How Priyanka Chopra Became India’s ‘Biggest’ Crossover ‘Export’

Priyanka Chopra-Jonas has the huge advantage of being image-conscious apart from being work-devoted.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur / The Quint)

Being interviewed on Oprah with your husband is the woke new symbol of arrival among the new global uber elite. That Oprah space itself has been recently redefined. She insists that she’ll get beyond the controversial and try and get iconic people to open their hearts on issues that matter. Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s decidedly exudes that happy, positive vibe now, irrespective of whatever her big giveaway will be, tomorrow.

While the trailer may tease the question as to whether Priyanka Chopra and her youthful music icon husband Nick Jonas are going to start a family (is a coronial in the works?), there’s bound to be much more.

Remember that Priyanka has her own big book, Unfinished, already out this year and given that there are more of her movies (beyond the 60 she’s tartly tweeted about and counting) still to leap out of the cans, this will be a new benchmark Priyanka has adroitly timed and set out for herself.

Priyanka Chopra’s Hollywood Move & Image Makeover

Breathlessly awaited interviews are a whole new game. But don’t hold your breath to figure out who will get more mileage out of this. My bet is that it is going to be Priyanka Chopra Jonas all the way.

And, in the process, she’s merely underlining that she’s India’s most successful and recognised crossover export to the big bad world out there.

Priyanka has the huge advantage of being image-conscious as much as she is work-devoted. It has taken just a little short of two decades of work to become the international star that she is today. Having swept to the heights of Bollywood from the Miss World platform, she has adroitly avoided the inevitable glass ceiling here. Though the gossip trade media insists that her unexpected move to Hollywood was triggered by a dalliance threatening to turn toxic, there’s little doubt that the Image Re-engineering was well-timed and the best move she could have made.

Structuring this new image for herself as a global actress involved more than just physically moving to Hollywood.

Watch with admiration how she added a macho element to herself by being featured in the highly popular TV series Quantico. She played to her strengths, her brown exoticism and Hollywood’s hunger for talent that would translate well into India’s huge appetite for global action entertainment. Priyanka suddenly fit ALL of those new checkboxes.

Priyanka Chopra’s Biggest Strength & Why She’s No Longer Pitted Against Anyone

Her most recent outing in The White Tiger gave a new twist to the image of Priyanka, adding as it were an international dimension to a globally successful but strongly India-based production on OTT. And later this year, she’ll be seen in the widely anticipated The Matrix 4. Yet another Indian entering territory that is hallowed creative land.

This total makeover pits her against nobody at all. She no longer aspires for even lead roles in Indian movies and is not even desperate to be in the lead in Hollywood.

For her, impactful productions matter. They have allowed her both freedom and time to grow her own rapidly flourishing business. That’s a big, largely underreported aspect of the savvy PC image.

Priyanka is now, highly sought-after as a savvy female global tech investor. Her investments in multiple ventures may have not yet fully fructified. But there is no doubt that her investment in dating app Bumble has already reached stratospheric valuations. Priyanka does more than invest. Her added strength is her considerable heft as the brand ambassador, game-changing for an app that has given Tinder sleepless nights.

Today’s Priyanka Chopra Dons Many Hats — And How

Priyanka’s business interests reflect the three worlds that she straddles effortlessly. Back in India, having starred in several Bollywood hits, it was a natural step to start a production company, Purple Pebble Pictures, which today makes small budget but impactful films. One of these films, Ventilator, won three national film awards. She has prudently retained her connect with the home country, with investments outside the Indian film industry, scouting for startups in the education and beauty segment to add to her growing portfolio.

Back in the US, Priyanka has reportedly invested in a tech coding company called Holberton School of Software Engineering and is also known to focus on companies led by women such as the New York-based wellness startup founded by Rebecca Parekh.

She’s done bits and pieces of this before, but now it’s a whole new ballgame.

Even visually, a new Priyanka Imaging has marched in. She is still a style icon, and always a vision to behold. During her career, her sartorial style has seen everything from draped satin dresses to trench coats with triumphant trains. It may be safely said that the actor has recently become more experimental with her sartorial choices. Versatile is a word that comes to mind when it comes to Priyanka’s style evolution.

Today’s Priyanka Chopra Jonas dons many hats: actor, singer and film producer besides savvy venture capitalist, philanthropist and global celebrity.

When her husband Nick Jonas and she announced the Oscar 2021 nominations, it was a particularly proud moment for Priyanka since her film The White Tiger has been nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, and she announced the nomination herself.

Destiny’s child!

(Dilip Cherian is a contradiction of sorts. An iconoclast by night, he's an image guru by day. Proficient on Bolly-town tales, thanks to his wife, he's excited that his friends are also conquering Hollywood. He's best found at @DILIPtheCHERIAN on Twitter. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)