Priyanka Chopra, who won the People’s Choice Award for Quantico, says that the trick is to turn weaknesses into strengths

In Bollywood if you are looking for recent actors who have resurrected their flagging careers, look no further than Priyanka Chopra.

Wednesday’s win at the People’s Choice Awards for Quantico is the icing on the cake for the actress who has been on a roll lately thanks to the hit American series and of course, Bajirao Mastani.

She spoke to us before the awards and was very excited. “Being nominated for PCA is a big thing,” Priyanka said, adding with a smile, “I know many big stars who have been nominated, so I just hope that I bag the award.”

Now that she has won in the “Favourite Actress in a New TV Series” category, all that hard work has paid off. “It was really tough for me to be able to live up to the expectations of the character. I really had to work hard. After just three episodes the show received appreciation all over the world. Quantico has got an extension as well and I am hoping that the second season also gets a green signal,” shared the actress.

“I remember when I had entered Bollywood, industry people would say, ‘yeh kaali hai, dusky hai How will she make it ’ To win the world we need to have confidence in ourselves,” Priyanka said and added, “I remember when I was to do Quantico, I wanted to be shown only as an Indian. And I tried to improve on my flaws. I worked hard and all my weaknesses turned into strengths. Thus I would ask the youth of today not to despair about your weaknesses, instead turn them into your strengths.”

About her role of Kashi in Bajirao Mastani and its importance, Priyanka said, “Sanjay (Bhansali) had cast Kashi first as he told me, ‘only after Kashi is cast can I think of Bajirao and Mastani. Sanjay Sir and Prakash had come to Manali to narrate the story to me. I am happy to have received rave reviews from people from Bollywood, some of them who I may have never even interacted with. But let me tell you, if Deepika had not given such meticulous performance, and also Ranveer, I could not have given my best.”

The actress also found some conflicts with her character in Baajirao and her own personality. “For a woman, it’s not just ‘sacrifice’. She needs to be able to keep up her pride, always. My character allows Baajirao to continue his relationship with Mastani but I also tell him, he will not be entertained in my room. What I mean is, we have to be true to the character but as a modern girl... if this happens to me... I will walk away from the marriage — it’ll be tata bye bye. I do not relate to any of my characters — be it Alex, Ayesha or Abha.”

About the immediate future, Priyanka says, “I have a few films on my platter but owing to time restraints I am yet to zero in on at least three of them. I am a greedy actor and I would like to do all the films, but I have no time. I am also producing a few regional films, not only Marathi but in other languages too. I am also looking forward to the second season of Quantico, if it happens,” she concluded.