I’m Curious How the US Would React to My Negative Role: PeeCee

Priyanka Chopra would be playing a negative character in the upcoming ‘Baywatch’.

Priyanka Chopra’s Baywatch is set to release on the 26th of May. (Photo: Reuters)

When it comes to representing India, nobody does it better than our desi girl Priyanka Chopra. She is slowly edging her way into Hollywood royalty, and she is doing so with style and panache. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Piggy Chops talked about her thought process and work ethic. Here are some highlights:

I never do anything in life for effect. I do something first and then there’s an effect. It’s not the other way round. I don’t think that i<i>ska kya effect hoga</i>. I can’t think like that. I do things, and then there is a good effect or bad effect. I take it from there then.

Priyanka Chopra

She didn’t want to be put into a box

I had asked for a role that wasn’t stereotypical. I was given a choice, so I had the luxury of asking. When I was asked what kind of a show I was looking for, I said, ‘<i>I will do anything that has nothing to do with my ethnicity.</i>’ I want to be an actor first, and later, we will see how ‘Indianness’ comes into it. And there is so much of India in <i>Quantico</i>. Alex wears an <i>Om</i> bracelet, and wherever she goes, she has a worship place in her house, and she also speaks <i>Hindi</i>. But all that is incidental to my character. It wasn’t specifically written in the script.

On breaking barriers

When I was growing up and was in school, I was tired to see Indians only as Apu in <i>The Simpsons</i>, or something like that. I was like, ‘<i>Why do Indians play only such stereotypical characters? Why can’t a female actor be an a**-kicking FBI agent?’ </i>You have never seen an Indian actor play that. So, why can’t we?

On variety of roles

India has always liked me in negative parts. Whether it’s <i>Aitraaz</i> or <i>7 Khoon Maaf</i>, I have been appreciated whenever I have done negative roles. Now, I am also interested in knowing how people in the US or the world who know me as the good, righteous girl, Alex Parrish, from <i>Quantico,</i> react to me playing a negative character. So, I am curious to see how that turns out.

Luck VS talent

If achieving superstardom, which we see in India or anywhere in the world, was so easy or if there was any formula to it, then a number of people would have done it. It is not about how well you can act or how good you look. It’s about, ‘<i>What kind of feeling you give the audience?</i>’ or ‘<i>What do you make them feel with your work</i>?’ And there is just no explanation to that.

And finally...

<i>Accha kaam karo, acha kaam milega</i>.

(Source: HT)