Priyanka Chopra reveals Pankaj Kapur's one acting advice that ‘opened a window’ in her head
Priyanka Chopra revealed that she had gone to actor Pankaj Kapur for acting lessons, and how his one advice shifted her entire perception about the craft.
Priyanka Chopra is busy with the promotions of her upcoming Prime Video series Citadel, and was in Mumbai a few weeks ago for promotions. During an interview, the actor opened up about her craft and how she goes about finding her characters, and recalled an advice that was given by Shahid Kapoor's father Pankaj Kapur. (Also read: Priyanka Chopra says she wants to be known by her first name like Rekha and Cher: 'I don’t even use my last name…')
Priyanka, as well as her Citadel co-star Richard Madden were at Mumbai for the premiere of the show earlier this month. Citadel is based on the story of two elite spies Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra). It is backed by Amazon Studios and the Russo Brothers' AGBO banner with David Weil.
Now, in a recent interview with YouTuber Prajakta Koli, Priyanka opened up about her craft as an actor and how she is someone, who is very detail-oriented. During the interview, Priyanka opened up about an incident with actor Pankaj Kapur, with whom she had met to learn more about acting. She said, “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."
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).
Meanwhile, the first season of Priyanka's upcoming spy series Citadel consists of six episodes, with the first two episodes set to premiere on April 28 on Prime Video. Citadel is executive produced by the Russo Brothers and showrunner David Weil, and also stars Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci and Lesley Manville.
