Los Angeles, Feb 12 (UNI) Priyanka Chopra Jonas winces slightly at the word “crossover.”
Sitting in her Manhattan apartment with husband Nick Jonas and their 4-year-old daughter, Malti, Chopra Jonas reflects on her journey from India’s highest-paid actress to Hollywood star, Variety reports.
“I have a tumultuous relationship with that word,” she says. “It almost sounds like where you were wasn’t good enough, and that’s never how it felt to me.”
Chopra Jonas has become one of the few stars to straddle Bollywood and Hollywood, not as a novelty but as a sustained presence. She cemented her US fame with Quantico, The Matrix Resurrections, and the Oscar-nominated The White Tiger, which she executive produced.
Her latest film, Frank E. Flowers’ The Bluff, features her as a sword-wielding mother protecting her son in the 19th-century Caribbean. “The Bluff” streams on Amazon starting Feb 25. She also stars in Season 2 of Amazon’s USD 300 million spy series Citadel, produced by the Russo brothers.
Amazon has been bullish on Chopra Jonas, collaborating with her on Heads of State alongside John Cena and Idris Elba. “They ran an AI analysis and it corresponded with Amazon’s internal data. I sparked twice as much buzz as my co-stars,” she says, noting India’s 250 million monthly streamers, as quoted by Variety.
She will also star in Varanasi, S.S. Rajamouli’s follow-up to RRR. The November release of her first-look image from the USD 150 million project nearly broke the internet. Chopra Jonas, who hasn’t done a Telugu film in over a decade, says, “This is unlike anything I’ve ever done.”
She insisted on doing a dance song, “I was like, ‘Listen, I’m coming back to Indian movies. I have to do a dance song. Like, you have to make me dance.’”
According to Variety, Chopra Jonas traces her drive to her upbringing, “Discipline was a really big part of our growing up… Your word is your bond. If you say something, you have to stand for it.” She won Miss World in 2000, which opened the door to Indian cinema, where she became one of its most celebrated actresses in films like ‘Krrish 3’, ‘Bajirao Mastani’, and ‘Agneepath’.
In 2013, she moved to Los Angeles at 30, leaving a secure career behind. “To restart your career in your 30s is terrifying. I was secure… I chose to blow it up,” she says. After a brief pop career, Chopra Jonas found her footing in Hollywood. “Borderless entertainment. That was my dream,” she says.
Her marriage to Jonas has faced scrutiny online. “We’re eight years in… If people want to keep waiting for it to implode, that’s their choice. I stopped thinking about it,” she says.
Reflecting on his character, she adds, “Nick has this absolute sincerity. It inspires me every day… He is himself and comfortable in it, and I really learned how to be a lot more comfortable in my awkwardness and my insecurities since I got married to him.”
Chopra Jonas balances global projects with family life. “My daughter had a birthday yesterday. My apartment is like an explosion of unicorns and rainbows and mermaids right now,” she laughs, as quoted by Variety.
On creative growth, she says, “I’m OK where I am and am taking a Zen approach. And if I feel creatively stagnant or if I get stuck in a box, I need to shake the box off. But I’m never in a rush.” Crossover? Chopra Jonas doesn’t need it. She’s already claimed her space, as reported by Variety.
