Priyanka Chopra

Tina Brown: Well, you think that you've got talent. This incredible woman, she sings, she dances, she acts, she's an activist, she's a philanthropist. Welcome, Priyanka Chopra. Priyanka Chopra: Thank you so much, Tina.

Tina Brown: It's so good to see you. Priyanka Chopra: Congratulations to you. 10 years of this incredible summit of empowering women, yes? Tina Brown: Yes. Thank you. Priyanka Chopra: Big cheers.

Tina Brown: So listen, Priyanka, I do go to India a lot, and Bollywood has some pretty huge stars, but they never cross over and make it here. They just don't. You are a first in that you crossed over, and you became a blazing star in both places.

Aside from obvious things such as your talent, hard work, drive, all the rest of it, what do you think were the unique factors that caused you to really break out here in the way that you have, unlike so many other very talented actors?

Priyanka Chopra: I think first of all, Tina, that I think a a few, quite a few of the actors that I have spoken to don't really have ambitions of, moving out of an extremely huge movie industry. Bollywood is one of the biggest producing industries in the world, if not the first. And it, the demographic of Indian films goes all over the world.

So a lot of my actor friends, they're not even, they're not interested in it. But the ones who are, I think, there is a little bit of a problem when it comes to casting of South Asians in Hollywood. Little bit of a problem.

We are always stereotyped into the kind of parts we should do and the kind of parts that, you know, you see a South Asian as. And they always end up getting, you know, amp up your Indian accent and a few of those things.

So I think what I chose to do differently, and it's unfortunate that I had to make that choice, was I when I came to America, I decided to play ethnically ambiguous parts. My first part was Alex Parrish. She was Indian, but that was nothing, that had, it had nothing to do with the show.

Then I did Baywatch. I played Victoria Leeds. Then I did Isn't It Romantic.

I was Isabella Stone. But it took me playing ethnically ambiguous parts to be in mainstream pop culture. Tina Brown: And did you sort of deliberately eschew those other kinds of parts, where you said, "I'm not gonna do that because that's for an Indian girl"?

Priyanka Chopra: No, I said I'm not gonna do that because then all you will see me is what I already know I can do. Right. I am Indian. I don't need my parts, my parts to, justify why I can be an actor.

And it would take me doing that to become mainstream enough now to actually play parts where I am my own ethnicity. Right. And I will not be considered as a niche actor Right. Or an actor that can only do that.

Tina Brown: Right, I get it. I get it. So what do you think are the real differences between, you know, being a huge star that you are, in both places? I mean, what's the difference between doing this in America and doing this in Bollywood?

Because, as you said, it was kind of insular of me in the first place to say, you know, why don't people wanna be in America more really or cross over? Because, as you say, Bollywood is a massive industry. And we tend to think that Hollywood is everything, but as you say, it's, it's a massive industry.

So what is the difference in being a performer there to being a performer here? What, in terms of power and privacy and the roles you're, offered? Priyanka Chopra: I mean, privacy is something I gave up on a long time ago.

Mm-hmm. I'm over that. That's not gonna happen. Tina Brown: But I think that culturally they're both so different.

What Bollywood movies stand for is an experience. It's magnum. It's colorful. It has song and dance and colors and music.