After the disappointment of Love Story 2050, for which no one blames her personally, Priyanka Chopra gets two more bites of the cherry this month with the release of God Tussi Great Ho opposite Salman Khan, and Chamku with Bobby Deol. Is she worried about their close proximity? “Not that I planned for God Tussi… and Chamku to come one after another. But fortunately I look very different in both. In God Tussi… I’m dressed in shorts and jeans. I wear a nose-ring throughout the film…a very hip and ‘today’ thing to do. In Chamku I’m a schoolteacher. So I’m dressed in saris.”
Priyanka has often played opposite Bobby Deol in the past. “Bobby and I go back a long way,” she says. “He and Sunnyji (Sunny Deol) are a part of my initial phase in Mumbai. Sunnyji did my first film The Hero with me when I was a nobody. He didn’t have to. But he encouraged a newcomer. I’ll never forget that. As for Bobby we’ve done two films together before. I’d do anything for the Deols’ banner Vijeta Films any time.”
American-educated Priyanka won the Miss World title in 2000, the same year that Lara Dutta was Miss Universe. She made a big impact in Andaaz in 2003, but 2006/07 were the years when her star was at its highest with good performances in movies such as Krissh, Don, and Salaam-e-Ishq. 2008 has so far been slow, but with five releases lined up in the next three months, she must be optimistic of finding at least one big hit amongst them.
The best of the bunch looks to be Drona, a multi-crore fantasy adventure where she appears opposite Abhishek Bachchan. She talked about her costume for the role: “I’m wearing a pagdi but we didn’t want it to have a complete Indian look so we used leather texture. The outfit is made of chiffon and we have used a waist-coat too.” She is also back to having long, silky black hair for the movie. Was that convenient? “I had to do action scenes and the hair kept coming in my way,” she laughed. “But then that was the idea, to make me look tough, yet feminine.”
