Priyanka Chopra Jonas: ‘I was not conventional and beautiful; I was called dusky, different’

The actor, who lives in Los Angeles and was in India this week for the first time since the pandemic, said establishing herself as a global star was not one of her childhood dreams

Actor, producer and entrepreneur Priyanka Chopra Jonas says she has a bigger dream every day, refusing to be daunted as she climbs the ladder of success step by step.

The actor last week introduced Anomaly in India with beauty e-commerce platform Nykaa.

Priyanka, who grew up in the Uttar Pradesh town of Bareilly and has made a global name for herself, said her quest for excellence began when she won the Miss World title at the age of 18.

"It has to be a bigger dream every day. And you should not be overwhelmed as then it can be daunting. It should be like, when you climb a ladder, you have to step on each rung, you can’t go from bottom to the top," the 40-year-old actor said.

The actor, who lives in Los Angeles and was in India this week for the first time since the pandemic, said establishing herself as a global star was not one of her childhood dreams.

She joined the Hindi film industry after her Miss World win. She started her acting career with the 2002 Tamil film "Thamizhan" and made her Bollywood debut the following year with the Sunny Deol-led spy thriller "The Hero".

"I was 17 (or) 18-year-old when I did my first movie. And when I walked on the set with Sunny Deol I was shaking and I was like, I have seen this person in movies since I was growing up. It wasn’t my reality,” she said.