Priyanka Chopra has defended beauty pageants, saying that they gave her the help she needed to get into acting and that they boosted her confidence.
The Indian actress made her name in Bollywood after winning the Miss World competition in 2000, and she said she has no regrets about taking part despite such contests now having fallen out of favour in many countries.
Chopra, 37, told Tatler: “It’s something that I’m extremely proud of.
“It gave me a trampoline to my acting career.
“It gave me a sense of self, a sense of confidence to be able to stand in front of heads of state, to be able to speak in front of media from around the world, and actually know what I’m talking about.”
As well as being crowned Miss World 2000, Chopra also came second in the Miss India competition of that year.
Following her success in pageants, she landed her first Bollywood film role in 2003 in The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, before going on to appear in films including Andaaz, Aitraaz and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi.
She later moved into American film and TV, such as thriller series Quantico and Hollywood films including Baywatch and Isn’t It Romantic.
The actress and producer also told of her plans to have a family with husband Nick Jonas in the future.
“Right now, this year’s really packed for me in terms of the work that I’m doing and the work that I’ve taken on,” she told the magazine.
“But having a family is very important to me and it always has been.
“It is something that I definitely want to do and I’m hoping that whenever God wills it, at the right, opportune time, it’ll happen.”
Chopra and boyband star Jonas, 27, married in 2018.
She said that they rarely spend time apart, adding: “We don’t go more than two, three weeks without seeing each other. That’s a rule.
“It’s too hard otherwise, and you’ve got to work on the relationship, to prioritise it.”
The full feature is in the May issue of Tatler, available via digital download and newsstands Thursday April 2.
