‘I was not doing well in school, mother felt life will be easier in pageants’: Priyanka Chopra says her father was not a fan of this decision | Bollywood News

4 min readMumbaiMar 7, 2026 04:22 PM In her more than two-decade-long career, Priyanka Chopra has seen it all. From making a name for herself in Bollywood to carving out space in overseas territories and eventually establishing a career in Hollywood, the actor has consently expanded her horizons. And now she is arguably doing the biggest Indian film, Varanasi, with SS Rajamouli. Her journey began when she was crowned Miss World 2000, a moment that changed the course of her life. However, Priyanka recently revealed that her father was not particularly enthusiastic about her entering pageants at the time. She had just turned 18 and had enrolled in college.
In a chat with the Going Rogue podcast, she revealed, “My dad was not a fan, but my mom was very excited. I was not doing really well in school, so she was like, ‘She’s not going to have much of an academic career, so let’s just do pageants.’ I think that was my mother’s approach, like, let’s just do pageants, life will be easier for you. My dad, though, was not about it. My mom had to have a big chat with him. She took him out for dinner, and begrudgingly he let me participate.”
She added that his perspective changed after she won the pageant and created hory. “After I won, I think he then saw the opportunity and was like, ‘Okay, now I see people are interested in creating opportunities for you, which could be a career move.’ In the same conversation, Priyanka also recalled how conflicted she felt when she began receiving offers from Bollywood. Unsure about what the future held, she was torn between pursuing films and continuing her education. It was during this time that her father supported her decision.
“I remember when movies started coming to me, which is a natural progression for a lot of pageant queens or pageant girls in India. You go from a beauty pageant, if you win one or gain popularity, you immediately get the attention of film producers who want to cast you in Bollywood movies. So once I was in that world, I kind of knew that this might be part of my future. But I didn’t really know. I was like, I’d have to quit school if I do this movie. I won’t be able to do both together.”
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She further shared the advice her father gave her at the time: “I remember my dad sat me down and said to me, ‘I never want you to have a ‘what if’ in your life. You’re 18 years old. If you stay in school and say no to this, your whole life you’re going to wonder, what if I tried it? Could it have been different?’ He said, ‘Give it a shot for a year. You’ll still only be 19, and if you don’t like it, you can go back to school’.”
Priyanka said the conversation proved to be a turning point, as it allowed her to approach her new career with less pressure. “That just took the pressure off me, because my younger self was like, ‘This is a big motion picture I’m being cast in. I have no idea what it takes.’ So it really took the pressure off, and I could just focus on learning the job, which I basically learned on the job.”
Priyanka was last seen in the actioner The Bluff.