Priyanka Chopra talks of the time she ‘broke up with America’ and returned to India: ‘I went into a shell’

Priyanka Chopra has said that she decided to return to India from the US as a student after incessant bullying that chipped away at her confidence.

Priyanka Chopra has spoken about what made her leave the USA during her teen years and return to India. The actor had left for America at the age of 12 to study in the country.

Priyanka Chopra is pictured with her family in this throwback photo.

In a new interview, she said that bullying took a toll on her. "I took it very personally. Deep inside, it starts gnawing at you," Priyanka told People in the interview. "I went into a shell. I was like, 'Don't look at me. I just want to be invisible. My confidence was stripped. I've always considered myself a confident person, but I was very unsure of where I stood, of who I was."

She has written at length about the time in her memoirs Unfinished. She that other teenage girls would yell insults like, "Brownie, go back to your country!" and "Go back on the elephant you came on" at her. Despite reaching out to school counsellor for help, but in vain.

"I don't even blame the city, honestly. I just think it was girls who, at that age, just want to say something that'll hurt," she writes. "Now, at the other side of 35, I can say that it probably comes from a place of them being insecure. But at that time, I took it very personally." In the end, she says she "broke up with America." After speaking she decided to return to India, "I was so blessed that when I went back to India, I was surrounded by so much love and admiration for who I was. Going back to India healed me after that experience in high school."

Meanwhile, on a professional note, Priyanka Chopra Jonas recently announced the wrap up of her upcoming English romantic drama flick Text For You directed by Jim Strouse. Apart from that, she will also be seen in Matrix 4 starring Keanu Reeves, and in The White Tiger alongside Rajkummar Rao.