It’s been nearly a decade since Priyanka Chopra made the brave switch to Hollywood, when she was at the peak of her career in Bollywood. It has taken a while but the actress is finally headlining a big-budget project in the West finally. Her upcoming show Citadel sees her cast with Richard Madden and is helmed by the Russo Brothers. The actress recently came to Mumbai to promote the show where she spoke about it’s cultural impact, the stunts she performed, and more.
Citadel is the first project of its scale to be headlined by a South Asian actor. Speaking to DNA about what it can mean for increase in representation of brown people in Hollywood, Priyanka said, “I don’t think, Citadel, by itself with totally change the game for actresses who come from south Asia. But seeing someone like me for the first time, that opens the doors. Like it did with Quantico. Even before me, people of Indian descent like Mindy Kaling and Aziz Ansari created their own shows. Think about how few opportunities there were. We had Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, Irrfan, who all did some amazing work. One thing alone cannot lead to change but it’s the collective of us continuously banding together that will work.”
Citadel is a sci-fi thriller with loads of high-octane action. Priyanka plays a spy named Nadia Sinh and the actor has appeared in a number of action sequences. Talking about her comfort factor with doing action, she said, “I come from the background of doing action films. I have done action films in Bollywood as well. So, I have a lot of confidence in myself when I go toe-to-toe with an amazing stunt team. The stunt team for Citadel comes from the Russo Brothers, who have worked with the best in the business. I learnt a lot from them. I am not arrogant. I don’t walk in that I have done so many films so I know everything. I like learning, especially when someone has more experience than me, I like to absorb everything.”
Priyanka also revealed that she did most of her stunts on her own in Citadel. “Almost 80% of the stunts on the show, I did myself because I trust my body and my instincts. But I learnt a lot and the action that I have done on this show is definitely very different from what I have done before,” she added.
Citadel, created by David Weil and executive produced by the Russos, is a sci-fi action adventure that has been called one of the most expensive TV series ever made. The first two episodes of the six-part series release on Prime Video on April 28.
