Priyanka Chopra Follows Actor Pankaj Kapur’s Advice To This Day; What Did He Tell Her?

By OB Bureau On Apr 26, 2023

New Delhi: Priyanka Chopra, who was in Mumbai recently to promote her upcoming Prime Video series Citadel, and was in Mumbai a few weeks ago for promotions, opened up about her craft and how she goes about finding her characters. In an interview, and recalled an advice given by Shahid Kapoor’s father, veteran actor Pankaj Kapur.

Talking with YouTuber and actor Prajakta Koli, Priyanka spoke about how she is very detail-oriented. On her meeting with Pankaj Kapur she recalled, “I was filming for 7 Khoon Maaf. And I had done Kaminey with Vishal (Bhardwaj) sir that time and I was like, if I do this movie for you (Kaminey) you will have to give me a lead role. And Kaminey was like, it became what it became, with just 8 scenes that I had in the movie. Vishal Sir was like of course we have to do this and that’s how 7 Khoon Maaf came to be. I had done a lot of fluffy movies that time… I had 6 films that hadn’t done well. I was in the middle of like figuring out who I was and what my capabilities were as an actor.”

She continued, “I was taking myself very seriously… I told Vishal Sir I want to work with a prolific actor to teach me acting… because I had never been to acting school….so I went to Pankaj (Kapur) Sir… he was my neighbor at that time. So I said I want to do a workshop with you, he said, kya kaam karna he tumko? Toh maine bola pata nahi aap dikhao mujhe aap kaise karte ho… Toh he said tumhe kisi ki zarurat nahi he. Jo apki script he apko uske scenes ke beech mein dekhna he kya hua tha? Jab apne ek scene khatam kiya tha (What do you want to do? I said that I don’t know you show me how you act… Then he said that I don’t need anyone. The script that you have, you just need to see in between those scenes that what had happened when you had finished that scene? ) and coming into an another scene…scene 34 to scene 58 or whatever, what was your character’s journey? That just opened a window in my head.”

It may be recalled that Priyanka had played the role of Susanna in Vishal Bhardwaj’s 7 Khoon Maaf, which was based on Ruskin Bond’s Susanna’s Seven Husbands. A black-comedy that also starred Naseeruddin Shah, John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Irrfan and Annu Kapoor among others, 7 Khoon Maaf won Priyanka a Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics).