Priyanka Chopra Biography

Priyanka Chopra was born on 18th July 1982, in Jamshedpur, India, to Capt. Dr. Ashok Chopra and Dr. Madhu Chopra. Her father was a surgeon in the Indian Army Medical Corps. She has a younger brother, Sidharth.

Priyanka Chopra was brought up Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. She was the favourite in the family and grew up in the affection and warmth showered on her by her parents, grand parents and other relatives. Her schooling was in Lucknow and the institutions that she studied were La Martinière Girls College in Lucknow, Maria Goretti College in Bareilly and completed studies in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She wanted to be a Software Engineer or a Criminal Psychologist.

Priyanka is a good singer and occasionally writes poetry and short stories. She didn’t had much aspiration for modeling or ever dreamed of competing in beauty contests, but her parents, without Priyanka’s knowledge, sent photos of her to the Femina Miss India pageant. On competing, Priyanka won the Femina Miss India-World title and an opportunity to represent her country for the Miss World competition.

In the Miss World competition, the judges were so impressed by Priyanka Chopra’s performance that they omitted the mistake that she made during the last round and she was adjudged winner of the Miss World 2000 title. She was asked which living woman she admires most, in the finals, and Priyanka replied “Mother Theresa”, but at that time Mother Theresa had deceased. But that was the only mistake she made throughout the tough competition. Even before she won the competition, Priyanka Chopra was very involved in philanthropic activities. She is the only Indian in the USA to have been selected at the state level for the National Opus Honor Choir She did extensive charity work in US and India after winning the title.

When she won the Miss World crown, she became the fifth Indian woman to win the the title in a span of just seven years. India's Yukta Mookhey had won the same national and international titles in the previous year. Beauty pageants were banned in her conservative home state of Uttar Pradesh in the year she won the title, and she received death threats as a result.

After winning the Miss World title, Priyanka became an actress. She first acted in a Tamil film Thamizhan (2002) and since then has acted in many Bollywood films. Her first Hindi film was the big budget The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003) which was a flop. She became more known from her next film Andaaz (2003) which was a hit, for which she won her first Filmfare Award. Coincidentally, her co-star in that movie was her Miss India compatriot, Lara Dutta.

She then acted in a series of flops until Mujhse Shaadi Karogi in (2004) which was her second hit. She followed it up with Aitraaz, a Hindi remake of the Demi Moore-starrer Disclosure which was yet another box office success. In the same year, she particiated in a world tour aptly titled "Temptations 2004" with Bollywood's leading stars, including Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta and Arjun Rampal. In cities that she did not appear in, either Celina Jaitley replaced her or it was just the other 5.

In 2005, she had many releases, though most did moderately at the box office. In 2006, she worked in two of the most successful films of the year - Krrish and Don - The Chase Begins Again.