Priyanka Chopra on walking away from Bollywood at her peak: 'I started feeling limited'

Priyanka Chopra has weathered several storms and transitions in her career that has spanned two decades. It has been a tumultuous journey for the global icon, which started with stepping to her first Bollywood set at 18, and then finally leaving it all behind to star in Hollywood projects.

Early lessons in fame

After her Miss World 2000 win, Priyanka entered films with a sense of excitement and a touch of naivety. “My 18-year-old self wanted that for myself. My relationship with the job was very naive because I thought it was about fame. Only after I started working did I realise that fame is just a byproduct of the job, it isn’t the job itself. I have done nearly 70 films between Bollywood and Hollywood,” she told the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast.

Seeking more than comfort

As her career soared in India, Priyanka began to feel constrained. “When I was working in India, I started feeling a little limited. I like using that word because I wanted to see what else was out there,” she explained. At the time, representation for Indian actors in Hollywood was minimal. “In American pop culture, I had only seen people like Mindy Kaling and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. There were very few Indian female or even male actors working in Hollywood. I wanted to understand why we didn’t have that kind of representation.”

That curiosity sparked a bold move. “It made me think about where I stood and where I should begin. It came from a need to expand and see what the possibilities were. And like I said, I am competitive,” she said.

Pivoting through challenges

Priyanka admits that the decision to leave Bollywood wasn’t born from frustration but from a refusal to settle. “Nothing is an easy ride. We all have battles we deal with," she said. “I believe strongly in pivoting. When life gets tough, we have the ability to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, take a moment to grieve and feel the pain, and then pivot. I have done that many times in my career.”

Even with no blueprint for success in Hollywood, she embraced the unknown. “There wasn’t much of a precedent before me. I just gave it a shot. The only thing I knew was that I’m a hard worker and I know my craft. Put me on a set with any filmmaker or co-actor and I’ll stand toe-to-toe. So I went out there and started working.”

On the work front

Priyanka Chopra’s latest on-screen outing came with The Bluff, a swashbuckling adventure in the pirate action-adventure genre. She is now gearing up for a grand return to Indian cinema with Varanasi, a high-octane action-adventure directed by S. S. Rajamouli. The film stars Priyanka alongside Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran, and with a reported budget of around Rs 1,300 crore, it ranks among the most expensive Indian films ever made. Currently in production, Varanasi is slated for a theatrical release in April 2027.