Dinesh Kamath's movie column 'Top Actresses who have become Producers - 2 (Priyanka Chopra)' that was published in Newsband

Top Actresses who have become Producers - 2

Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra is another actress who has become Producer. She has produced films like Ventilator and Firebrand.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is an Indian actress, singer, film producer, philanthropist, and the winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant. Priyanka has received numerous awards, including a National Film Award and five Filmfare Awards. In 2016, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri, and Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2017 and 2018, Forbes listed her among the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

She made her Bollywood debut in The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003). She played the leading lady in the box-office hits Andaaz (2003) and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004) and received critical acclaim for her breakout role in the 2004 thriller Aitraaz. In 2006, Chopra established herself as a leading actress of Indian cinema with starring roles in the top-grossing productions Krrish and Don. Following a brief setback, she was praised for playing a troubled model in the drama Fashion (2008), which won her the National Film Award for Best Actress. Chopra gained wider recognition for portraying a range of characters in the films Kaminey (2009), 7 Khoon Maaf (2011), Barfi! (2012), Mary Kom (2014), and Bajirao Mastani (2015), and featured in the commercially successful sequels Don 2 (2011) and Krrish 3 (2013). From 2015 to 2018, she starred as Alex Parrish in the ABC thriller series Quantico, becoming the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series. Chopra has since played supporting roles in the Hollywood comedies Baywatch (2017) and Isn't It Romantic (2019).

As a philanthropist, Chopra has worked with UNICEF since 2006 and was appointed as the national and global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Child Rights in 2010 and 2016, respectively. She promotes social causes such as environment, health and education, and women's rights, and is vocal about gender equality and feminism. As a recording artist, she has released three singles. She is also the founder of the production company Purple Pebble Pictures, which released the acclaimed Marathi comedy-drama Ventilator (2016).

I personally liked her in Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion, a drama about the Indian fashion industry which followed the lives and careers of several fashion models. She portrayed the ambitious supermodel Meghna Mathur, a role which she initially thought was out of her depth, but after six months' consideration she accepted the role, inspired by Bhandarkar's confidence in her. For the role, Chopra had to gain 6 kilograms (13 lb) and steadily shed the weight during the production as the character progressed in the film. Both the film and her performance received critical acclaim, becoming a major turning point in her career. For her performance, she won several awards, including the National Film Award for Best Actress, the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, the IIFA Award for Best Actress, the Screen Award for Best Actress, and the Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Her forthcoming films are interesting. Chopra will next reunite with Farhan Akhtar to play the parents of Aisha Chaudhary, a teenage motivational speaker who died of pulmonary fibrosis, in Shonali Bose's biographical drama The Sky Is Pink. Chopra has also committed to star opposite Chris Pratt in the action film Cowboy Ninja Viking, and will portray the lawyer Vanita Gupta in Gordan's courtroom drama Tulia, an adaptation of a non-fiction book Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption (2005) based on the 1999 racial injustice case that took place in the city of the same name. She is also producing over a dozen regional films in various languages under her production company, and is developing a sitcom for ABC based on the life of Madhuri Dixit, for which she will serve as an executive producer.

Now about her music career: Chopra's main vocal influence was her father, who helped develop her interest in singing. She used her vocal talent early in her pageantry career. Her first recording, the song "Ullathai Killathe" in the Tamil film Thamizhan (2002), was made at the urging of her director and co-star, Vijay (who had noticed her singing on the set). She declined to sing playback for "Tinka Tinka" in her film Karam (2005), preferring to concentrate on her acting career, but later sang the song live on the television programme Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Chopra recorded an unreleased song for Bluffmaster! (2005). In August 2011, Universal Music Group signed Chopra to a worldwide recording agreement with DesiHits. The deal indicated that her first studio album would be released by Interscope Records in North America and by Island Records elsewhere.

In July 2012, Chopra became the first Bollywood star signed by Creative Artists Agency, an entertainment and sports agency based in Los Angeles. Travelling to the United States to work on her album, Chopra collaborated with Sam Watters, Matthew Koma and Jay Sean. The album was produced by RedOne. Her first single, "In My City", debuted in the US on 13 September 2012 in a TV spot for the NFL Network's Thursday Night Football, 12 hours after the full song debuted in India; a shortened version of the song was used to open each show of the season. "In My City" features rapper will.i.am; according to Chopra, a co-writer, the song was inspired by her unsettled childhood and her journey from a small-town girl to a celebrity. The song received mixed reviews from critics, and was a commercial success in India; it sold more than 130,000 copies in its first week, topped the Hindi pop chart and was certified triple platinum. In the United States the single was unsuccessful, with 5,000 digital downloads in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan, and did not receive radio play. In July 2013, Chopra released her second single "Exotic" featuring American rapper Pitbull, along with its music video. Her third single, a cover of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" was released in April 2014. Chopra's first song as a playback singer in Bollywood was "Chaoro", a lullaby from Mary Kom (2014). In 2015, she sang the title song, a duet with Farhan Akhtar, for Dil Dhadakne Do. She recorded a promotional song for Ventilator (2016), making her Marathi language playback singing debut with "Baba". In 2017, Chopra collaborated with the Australian DJ Will Sparks for "Young and Free", an EDM song which she also wrote.

She donated ₹5 million (US$70,000) to Nanavati hospital to build a cancer ward. The ward, which is named after her late father, was inaugurated by her in 2013. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi selected Chopra as one of his nine nominees called "Navratna" in 2014 for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a national cleanliness campaign by the Government of India. Chopra was appointed as the global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in December 2016. In 2017, she received the Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice for her contribution towards social causes.

The face of global domination today, of course her producer credits are in order.According to her, today, story is king and audiences are open to and accepting of all kinds of genres. Her own production house, Purple Pebble Pictures, was set up in 2015. She focuses on creating opportunities for new talent as well as regional cinema. So far, Purple Pebble Pictures has produced Marathi, Assamese, Sikkimese, Bengali, Punjabi and Bhojpuri films, among others. Ventilator, a Marathi comedy-drama released in 2016, won three National Awards and went on to become a box-office success. Chopra’s next release will be Firebrand for Netflix—a Marathi drama directed by Arunaraje Patil, it tells the story of a lawyer and sexual assault victim who tries to balance the stresses of her professional life with a shaky marriage.—Parizaad Khan Sethi. We’ll have to wait and see as to how far Priyanka will go as Producer.