It’s almost the end of the week but Priyanka Chopra Jonas arrives on the screen looking fresh and radiant, dressed in a sparkly blue shirt and up-do with nary a hair out of place. She’s says she’s learning to do it herself. It’s impressive. I received a copy of her memoir, Unfinished, last night and she’s keen to know what I think. “Let’s hear it,” she says with a laugh. It’s clear she’s both nervous and excited to see how the book will be received and that level of emotional investment is refreshing. 

“I’m terrified,” she confesses shyly. But she needn’t be. Unfinished is a joyfully humorous and reflective dive into Priyanka’s life through her own eyes, from her earliest childhood memories of riding her bicycle around the army barracks in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, India (both her parents were army doctors), to winning Miss World at the tender age of 18 and suddenly being thrown into the public eye, to the struggle of ‘making it’ in Hollywood, despite already being at the top of her game in Bollywood, to her unbridled joy during her marriage to musician and singer, Nick Jonas.

Image of Priyanka Chopra Jonas from her book Unfinished.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this, actually, when I first had this conversation with Penguin (the publishers) about writing a book,” she says. “I’ve always loved writing.” And indeed, she has written for a number of publications. “But I’ve always wanted to write a book and I thought the easiest thing to do would be to write a memoir because I know my life. I was approaching 20 years of being in the entertainment business and I was like, I should talk about my innermost thoughts.”

Which she does. Priyanka writes lucidly and freely about some of the hardest struggles of her life, like, when surgery to remove a polyp from her nasal cavity was accidentally botched and she was left with a completely different nose, seeing only a stranger when she looked in the mirror and feeling her sense of self fall away, made worse by the name-calling (Plastic Chopra) she faced in the media, or the depression she fell into because of the grief she felt following the passing of her father.

Image from her book, Unfinished: Priyanka Chopra Jonas with her father at the TOIFA Ceremony in April 2013. Her father died two months later.

Explaining how she wrote the book, she says, “when we went into quarantine, I was home for five months. I just took the time to be reflective. It just flowed out of me and I didn’t know how to stop it. I was telling all of these stories that I’ve never spoken about, never addressed. There are a few things I’ve taken out of the book because I was like stop it, I can’t be so bare all!”

But, she says, “I feel I’m secure enough and confident enough as a woman now that I’m good with talking about the difficult things I never discussed. I feel content. I feel like it’s okay for me to be vulnerable with the people that have known me and the people who are getting to know me.”

Image from her book, Unfinished: Priyanka Chopra Jonas with her mother and Vimal Mamu in 1998 in America.

However she’s keen to note that “just because I’m a public person, it doesn’t mean I owe explanations to everyone about my choices, decisions or my life for that matter. I’m not head of state, I’m just an actor.” Despite that, Priyanka is acutely aware of the platform she has and the change she can influence because of this. And so she is a global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and started The Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education in 2011.

Talking about the main change she hopes to influence, she says’,“there are so many people who live life with not having a choice in their own life, especially girls. I think girls are pulled out of school because their brothers need to go to school and that’s more important, or girls are pulled out of school if they’re having their periods. There’s always [people saying] girls shouldn’t be walking around because a boy might take advantage of her. I think we need to pivot and look at other people instead of restricting the girl. I’ve always been an advocate for girls specifically to have an education, to have a right in their own lives, to have jobs, to have financial independence, because that was something my mother definitely taught me. She was like it doesn’t matter who you’re born to, who you’re married to or what your life is going to be, you have to have financial independence and you know we as a community need to do that. As a generation of women, we have to leave a better world for the next generation of girls to come, like the ones who did before us. Maybe by example, maybe by conversation, wherever we can you have to push a little bit and I try in my humble way as much as I can.”

Image from her book, Unfinished: Dancing with children in Soweto South Africa as part of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Another issue that particularly grates on her is that women are often reduced to just marriage and children. “I mean, even with me, as soon as I got married the first question was, when are you having babies instead of the three movies that are just coming out and my book that I’ve worked on and all my other achievements,” she says. However there was a period of time, Priyanka writes in her book, when she first came to Hollywood where, despite her fame in India, she was relatively unknown.

“I think humility is what it requires,” she says, reflecting on how she stays objective in such situations. "My pride doesn’t walk before me. It used to when I was younger and then I failed many times. I learned very quickly that there’s no point in having pride. The only thing that will take you really far is investing in yourself, learning and having humility. Obviously, just because I have a prolific career in one country doesn’t mean that everyone in the world wants to know me, and that was something very important to remember.”

Image from her book, Unfinished: Priyanka Chopra Jonas (left) being Crowned Miss World in 2000 alongside Miss Universe and Miss Asia Pacific.

And it is this approach to trying new things and learning, that she believes is one of the reasons she has been able to transcend cultural boundaries and work in both Hollywood and Bollywood. “I’m not someone who is afraid of new cultures or new things. I don’t claim to know, I learn.” Giving an example, she says, “I didn’t know anything about Thanksgiving. The first time after I got married I had to celebrate Thanksgiving because it’s a big thing in my family, but I learned what that is like. I try not to be inauthentic to who I am and my evolution. Everyone changes. Even though people expect you to stay the same, like you said this 15 years ago. I’m like, well, I’m a different person.”

Today, Priyanka is one of the few people who’s had the opportunity to work in two of the largest film industries in the world. “I feel very privileged and I don’t take that for granted,” she says. She’s been in Hollywood for just over five years now but says, “I’ve just about started doing the kind of roles that I really want to be able to do. As an actor I want to be able to do parts that inspire me, make me uncomfortable.”

She’s clearly ambitious so how does she find balance between all her personal and professional roles? “I live my life by striving for excellence in the day. Then I know that overall my year will be excellent because today I’m excellent.” she says. And for women who want to write their stories, she says, “I would implore them do it. I think it’s such an empowering thing to be able to put pen to paper about your existence and what you’ve been through so far. The good, the bad, the ugly, it kind of helps you deal with your pain and I think that that’s something very powerful.”

Image from her book, Unfinished: Priyanka Chopra Jonas with her father singing at the New Years Party at the army club.

But just being able to complete the book she says, is one of her proudest achievements till date. Laughing, she says, “I never thought I would get through with it! It’s something I was very afraid of. I still am very afraid of. I’m terrified that you have all read it and now you’re looking at me and you’ll see me differently. You’ve been inside the deepest crevices of my mind and my feelings. Being that vulnerable and open was very hard for me.”

Although vulnerable now, she says she’s had to be tough in the past because the entertainment business is “patriarchal of sorts. It’s very easy, especially [with] entertainers - you show your weaknesses and people enjoy pulling you down and I learnt, especially as a girl, it’s so much easier to do that. I just learnt how to keep my walls up for a very long time. I just focused on my job and I didn’t want to talk about any of the things that I overcame to be who I am,” she shares.

Image from her book, Unfinished: Priyanka Chopra Jonas Celebrating her Miss World Win with her parents and her grandparents.

In particular, she credits her parents for helping her become the person she is today. “My parents gave me the freedom of thought. They gave me the freedom of having an opinion. They gave me the freedom of having a choice. They followed me with my radical ideas. Even if I wanted to go to America at the age of 12, who listens to a 12-year-old?” she asks, referring to the part in her book where she explains that her parents allowed her to move to the United States and live with family there, simply because she wanted to. “But my parents never scoffed at my radical thoughts or ideas. I think the reason I had the ability to have this courage of conviction is because my parents inculcated that in me. Give your girl children the freedom of choice and the freedom of being able to create opportunity for themselves and give them credence for their intelligence,” she advises.

For south Asian girls, in particular, all around she world, she advises them to “find the strength inside your gut even if no one else has given it to you, even if you are surrounded by negativity or a lack of opportunity, just don’t forget to believe in yourself. I’m saying that out of example because I came out of the tunnel because of only that. The only way to get out is to believe that life is a gift, and it has been given to you so what are you going to do about it?”

Image from her book, Unfinished: Priyanka Chopra Jonas winning Miss India World on January 15 2000.

And to boost those opportunities for south Asians globally, Priyanka is using her role as a producer. “My life’s dream as a producer is to be able to influx Hollywood with just south Asian stories, south Asian talent, south Asian technique and south Asian writers, because we’re one fifth of the world’s population. When you look at global entertainment, and I’m talking about English language entertainment, we don’t have that representation at all,” she says.

And it is this lack of representation that she believes is responsible for how hard it is for ethnic minorities to break into the mainstream. “The first headline when I was signed by CAA (Creative Artists Agency) said CAA signs its first Bollywood star - it wasn’t even my name. I do think it comes from a place of not having diversity in Hollywood,” she shares. And even though she’s now an A-list celebrity, it wasn’t an easy journey: “it’s taken me a ten year journey since I came to America in 2010 for my music” - before getting the ABC show Quantico, Priyanka writes in her book about how she tried to break into America with a career in music - “to now and it took me digging my feet in and it took me dealing with rejection.”

Image from her book, Unfinished: A giant billboard of Priyanka advertising her US TV show Quantico which won her a Peoples Choice Award.

But Priyanka is not daunted by the struggle of being a trailblazer. “I prefer, instead of thinking about what we don’t have. I would rather think about what we have and how we’re going to build forward.” Reflecting on the progress that has already been made, laughing, she says, “I was at my first Emmys, I think when I was presenting, me and Aziz Ansari at an after party, we were counting all the South Asians in the room and it was six. I was like, what, there’s only six. He was like, babe, that’s good. A couple of years ago there were two.”

Today she’s encouraging creators to capitalise on this progress. “I think a lot of people say, or at least they used to, and it’s still a little bit of a conversation - when you want to tell a specific story with a specific community, that it’s too niche. Not anymore. With streamers coming in there’s an audience for every story. I would really implore if you are south Asian and you want to be in the arts, pursue it. Hollywood needs it. If you have stories, definitely come to me. I’m really looking for them.”

And for herself, Priyanka is creating the kind of work she wants to see and be a part of, for example, a film she’s currently working on with Mindy Kaling. “As a producer I wanted to create content for myself because I wasn’t really getting scripts that I felt very compelled about. I was like I want to align with people who I think are amazing. I called a few people that I knew, and Mindy was one of the first that I did because I really admire her writing and I admire her gumption. It required her as a woman of colour, to write her own show for her to have a starring role in. I reached out to her and I said, you know what, I want to do a romantic comedy, or I want to do a buddy comedy with you, would you be down for it. She was really excited about it and then we just started talking. This was a year after I got married or something. The conversation went into my wedding and what that must have been like to have an Indian/American mash-up wedding and it was so funny that the script came from that. It’s the journey to a big, fat Indian wedding,” she explains.

Image from her book, Unfinished: Priyanka Chopra Jonas dancing with husband Nick Jonas at the reception to their Indian Wedding.

Beyond work, Priyanka is really enjoying taking the time to slow down in her thirties. “I think in my thirties I started really enjoying my time outside of work with my family. At the end of the night, I definitely take two or three hours. I’ll watch a movie, I’ll do dinner. I like to decompress, talk with my family and friends and that’s my favourite thing to do. I don’t carry the baggage of my stardom anywhere. I will be walking on the beach. I go fishing. I go trekking. I go to movies.” she says.

Lockdown has also opened her up to a world of exercise. “The thirties hit you differently, man,” she laughs. “Right on the other side of 35 I was like, okay, we need to start training. That’s the habit that I think I’m going to take forward. I’ve now started enjoying it, which is something I never did. Especially after you start seeing changes in your body, I guess you’re like I want to do this more often.”

She says she didn’t take her health very seriously before. “I was always on such a fast pace that I used to forget to eat. I would drink ten cups of coffee and not drink water. During quarantine, I really centred in and focused on myself, and I’d love to take that forward as my life becomes crazy again.”

Image from her book, Unfinished: Priyanka Chopra Jonas at home with husband Nick and their three dogs Diana, Gino and Panda.

And how does she deal with abstaining from reacting to crazy things in her life? This makes her laugh a lot: “every day I have to bite my tongue, so I don’t say something. If you know me, you know I have an opinion. I have to decide and pick my battles on when I’m going to give my opinion and when I’m not.”

But from her book, she hopes readers get to know her as a human being “instead of just someone whose photos you see on your timeline or who you read about in entertainment news. I would love for them to know that I wasn’t born where I am today. I have had a journey which is very self-made with a lot of trials and tribulations and a lot of blessings. If I can be here and be writing a book that so many people are curious about and have the career that I set out to have and a career that I’m proud of, whatever that choice in your life might be, you can do it too. I think it’s about perseverance and having faith in yourself. I would hope that if people read this book that they will take away the fact that if you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit.”

And that, she achieves. It’s a truly inspiring read that will leave you feeling positive and empowered to make your dreams come true. Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra Jonas is published by Michael Joseph on Thursday 11th February, £20, Hardback and can be bought on Amazon here.