Meet Priyanka Chopra's manager Anjula Acharia, who is also an angel investor in billion-dollar tech companies

Anjula Acharia is the co-founder of the multi-media company Desi Hits!, which aims to produce and distribute fusion entertainment content targeted at the South Asian diaspora. She introduced artists like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears to emerging global markets, especially India, and signed Priyanka Chopra and helped her build her career in the West. Anjula has been managing the National Award-winning actress for past several years now.

Talking to Harper's Bazaar Arabia in 2021, Anjula said, "When I first went to India and asked Priyanka to take this leap of faith with me and my partner, Jimmy Iovine, I had a very strong instinct that if anyone could do this It would be her – I’ve learned to trust my instincts over time and ignore the noise around them. Jimmy explained that he had received similar criticism when he signed Eminem; that gave me a lot of confidence in following my intuition."

Speaking to Forbes in 2021, Anjula recalled meeting some 'prominent' people from the industry who were so 'negative' about Priyanka. She said, "They were like ‘she’s never gonna work, I don't know why you are wasting your time'. I remember feeling really hurt, ‘am I wasting my time?’ But this is where self-belief comes in. It seemed like a crazy dream, right? To bring somebody from India to Hollywood but gotta tell you, when I look into Priyanka's eyes, you just believe."

In a recent podcast, Priyanka shared that she was being 'cornered' and had 'beef' with people in Bollywood. She said that when Anjula asked her if she would be interested in a music career in the US, she decided to move to the West. After the actress's interview went viral, Anjula wrote on Twitter, "Naysayers are just noise! You have to tune it out, Priyanka is undeniable and we proved them all wrong. I knew she would be a global star the first time I saw her on TV."

Anjula Acharia owns A-Series Investments, a company whose portfolio includes many female-funded billion-dollar businesses like Bumble, ClassPass, and Yumi among others. She has also worked with multiple other companies such as BuzzFeed, Hooked, Bulletproof Coffee, and Gobble. The entrepreneur and pop culture enthusiast has also been named in Elle Magazine's Power Women in Tech and Adweek's Disruptor List.