Keeping Pace with Priyanka

L:\STARDUST\SDE MARCH 08\PRIYANKA CHOPRA.INDD 2 f r o m her awayfrom AWAWAAYY keepingFROMFROM HERHER pacewithKeeping Pace With Priyanka “Just gimme A MINUTE TO CHANGE,” Priyanka Chopra coos, snapping her fingers like a genie as she disappears behind a door in Priyankaher vanity van. When she emerges, she’s a vision magnificent, in a super-cute polka dot top, a pair of ash grey skinnies that are ruched at the ankles to reveal a pair of spectacular wine coloured PVC pumps. Her full lips are blushing like a berry that’s about to burst. I’ve often teased Priyanka that she could use up an entire MAC lippy on her pout in merely one application, to which she purred, “Oh you’re L:\STARDUST\SDE MARCH 08\PRIYANKA CHOPRA.INDD 3 Priyanka PHOTOGRAPH: SUBI SAMUEL; OUTFIT & STYLING: REZA SHARIFFI; MAKE-UP: RAJESH PATIL; HAIR: ROSHAN L:\STARDUST\SDE MARCH 08\PRIYANKA CHOPRA.INDD 4 just jealous!” And poor moi, a tad challenged in the pucker ‘We don’t care about the media, we have absolutely no ill feel- department has only had to hang my head in shame and nod in ings towards you, and you’ve been nothing but sweet to us.’ It agreement. As we hop into her SUV and the ignition starts, P.C was very touching, I just kept telling them, ‘arrey no baba, it’s no inquires, “Do you have an hour to spare?” When I say, ‘Yeah’, big deal’. In fact, Madhur was so furious. He kept saying, ‘Who she exclaims, “Gooood, ’coz you’re gonna take me shopping.” has planted these reports?’,” she says smiling. Well, even if she And just like that, as soon as that golden verb is uttered, my does act a little edgy, it’s justified since the actress has been brain goes on maximum overdrive. Designer labels are playing starving herself to make the role work, I urge her. “Very funny,” havoc in my imagination, Nine West, Mango, Etam, Tommy Priyanka quips wrinkling her nose, “FYI, I’m not starving myself Hilfiger, Escada. Every brand available under the Bandra sun is or anything. I’ve just majorly cut down on meat consumption. suddenly vying for my attention. Right then, Priyanka bursts my And you can’t imagine how tough that is, ’coz I’m a complete merry bubble with, “Do you know any book shops in the vicini- non-veg freak. Nowadays I’m only looking for stores that sell the ty?” Whattt?!! All this brainstorming for a book store? I mull, but best diet food, you know the health stuff. How pathetic na?” take her to Crossword anyways. I’m preparing myself to spend an hour in the chick lit section. I mean what do you expect? She’s a Bollywood actress. But as we hit the racks, Priyanka she really have to do this? If she gets any absolutely stumps me with her choice of authors which range thinner, we’d need a sensor device to spot her. She’s fit as from Kafka to Khalid Hosseni. I feel like I’m on a study tour with a fiddle. “Yeah, I am. I’m all muscled and all. But I’ve to get rid of a Barnes and Nobles’ librarian as she educates me on a number my round face. I’m supposed to look all gaunt for this role. You of hardbounds as if she were a human synopsis. know how the ramp models look.” P.C suggests, sinking her As we’re running through books on criminal brainwashing cheeks hollow for visual effect. What a role model, I pun. and economy terrorists, at regular intervals, fans keeping drop- D“Naah,” she animates,o “The idea is toe lose weight thes healthy ping in for autographs. P.C indulges everyone with a smile, even way. By eating right and exercising right.” the sales people who are eagerly offering complimentary mem- In ‘Fashion’, Priyanka starts out as a wannabe model and bership cards. Miss Chopra seems to have the patience of goes through a metamorphosis as the film progresses. Of the a saint, a far cry from the recent media reports that suggest that before and after, she’s shooting for the before stage at the she was giving her ‘Fashion’ director grief while shooting. “I’m moment. She tells me Rita Dhody who’s styling her for the film really not a tantrum queen,” Priyanka pleads earnestly, “It’s so has had a tough time putting together the dowdy costumes for unfair that I’m accused of displaying starry airs on the sets of the wannabe stage, “Can you imagine a chic socialite Rita Dhody ‘Fashion’ cause I’m seriously a very chilled out person to work scavenging the whole of Linking Road, looking for cheapie stuff? with. I have a great rapport with Madhur and I have been noth- Even the thought of it amuses me. You could imagine what ing but professional on the sets.” The reports hinted at her play- a misfit she’d look if the store weren’t a Gucci or Prada,” she ing truant with her co-stars. “I don’t know what co-stars they winks slinking into the DVD section of the store. The next ten are talking about, ’coz I’m friendly with everyone on the sets, minutes are spent in the animation movies section, and she’s including Kangana, Suchitra Pillai and everyone else.” I’d believe dangerously stacking up her basket with stuff that possibly my her, a while ago her co-star Ashwin in fact, brought P.C goose- five year old niece watches, ‘Ratatouille’, ‘Charlotte’s Web’, ‘Ice berry jam, his mother’s expert recipe. “You know I was upset Age’. “Did I tell you, Disney films is my favourite production over the false reports and got over it eventually. But my co- house?” she informs. Whatever happened to the good ol’ Yash stars, they just kept dropping into my van through the day. One Raj and Dharma productions of the world, may one ask? It’s the after the other, they kept reassuring me saying, Hindi music section that she attacks next. It’s when she holds out a box set of audio cds titled ‘100 best Shah Rukh Khan songs’ that I’m about to throw a fit. ‘You aren’t really think- ing of buying that, are you?’ I ask caustically. “It’s really a good buy,” she justifies, but tosses it in the rack when she catches my ‘Uh huh?’ expression. From then on, it’s a pick between Mirza Ghalib and Kishore Kumar audios. This is one thing I’ve come to learn of Priyanka, beneath all the International designer veneer, she’s a hard core desi. Even after having tasted blood, having done her schooling in the US, she confesses she’ll never move there for good. “I just love the Indian- ness around me,” she says in defense, “I absolutely love our social culture. I like having my people around me. I might do my vacations in foreign coun- tries, but moving for good, never. This is where my bread and butter is, I’m too comfortable here to make that shift.” ...with Shah Rukh: Tag Team! L:\STARDUST\SDE MARCH 08\PRIYANKA CHOPRA.INDD 5 Well, but the shelf life of an actress is “Why should actresses be judged “I think it’s been a while since I’ve that of a block of cheese. At the cost of worked with a female co-star as such. sounding cynical, you never know when for marrying industrialists only? I’ve mostly done solo heroine projects. one is forced to close shop, I add. And By that measure every woman who After working with Kareena in ‘Aeitraaz’, then isn’t that the course that most marries a man who happens to be I haven’t worked closely with any other actresses take? Find an industrialist rich should be judged” female co-star, so potential for friend- whose pockets run deeper than the ship is also zero,” she says frankly. And abyss and get hitched. “See, there’s generalization everywhere. her experience with Bebo, I’m given to believe, is nothing to talk But I feel that with actors and models, it’s the most. It’s like they about. “No yaar, in fact we were very friendly while shooting. are the chosen ones to bear the cynicism and clichés of the And we still are. We hang out quite often. Diwali last year, we world. I would plead guilty to it myself; so many times I make hung out together.” One doesn’t know which mood of Kareena a joke about it myself. It’s like people making blond jokes. It does should one buy. When Bebo was asked on Koffee with Karan, if hurt sometimes. Remember Aarti Chabria’s neighbours calling she and Priyanka were friends, the ‘Jab We Met’ phataka flatly her names that all actresses are call-girls and that she’s one as refused. The very next day, she goes on record stating ‘Priyanka well. For me, that was blasphemy, I mean, how can you even say and I are friends’. So truth or dare, what’s the story here? that? So people do make general statements. Forget making “I don’t know what it was with her then. I’ve had great fun with a statement that crude, how can you make such a public display her. We’ve had some mad nights hanging out. Even when we of your animosity? But I suppose that’s a hazard that one has to meet at social dos, she’s extremely warm.

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