Priyanka Chopra Jonas is getting candid about a botched nose surgery in the early 2000s that left the actress “devastated and hopeless”, while also costing her several film projects in Bollywood.
Chopra Jonas, 38, revealed details about the experience in her new memoir, ‘Unfinished’, which released on February 9.
Shortly after being crowned Miss World in 2000, Chopra Jonas entered the Bollywood film industry but soon experienced a health setback that she assumed was a “very bad sinus infection.”
“I was having trouble breathing. This is a problem someone with asthma can’t ignore,” Chopra Jonas wrote. After visiting a doctor, she discovered she had a “polyp in my nasal cavity that would need to be surgically removed.”
What should have been a routine polypectomy procedure turned into a nightmare for the ‘Barfi’ star.
“While shaving off the polyp, the doctor also accidentally shaved the bridge of my nose and the bridge collapsed. When it was time to remove the bandages and the condition of my nose was revealed, mom and I were horrified. My original nose was gone. My face looked completely different. I wasn’t me anymore,” she wrote.
Chopra Jonas said she felt “devastated and hopeless,” while adding that “every time I looked in the mirror, a stranger looked back at me, and I didn’t think my sense of self or my self-esteem would ever recover from the blow.”
Chopra Jonas said she was dropped from a few film projects while she underwent multiple surgeries to correct the mistake. But the trauma chased her, along with the cameras. The actress writes she was labelled ‘Plastic Chopra’ by the media and the name stuck, which she said “has followed me my entire professional life.”
Over the years, Chopra Jonas decided to “draw a line” and refused to share details about the botched surgery with anyone.
“… I’ve gotten accustomed to this face. Now when I look in the mirror, I am no longer surprised; I’ve made peace with this slightly different me,” Chopra Jonas said. “This is my face. This is my body. I might be flawed, but I am me.”
Details of her memoir have also revealed that a Bollywood filmmaker had suggested she undergo plastic surgery and get her body “fixed” for the industry.
Interestingly, this is not the first time Chopra Jonas’ nose has been the subject of headlines. Back in 2017, when she appeared on The View, she was asked if she had experienced body-shaming in the entertainment industry.
At the time, the actress replied: “Before I became an actor, I met a producer about the possibility of acting. I was a beauty pageant winner at that time, Miss World. And he said that everything was wrong about me. He said my nose was not proportionate, the shape of my body was not proportionate.”
The show’s host, Joy Behar, then asked her whether that was her original nose, to which she replied: “Yes, this is my original nose. There is such a false perception about what women should look like and what our bodies should look like. Especially when you are in the business, you put on a couple of pounds and people are like... body shaming you. It happens. Christmas happens to all of us. I’m an Indian, I have 100 other festivals — I have Holi, I have Diwali, and my body fluctuates and I am fine with it.”
