August 2005: The top contendor for the crown
Why we think Priyanka is the next "it" girl of bollywood

Move over Rani, Preity and Aish, and make way for the utmost glamorous, the most sensually appealing, the new talented queen of Bollywood, Priyanka Chopra. With about ten releases under her belt in a short span of two years, a three month long world tour with the bollywood baadshah Shahrukh Khan, various product endorsement deals, and a few awards for her spectacular performance in Aitraaz, this 23 year old is fast becoming a hot favorite with the best banners in town. The beauty queen and former Miss World is one of the busiest stars today. The tremendous success of Aitraaz has left her flooded with offers, and she has made her mark by racing ahead and signing only the most qualitative and productive projects. With already bagging the female lead opposite the superstar Hrithik Roshan, in Rakesh Roshan’s Krissh, and having high hopes for performing the classic “khaike paan banaras waala,” opposite the box office king Shahrukh Khan in Farhan Akhtar’s adaptation of the 1970’s Don, Priyanka is on her way to rule the roost for a long time in Bollywood.

Set your goals, work hard for them, and leave the rest to God. This is the motto that Priyanka has chosen to pursue in life, since the very beginning of her career. She has worked night and day, without devoting time for herself, so she can establish herself in Bollywood. It is tough to make your presence felt in the Hindi film industry, and it’s even tougher with hundreds of women competing to be the next big thing. Almost all of them might have looks, talent or glamour, but very few have all of these combined and even fewer have the spirit of dedicating themselves towards their work. Priyanka stands out from these various blue eyed clones because she has the looks, the talent, the glamour and even has the inner drive to work harder and harder, until and after achieving her set goal. Her hard work has paid off because she figures among the top five actresses of this generation, and what’s even better is that she is only 23, the youngest of her lot, and yet she has a matured outlook towards her profession.

Many people now have at least heard of Priyanka playing the female lead opposite Shahrukh Khan in Farhan Akhtar’s Don, but not many know that it was Shahrukh himself who advised Farhan to pick Priyanka to be his heroine. Having been on the Temptations 2004 tour with Priyanka, Shahrukh became instantly impressed by the young actress. He knew she was already intelligent, but he didn’t know she was a hard worker too. He watched her day and night, constantly perfecting her dancing abilities, brushing up her singing and acting skills, and he was so impressed by this that he congratulated Priyanka for her fast and productive improvement. Shahrukh instantly had become a fan of Priyanka Chopra. They used to spend days talking with each other and discussing current matters, while others partied on. It was thus natural that Shahrukh wanted to work with Priyanka, and vice versa for Priyanka, who was a fan of the king khan from her high school days. Not just king khan, but Rakesh and Hrithik Roshan were instantly impressed by the spark of talent that Priyanka possessed. After watching Aitraaz, Rakesh Roshan approached Priyanka to play the lead opposite his talented son Hrithik in the movie Krissh, and she instantly agreed. Miss Chopra has made it to the top, and what better proof of it than working with the likes of Shahrukh and Hrithik.

Priyanka Chopra has the complete package for becoming the next top actress, the queen of Indian cinema. She is talented, as proven by the awards and praises she has received for various works including Aitraaz, she is a dedicated and responsible individual, so much so that king khan himself is astonished to see a young actress work so hard. She has given hits such as Andaaz, Waqt and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi in the time of failures, and last but certainly not the least she is a beautiful person, both inside and out. It is good that recognition is finally knocking at her doors, because she is one queen who deserves the throne and the crown.

Sumit
PriyankaChopra.org Features Writer