Priyanka Chopra rose to fame as she won the title of Miss World 2000 on 30th November 2000 at the Millennium Dome in London, United Kingdom, and became the fifth Miss World and the second consecutive winner from India to win the title.
The title of Miss World 2000 bought Priyanka a lot of recognition from the entertainment industry including the movie offers from Bollywood and the diva turned her path towards that and the beauty queen hasn’t looked back ever since. The diva who was last seen in Netflix Original, ‘The White Tiger’ alongside Rajkumar Rao is all set for her memoir to be launched.
During an interview, Priyanka shared that when she won Miss World 2000, she was very insecure about herself as she was gawky and introverted. She explained that she was always an ambitious girl and even though Miss World 2000 title brought her a lot of fame and success, it was never a defining moment in her life about how she felt about herself. She was quick in moving from one thing to another and that’s how she moves ahead with her life. Priyanka although had shared that she feels an immense amount of gratitude that she was able to win the crown for the country and cherishes the memories from that day but the title never defined how she felt about herself.
Over the years, Priyanka has evolved as a dedicated role model working towards empowering women and making their lives a little easy in the world. Explaining her view on beauty pageants being empowering or restricting/ judging women according to the set notions of beauty; the diva mentioned that she agrees with both because there are two sides to that coin. She further explained that even though the title never defined how she felt about herself but at the same point gave her opportunities that she’ll forever be grateful for because the pageants both; Femina Miss India 2000 and Miss World 2000 did not narrow the queen down based on her looks only but embraced her skills and finesse her wit, language, speaking skills and how to engage with the heads of state and journalists.
Priyanka has not only kept herself restricted to acting but she has expanded her wings towards singing and writing as well. She had shared that her father helped her in developing the musical side of her and she used her vocal at beauty pageants during the talent round. In July 2012, Priyanka Chopra became the first Bollywood star signed by Creative Artists Agency, an entertainment and sports agency based in Los Angeles. Her first single, "In My City", debuted in the US on 13th September 2012 in a TV spot for the NFL Network's Thursday Night Football; the song also featured rapper will.i.am. The song received mixed reviews from critics, and was a commercial success in India; it sold more than 130,000 copies in its first week, topped the Hindi pop chart, and was certified triple platinum. Priyanka’s first song as a playback singer in Bollywood was "Chaoro", a lullaby from ‘Mary Kom’.
The diva set up her own production company Purple Pebble Pictures intending to produce small budget films and introduce and promote new talent in the Indian film industry, particularly regional Indians films. Her first Marathi film, the 2016 comedy-drama Ventilator was a box office success and went on to win three awards at the 64th National Film Awards. Priyanka did not stop there as she started investing in tech companies in 2018 by investing in a coding education startup called Holberton School and the dating and social media app Bumble. At the Startup India Prarambh event 2021, the diva said that "ideas are the currency of the present" and that she was looking forward to further invest in a mix of beauty and tech startups. She has recently launched her vegan haircare line; ‘Anamoly Haircare’ which would become available soon internationally.
Priyanka started writing an opinion column for a renowned newspaper in India in 2009 and wrote a total of about 50 columns. She said after her first year of writing: "I'm a private person and never thought that I could express my feelings. But strangely enough, whenever I sat down to write this column, my innermost thoughts came to the fore.” In 2014, the beauty queen criticized female genital mutilation and child marriage in an article published in The Guardian. In late 2014, Chopra began writing a monthly column, "Pret-a-Priyanka", for Elle magazine. In an article published in January 2015, she expressed her views on diversity and being a global citizen.
Priyanka shared in 2018 that she will publish her memoir titled, ‘Unfinished’ which is going to be available very soon worldwide. Commenting on what’s unfinished in her life; she said that she would like to check in with her artistic self and lean in as a producer and tell more stories; female and South Asian stories to the world. She lastly added, “I feel like it’s been 20 years that I’ve been doing this, but there’s so much that, God willing, given the opportunity I still want to do.” She also looks forward to have children with husband Nick Jonas.
Priyanka Chopra comes from an academic family as both her parents were doctors and she aspired to be one too but her interests shifted towards aerodynamics and considered being an aeronautical engineer for NASA but life had different plans for her. Priyanka promotes social causes such as environment and women's rights and is vocal about gender equality, the gender pay gap, and feminism. She has worked with UNICEF since 2006 and was appointed as the national and global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for child rights in 2010 and 2016, respectively. Her namesake foundation for health and education works towards providing support to unprivileged Indian children.
The beauty queen aspires to achieve so much more in her life and thus defines her journey as unfinished. She has inspired a lot of young girls to stand up and work towards their dreams and goals and is considered as one of the most successful actresses in Bollywood who not only acquired the Bollywood but is not ready to conquer the Hollywood industry too.