Priyanka Chopra

Article Updated 19 July, 2004 05:05:02 AM IST

Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra is yet another Miss India and Miss World who decided to pursue a career in bad ole' Bollywood. Born in Jamshedpur, with aspirations of being an engineer, she had not imagined that she'd be part of tinsel town at the tender age of 20. Contrary to popular belief, Priyanka debuted in Time Audio's 'The Hero', in which she played second fiddle to Preity Zinta. Sunny Deol was the hero in this Anil Sharma ('Gadar') flick. The film didn't fare well and Priyanka then pinned her hopes on Suneel Darshan's 'Andaz' (opposite Akshay Kumar) in which another Miss Universe, Lara Dutta, was poised to debut. (In fact, Abbas-Mustan had offered her Amisha Patel's role in 'Humraaz' at that time, but she chose 'Andaz' over 'Humraaz'.)

Luckily for Priyanka, the film (which fetched horrid reviews) worked at the box-office and she got inundated with offers (glamorous ones, of course). But with success came controversies. Her father Capt. Ashok Chopra was embroiled in a sex scandal though the matter seems to have died down. Also, when she walked out of Maan Singh Deep's film 'Raja Bhaiyya' (opposite Govinda) and was replaced by Aarti Chabria, the producer went ballistic in bad-mouthing her. At the same time, she walked out of Shakeel Noorani's 'Jaan Ki Baazi' and had him speaking ill too! Amidst all this, she broke up with long time boy friend and model, Aseem Merchant. Recently, she even had a spat with the producers of 'Plan' over financial issues. But Priyanka never allowed herself to get bogged down by unpleasantness. A born fighter, this one seems well fortified to survive in the Bollywood jungle.

Priyanka is yet to receive glowing reviews from the press and prove her mettle as an actress of substance. But as a glamour doll who's meant to pout and gyrate, she's doing well for herself. After 'The Hero' and 'Andaaz', she was seen earlier this year in Guddu Dhanoa's 'Kismat' (opposite Bobby Deol), which expectedly bombed. Then Sanjay Gupta's multi-starrer 'Plan' (Sanjay Dutt, Bikram Saluja, Sanjay Suri), which also crashed. Priyanka is banking heavily on two flicks releasing in consecutive weeks: Rajiv Rai's 'Asambhav' (opposite Arjun Rampal) and Sajid Nadiadwala's 'Mujhse Shaadi Karogi' (opposite Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan).

She has a number of films in hand, including Abbas-Mustan's thriller 'Aitraaz' with Akshay Kumar (again) and Kareena Kapoor, Vipul Shah's 'Waqt' with Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar, Guddu Dhanoa's 'Deodhar Gandhi' with Sunny Deol, and many more.

Of course, she is lucky that she's had the support of Akshay Kumar in more ways than one! The man has been recommending her for many films, which also gave birth to the news that she was having a secret affair with him after his marriage. Of course, the two vehemently deny it, but Priyanka knows that it's the survival of the fittest in this cutthroat industry! And if she doesn't scrub other's backs, no one will scrub hers!

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