The World Is Not Enough For Priyanka Chopra

She grew up everywhere from India to Iowa, won Miss World, starred in 50 Hindi movies, and now, with Quantico, Baywatch and the upcoming A Kid Like Jake, is giving Indian women a face in American pop culture. Priyanka Chopra tells Mira Jacob her fascinating life story.

- Mira Jacob

It is 2.09 pm, and I am running through New York City’s La Guardia Airport with a suitcase on my head. An exit sign glows in the distance, and I hurdle children to get to it, whispering, Priyanka Chopra, Priyanka Chopra, like a path clearing mantra. I have 51 minutes to get to Chopra’s Manhattan apartment, and it isn’t looking good.

Say “Priyanka Chopra” to the average American woman and you might get an ode to her endorsement-worthy hair, a take on what makes her so compulsively watchable as agent Alex Parrish in Quantico, or speculation about whom she is dating. Say her name to the average Indian American woman, like me, and you will get a proud earful about why “our girls” are so beautiful, which of her more than 50 Hindi movies is best, and what her presence as the first Indian lead on a major US network show means for our future. All of which is to say, Chopra is already causing quite a commotion. And now, after her US film debut as villain Victoria Leeds in the action comedy Baywatch, she’s bringing some much-needed diversity to Hollywood. She’s also starring in A Kid Like Jake alongside Jim Parsons and Claire Danes, and will be producing a sitcom based on the life of Madhuri Dixit.

This is a particularly interesting moment for an immigrant to be fronting a TV show and appearing in a quintessentially American movie, a fact not lost on Chopra, who understands how essential seeing a face like hers can be for the millions of Americans who don’t fit the blond-haired, blue-eyed Californian ideal. “Kids from all over—not just Indians—come talk to me,” she says. “I met this Dominican girl the other day who said, ‘Everyone tells me that I look like you.’ She gave me a hug, and said, ‘You gave me the strength to stand up onstage and give a presentation in school on where I came from.’”