After building a highly successful career in the Hindi film industry, making a complete transition to Hollywood is a bold move for any actor. Priyanka Chopra, however, embraced that challenge head-on.
When she decided to step beyond Bollywood and enter the global entertainment space, the journey was far from effortless or glamorous.
Determined to create a foothold in Hollywood, Priyanka signed a talent deal with ABC Studios and soon secured the lead role of Alex Parrish in the American thriller series Quantico. When the show premiered on ABC in 2015, it marked a historic milestone as Priyanka became the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series, drawing global attention.
While audiences witnessed the rise of an international star, her longtime manager Anjula Acharia saw the struggle that unfolded behind the scenes. Looking back on those early days, Anjula revealed that the decision was initially met with deep skepticism. Many doubted whether a “brown Bollywood star” could find space in American television, with some even dismissing the idea as unrealistic.
Priyanka Chopra’s Manager Recalls Being Called “Crazy” for Launching a Brown Bollywood Star in America
Speaking on The Ok Sweetie Show, Acharia opened up about the pushback and challenges they faced in the early days. Anjula shared, “People told me I was stupid when I bought Priyanka. Everyone was like, ‘You can’t break a brown Bollywood star in America’. I went to Jimmy (the cofounder of Interscope Records) because we had signed her together through a label deal at Interscope. I was having one of my insecure moments. There weren’t very many, and I was like, ‘Jimmy, people are saying that I’m crazy,’ and he goes, ‘Do you know everyone thought I was crazy when I wanted to launch a white rapper whose name was Eminem.’”
Priyanka Chopra met ‘assistant of the assistant’ to find work in Hollywood
Acharia also recalled the early, often discouraging phase of Priyanka’s Hollywood journey. She spoke about the numerous meetings they attended with “assistant of the assistant,” a process she described as “heartbreaking.”
She said, “Imagine this: you are with the Beyonce of a country, but nobody else knows that she is Beyonce. Just you do. And she is introducing herself and saying, ‘You don’t know who I am, but I’m Priyanka Chopra.’ I’m meeting the assistant of the assistant in a cafeteria with her. I was suffering from heartbreak for her, but she was so fabulous. She has no ego.”
Acharia went on to share that working closely with Priyanka taught her valuable lessons in humility and perseverance. She said, “Priyanka has actually taught a lot of humility. There have been a lot of times where I have been like, ‘We don’t have to do this,’ but she is like, ‘No, yeah we do.’ There have been very specific moments where I’m like, ‘We are above this,’ and she is like, ‘No, we are not.’”
Priyanka Chopra’s Next Global Project And Her Return To Indian Cinema
On the work front, Priyanka Chopra will next be seen in the R-rated pirate adventure The Bluff, where she plays the role of Bloody Mary alongside Karl Urban. The film is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video on February 25.
She is also gearing up to return to Indian cinema with S.S. Rajamouli’s ambitious globetrotting project Varanasi, which is led by Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran.
