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I want people to say, ‘She’s from Bollywood, she can do anything’
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is all guns blazing in the new show, Citadel. From FBI agent in Quantico to international spy, it’s been a swift, slick rise
“Do I look like a woman who plays in the minor leagues?”
The question is asked, softly, calculatedly, by Nadia Sinh, among the last surviving members of the international spy network, Citadel, in Prime Video’s web series of the same name. But the line could very well apply to Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who plays Sinh.
Because Chopra Jonas, who debuted on American TV with the thriller Quantico barely eight years ago, is in the biggest league of the moment. Citadel, which debuted late last month and also stars Richard Madden and Stanley Tucci, is only six episodes long. But the action thriller cost $300 million to make, is streaming around the world and has become the network’s most popular series after The Rings of Power. Local instalments in India, Italy and Mexico are being planned, expanding the Citadel universe.
And Chopra Jonas, 40, is at the centre of it all, wielding guns, knives, even red lipstick, as a deadly weapon.
Prep and prime
The Russo Brothers, Anthony and Joseph, who produced the series, wanted to keep it visceral, she says. “They wanted to achieve stunts and fight sequences that you may not see women do that much.” So Chopra Jonas trained six days a week and for one-and-a-half years straight. “I wanted to show up and have my character have as much agency as any other character in the show,” she says. The prep was physically taxing. “I didn’t go to the gym for five months after the show. I didn’t want to see any of it.”
Some signs of that action are hard to miss. Chopra Jonas points to a scar on her left eyebrow. She got it while shooting an action scene, fighting five men, on a rainy day, in a dense forest. In a particular shot, she was supposed to land on the ground, while the camera landed just a little above her head. Instead, it hit her face, blood quickly covering her eyes. “The entire set was stunned,” she recalls. They still had four more shots to go, but were advised to end the shoot.
“I was muddy and disgusting,” Chopra Jonas says. “There were worms in my hair. I didn’t want to do all of it all over again the next day.” So, she called for surgical glue, closed up the wound and went on filming for the day. “I was fine, except hair doesn’t grow on that spot anymore,” she says. The scene does not appear in the final edit.
Chopra Jonas had expected the role to be physically demanding. What she wasn’t prepared for was how demanding the shooting schedules would be. Citadel was shot in 2021, during Covid, with teams working within closed networks to limit the spread of the virus. Chopra Jonas had just finished working on The Matrix Resurrections (2021) and for the movie Love Again (releasing later this month) before getting started on Citadel. “It was emotionally very draining, being away from your family, in a bubble,” Chopra Jonas recalls. “You couldn’t meet anyone outside of your work for days.”
Tight network
Within the bubble, there were other pressures. Chopra Jonas has worked in more than 50 films in India. She’s played a runway model in Fashion (2008), boxer Mary Kom in the biopic of the same name (2014) and a love-struck Peshwa’s first wife in Bajirao Mastani (2015). Her international career includes roles in big-ticket productions such as Baywatch, The White Tiger and The Matrix Resurrections. Her resume lists her as Miss World 2000, a documentary film producer, video game voice artist and a pop singer.
Yet, Chopra Jonas knew that more than a billion eyes were watching. “Every time I work outside of India, I feel like I am carrying the onus of the industry that taught me everything,” says Chopra Jonas. “I don’t want people to say, ‘She is from Bollywood, she couldn’t do it’. I want people to say, ‘She is from Bollywood, she can do everything. I carry that a lot and I guess my experience with Citadel was terrifying because of that. Because I had to bring it!”
Her character, Nadia Sinh, fits the fast-paced, slick, camp world of the show. Two episodes in, she’s delivered complicated kicks and punches, delivered appropriately cheesy one-liners, disarmed baddies with a smile, betrayed and been betrayed in turn. She’s held on to a few secrets too. Chopra Jonas says she enjoyed building Nadia Sinh into a determined but fragile badass. “It was wonderful to be heard, to be not talking to walls and see no changes happening. My opinion was given credence and that was wonderful,” she says.
Secret weapon
Women spies don’t have to be one-dimensional femme fatales anymore, Chopra Jonas says. Streaming networks have opened up opportunities to allow talent from across the world to “contribute to entertainment, rather than just the top 10 writers, actors or directors,” she says. Storytelling has evolved as well, allowing for characters that are more real, mired in real-world conflicts and preoccupations. “Thank God for that!” exclaims Chopra Jonas. “Human beings don’t operate in black and white. I love operating in the greys, and I find that in my characters as well. We all have flaws.”
Playing a spy is particularly fun. A show may make the job seem quotidian, almost humdrum, in The Americans (2013-2018). A film might weave in a 10-minute one-take fight scene as in 2017’s Atomic Blonde. Statecraft and stagecraft weave themselves into devious plots, double crossings and drama. (Check out our pick of top women spies at the end of this story). Chopra Jonas, who played an FBI agent on Quantico, fighting to clear her name after being framed for a terror attack, says she loves playing a spy. “Though I could never do it in real life. It requires incredible courage.”
Is that a gun in your pocket? Our favourite on-screen spies
Dominika, Red Sparrow (2018)
Jennifer Lawrence’s character is a failed ballerina but a successful Russian spy. Sparrows are typically expected to seduce their targets – in this case an American CIA agent. There are some brutal scenes, some corny ones. And one fracturing bone that resounds in your ears forever.
Elizabeth Jennings, The Americans (2013-2018)
Keri Russell plays a Soviet spy living in the US during the waning years of the Cold War. She has a husband, a home life, kids, a job. But there are also wigs, info drops, hidden cameras, leaks and intel-gathering. Jennings is frighteningly good at her job. So is Russell.
Susan Cooper, Spy (2015)
Melissa McCarthy’s Susan, usually desk bound and away from the action, unwittingly ends up on a field assignment. No spy cliché is left unexplored. No fight spares the laughs. No one watching will watch a spy movie the same way again.
Sydney Bristow, Alias (2001-2006)
Jennifer Garner’s breakout role involves disguises, high kicks, triple-crossing the CIA, revenge and colourful wigs. Sydney has 41 confirmed kills through the series – not bad for an English graduate student.
Nikita Taylor, La Femme Nikita (1990)
Anne Parillaud plays Nikita, a wayward teen who finds a new identity and a new life behind bars as an assassin. She’s good with tech, good with guns, good with staying one step ahead, and excellent at keeping it all a secret. Wait. Where’d she go?
