Priyanka Chopra: Work in progress

Priyanka Chopra 

The Incredible Story of a Global Bollywood Star

Aseem Chhabra

Rupa 

237 pages; Rs 400

The roka ceremony of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas earlier this month proved how she continues to be a big name in Bollywood, despite having made the only successful crossover to the US entertainment industry. Among the guests at the Mumbai ceremony were Bollywood A-listers such as Alia Bhatt and Parineeti Chopra (her cousin), Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Vishal Bharadwaj, as well as the Ambanis. She may be spending more time in the Big Apple and may have dropped out of Salman Khan’s Bharat, but Ms Chopra is still a leading lady here. Her extraordinary journey from an army cantonment in Bareilly to success is tempting material for any biographer.

Senior journalist and festival director Aseem Chhabra’s book is one of two recently published on Ms Chopra. The other one, Priyanka Chopra: The Dark Horse by Bharathi S Pradhan, appeared in June. Mr Chhabra, who has written an acclaimed biography of Shashi Kapoor, informs us in the Introduction: “Priyanka did not collaborate with me in writing this book.” The only access he got was an email interview. Mr Chhabra, however, seems to have read every interview she has given, every media story that has appeared on her, every video she has ever featured in. He has also got access to a large number of sources, such as Ms Chopra’s directors and producers, trainers, co-stars and friends.

There has been some discussion in recent months over biographies of big Bollywood stars. Yasser Usman, who has chronicled the lives of Rekha, Rajesh Khanna and more recently — and controversially — Sanjay Dutt, wrote about the disillusionment of reading hagiographies. “But when I made the natural progression to picking up cinema memoirs and Bollywood autobiographies, I was underwhelmed and disappointed. The brutally honest, masala quality of old film magazines seemed a world away from the whitewashed, PR-driven universe of Bollywood memoirs,” wrote Mr Usman (“The Lives of Others”, Open, March 23, 2018). Mr Chhabra’s book manages to avoid the pitfall of a hagiography — but only just.

In the early chapters of the book, he seems more than willing to forgive every faux pas his subject made, attributing some of her cringe-worthy comments to immaturity and youth. For instance, during the 2000 Miss World contest, which she won, asked which living person she admired the most, Ms Chopra had answered Mother Teresa — who had been dead for three years. Later, she would cover it up by saying Mother Teresa would always be alive for her. Two years later, Ms Chopra, in an interview with Rediff.com, had said, “You hear so many bad things about Arab countries”, right before a trip as Miss World to Libya to promote tourism and child welfare. Mr Chhabra comments: “These were the words of a naive young woman.”

He is, however, less charitable about her more recent comments. For instance, while promoting her home production Pahuna: The Little Visitors (2017), Ms Chopra had described Sikkim as afflicted by violence and insurgency, much to the chagrin of the residents of the north-eastern state and its government. Though Mr Chhabra notes Ms Chopra’s eventual apology, he also comments: “Priyanka failed a major test” as a celebrity whose voice has some value. Similarly, he finds no excuse for another insensitive comment: Posing for the Indian edition of Condé Nast Traveller, from her Manhattan home, Ms Chopra’s picture had the following a caption, with “Refugee, Immigrant, Outsider” struck out, followed by “Traveller”. At the height of perhaps the greatest refugee crisis in the world, this comment’s insensitivity was not lost on anyone, prompting a backlash. “Will these minor errors in judgement happen again?” Mr Chhabra writes. “That is quite likely.”

He is quite fair in his assessment of her acting performance, writing that “even with... fifty films, Priyanka has only done a handful that can count as good cinema — where the roles challenged her and made her shine beyond the sex symbol image that she was typecast into for a while after she joined the film industry.”  Commenting on her performance in the immensely forgettable Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004), Mr Chhabra writes: “Priyanka is really not funny... in reality, Priyanka never managed comic roles.” The roles for which he praises her are the more successful films, such as Don and Don 2, Fashion, Dostana, Kaminey, 7 Khoon Maaf, Barfi!, and Bajirao Mastani. With the possible exception of Barfi!, where her performance seemed a little insensitive at least to this reviewer, she has indeed grown as an actor with every film. The book also has an entire chapter on Ms Chopra's rise in the US, how well she has used her public relations machinery to smash every barrier, including notably becoming the first brown model for Guess. The advertisement campaign was shot by rockstar Bryan Adams.

Her story does not end with the book. Published a few months ago, it could do with a couple of updates on the life and career of this very exciting global star, such as her dropping out of Bharat or her engagement with Jonas. It is yet uncertain as to how Ms Chopra will make a comeback in Bollywood, where her last film was the lacklustre Jai Gangajal (2016) or what project she will take up next in the US. Perhaps Mr Chhabra will consider publishing a revised edition soon, or maybe even write a second volume to take the story forward.