BUILDING A LEGACY

Priyanka Chopra-Jonas talks about touching a milestone with Citadel, her years in the US and making a mark as a South Asian in Hollywood

- Suhani Singh

IT was day three of promotions in Mumbai, but Priyanka Chopra-Jonas was still in high spirits. True, it’s part and parcel of being an actor—putting up an enthusiastic face in front of the media at all times—but it also had to do with a clip she had just seen on her phone: of her one-year-old daughter, Malti Marie, taking baby steps. Priyanka’s mother, Madhu, is on babysitting duty as the 40-year-old actor busies herself promoting Citadel, one of Amazon Prime Video’s most expensive shows. It’s Priyanka’s first trip to India in nearly three years—she last touched down in 2019 to promote the film The Sky is Pink. A lot has happened since then: she started an Indian restaurant in New York, had a baby through surrogacy, and shot Citadel, a big-budget action spectacle that has the Russo Brothers as executive producers.

Notably, for playing Nadia Sinh, a spy agent, Priyanka got paid the same as her male co-star, Richard Madden of the Game of Thrones (2011-2019) and Bodyguard (2018—) fame. The Indian film industry still falls short of offering its female actors such fairness, she says. “That’s a hundred years of Indian cinema. Many female actors have played co-leads, yet they [the men] have got like 25 times more. The difference is insane.”