During a masterclass at Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023, Priyanka Chopra opened up about valuable lessons she learned from working with Bollywood filmmakers Raj Kanwar, Rakesh Roshan, and Abbas-Mustan.
The former Miss World began her acting career with Raj Kanwar’s Andaz (2003). Sharing what she learned from him, Chopra said, “Every filmmaker has something to bring to the table. Raj Kanwar taught me humour. I didn’t know anything during Andaz. I could not say lines. I didn’t know what to do. But I learned humour from him. My character was supposed to be funny and he was a very funny Punjabi guy and he showed me how to be funny. I took that from him.”
In 2004, Priyanka Chopra grabbed everyone’s attention when she played a negative character in Abbas-Mustan’s Aitraaz. “Abbas Mustan taught me how to curb my nerves, and even if I was not convinced by my character’s choices, they made me understand that it is not my decision to make. I am playing a character. Whether good or bad, my job is to play her with conviction. I learned this during Aitraaz,” she said.
Her next big release was Krrish in 2006. Also starring Hrithik Roshan, the film was directed by Rakesh Roshan. “From Rakesh Roshan, just the big commercial nature of the film and how to navigate that mega scale and hundreds of cast and crew and VFX. You are sitting for a 12-hour day shift and you do only four shots. I did not know what that was like and why that was needed. I remember I used to sit with Rakesh sir so much and I would just watch him and Hrithik talk or the producers and DOPs talk, and understand what they were doing in those four to five hours. They used to set up a shot, that looked incredible when you see it in the movie, but it takes five hours to set up a four-second shot. So, imagine, how much work it takes to make an entire film. I learned the hard work and the gravity of the crew and how much it takes for everyone to have that one shot taken,” she said.
Priyanka Chopra next stars in Heads Of State.
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