez. Creative Director: Marne Schwartz. Hair: Giannandrea. Make-Up: Massimo Serini. Producer: Jesse Vora
Finally!!!! First time in a long time she gets the fashion, hair, makeup right. And actually wears clothes that flatter her body. She looks fabulous!!
OMFG THAT YELLOW DRESS IS A BLOODY STUNNER OF A DREAM!!! AHHHH!!! ❤️🤗 And PC looks GORGE in these pics!!
That yellow dress ❤️
The pink - sky-blue one looks good too....but the yellow one is absolutely a stunner😳 Straight out of a Disney fairytale
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