Priyanka Chopra said the industry felt crazy when she entered Bollywood

Priyanka Chopra spoke about navigating Bollywood as an outsider, the impact on her production choices, and her focus on supporting independent filmmakers through her company. She will be seen next in Varanasi.

Priyanka Chopra is opening up about her early days in Bollywood, and she isn’t sugar-coating the struggle. The actor, now a global star and an established producer, said she often felt really lost when she first entered the industry, coming from a family with no film background. And it’s this feeling of being an outsider that continues to shape the choices she makes today as a producer. Speaking to PTI, Chopra, who runs the production house Purple Pebble Pictures, said her experiences pushed her to champion stories and filmmakers who often get sidelined by mainstream cinema. Her banner has backed independent features and documentaries, including Ventilator and Paani. More recently, she supported the documentary Born Hungry, which follows celebrity chef Sash Simpson’s remarkable journey – from a difficult childhood in India to his adoption in Canada and rise to global success. The film is currently available to stream in India. During the interview, Chopra said her instinct as a producer comes from empathy and lived experience. "As a producer, I'm empathetic, and our ethos is a lot around wanting to give opportunities to newer filmmakers or filmmakers that want to achieve something that they haven't been able to or are kind of hitting a wall somewhere. My production side kind of comes from what personally moves me," she said. Looking back at her early years in Bollywood, Chopra said she didn’t understand why she was naturally drawn to filmmakers and stories that felt “marginalised” or “not what is expected” until she connected the dots. She explained, "I didn't know why I was gravitating towards filmmakers and stories that were maybe marginalised or told that they're not what is expected. As I'm talking about it, I think it does come from the fact that when I joined the industry, I didn't have it. I was trying to navigate this crazy movie industry by myself with my parents, who were doctors and who also had no idea about the business. And I kind of felt really lost.” On the acting front, Chopra is set for a grand homecoming in 2027 with Varanasi, directed by SS Rajamouli and co-starring Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran. The project will mark her first Indian release in eight years.