Parineeti Chopra
Parineeti Chopra is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films. Chopra is a recipient of several accolades, including a Filmfare and a National Film Award. Chopra has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2013.
After obtaining a triple honours degree in business, finance and economics from Manchester Business School, Chopra made her acting debut with the 2011 romantic comedy Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, winning the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. She followed it by garnering acclaim for her starring roles in the box-office hits Ishaqzaade, Shuddh Desi Romance and Hasee Toh Phasee ''Kill Dil. The first of these won her the National Film Award – Special Mention. This success was followed by a three-year hiatus and several poorly received films, with the exception of the horror-comedy Golmaal Again and the war drama Kesari, in which she had a brief role. Chopra has since earned praise for her roles in the black comedy Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar and the biographical drama Amar Singh Chamkila, and had a supporting role in the ensemble film Uunchai.
In addition to her acting career, Chopra is a prominent celebrity endorser for brands and products. She has sung some of her film songs, including "Maana Ke Hum Yaar Nahin" and "Teri Mitti". In 2022, Chopra ventured into television by judging the reality show Hunarbaaz: Desh Ki Shaan'' on Colors TV. Chopra is married to politician Raghav Chadha with whom she has a son.
Early life and work
Chopra was born on 22 October 1988 in Ambala, Haryana into a Punjabi Hindu family. Her father, Pawan Chopra, is a businessman and supplier to the Indian Army at Ambala Cantonment and her mother is Reena Chopra. She has two brothers: Shivang and Sahaj; actresses Priyanka Chopra, Meera Chopra and Mannara Chopra are her cousins.Chopra was educated at Convent of Jesus and Mary, Ambala. In an interview published in The Hindu, she revealed that she was a very good student and had always wanted to become an investment banker. At the age of 17, Chopra moved to England, where she received a triple honours degree in business, finance and economics from Manchester Business School. She used to take orientation classes for new students at the university. While studying, she worked part-time for the Manchester United Football Club as the team leader of the catering department. Chopra is also a trained Hindustani classical singer with a B.A. Honours in music. She used to perform on stage with her cousin, Priyanka, and their fathers in her childhood.
In 2009, she returned to India in the wake of the economic recession and moved to Mumbai. Chopra obtained an internship in the marketing department of Yash Raj Films, joining the production company as a public-relations consultant. She considered it a perfect job, because she could use what she had learned and work in films. While working on promotions for Band Baaja Baaraat, Chopra realized that she wanted to become an actress and decided to resign from her executive position with Yash Raj Films to attend acting school. After meeting the company's casting director, she was asked to do a "dummy audition for fun". Chopra remembered "fooling around with a camera" and delivering lines by the character Geet from the film Jab We Met. When YRF producer Aditya Chopra saw the tape he was impressed with her acting. Chopra was then signed to a 3-film deal.
Acting career
Debut, breakthrough and success (2011–2014)
In 2011, Chopra made her screen debut in a supporting role in debutant Maneesh Sharma's romantic comedy Ladies vs Ricky Bahl starring Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma in lead roles. The film describes how three girls who are tricked by a con artist take revenge on him by plotting the same trick for him. Chopra played the Delhi-based "rich and spoiled brat" Dimple Chadda, who is betrayed by the film's central character. The film emerged as a moderate commercial success at the box-office, and received mixed reviews from critics; however, Chopra's performance received high praise. Komal Nahta said, "Of the three other girls, Chopra is undoubtedly the best. She has the best role, the best lines and hers is the best performance among the three." Priyanka Roy of The Telegraph described Chopra as "natural" and wrote "Among the ladies, debutante Chopra almost steals the show from Sharma." It earned her several Best Debut awards at various award ceremonies including Filmfare, Screen, IIFA Producers Guild Film Awards. Chopra also received Best Supporting Actress nominations at several ceremonies, including Filmfare, and won the Producers Guild and IIFA Awards in the same category.Chopra's second release was Habib Faisal's action romantic drama Ishaqzaade in which she played a leading role opposite debutant Arjun Kapoor. The film revolves around two political families, whose rivalry go back generations. Chopra played the boisterous and feisty tomboy Zoya, a Muslim girl who marries a Hindu boy and gives birth to new rivalry in both families. The film emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, and received positive reviews from critics, with Chopra's performance receiving widespread critical acclaim. Taran Adarsh observed, "Chopra is simply fantastic Playing the part of a spirited gun-toting girl, she is not the regular timid, decorous, withdrawn Hindi film heroine. She portrays the violent behavior coupled with the audacious and brash attitude with aplomb", and Rajeev Masand labelled her the "biggest strength of the film". The film grossed over at the domestic box-office, and was termed a super hit by Box Office India. Chopra's performance earned her the National Film Award – Special Mention at the 60th National Film Awards, and her first nominations for the Producers Guild, Screen and Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
Chopra next starred alongside Sushant Singh Rajput and Vaani Kapoor in the romantic comedy-drama Shuddh Desi Romance, her second collaboration with Maneesh Sharma. Set in Jaipur, the film explored the views of the younger generation on commitment, live-in relationships and arranged marriages as compared to love marriages in small town India. It received positive reviews from critics, with Chopra's portrayal of Gayatri, an outspoken and rebellious girl, received high critical acclaim. CNN-IBN noted that the film belonged to Chopra, who "turns Gayatri into the most real woman one have encountered on screen", and the critic Mayank Shekhar added "Chopra's act in the film's first half is nothing short of National Film Award-winning material." Shuddh Desi Romance emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing domestically. Chopra garnered several Best Actress nominations, including a second consecutive nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
Chopra's first of three releases of 2014 was Dharma Productions' romantic comedy-drama Hasee Toh Phasee, her first role outside the Yash Raj Films banner. She portrayed Dr. Meeta Solanki, a mad scientist on the run, opposite Sidharth Malhotra. Directed by Vinil Mathew and jointly produced by Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar, the film emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, and received positive reviews from critics, with Chopra's performance receiving widespread critical acclaim. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV wrote that Chopra was "pitch-perfect with her goofball act" and Hindustan Times published that she re-defined the concept of a Bollywood heroine with the film. For her performance in the film, she won the BIG Star Entertainment Award for Most Entertaining Actor in a Comedy Film and received Best Actress nomination at Screen and Stardust Awards.
Habib Faisal's dowry-based social comedy film Daawat-e-Ishq marked Chopra's second collaboration with Faisal. She was cast as Gulrez "Gullu" Qadir, a middle-class salesgirl from Hyderabad alongside Aditya Roy Kapur and Anupam Kher. The film received mixed reviews from critics upon release, though Chopra's performance received praise. Film critic Sarita A. Tanwar from Daily News Analysis found Chopra to be "the best thing about the film" and added, "Chopra shines in every scene. She does what she does every single time — rises head and shoulders above the film and her costars." Chopra next played her first "glamorous role" in Shaad Ali's crime film Kill Dil, co-starring Govinda, Singh and Ali Zafar. Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com found the film to be a "disaster" and wrote that "Chopra is terribly miscast and wears clothes that should have never left the wardrobe". Both Daawat-e-Ishq and Kill Dil were unsuccessful at the box office. The same year, she also appeared in the short film, Dor as Ria.
Hiatus and career fluctuations (2015–2020)
Post the release of Kill Dil, Chopra took a 3-year sabbatical from full-time acting, during which she briefly portrayed guest character Muskaan Raza Qureshi in Dishoom, appearing in the song "Jaaneman Aah" alongside Varun Dhawan. She returned to the screen in 2017 with Yash Raj Films' romantic drama Meri Pyaari Bindu opposite Ayushmann Khurrana. The film tells the story of Abhimanyu, a writer who uses his heartbreak as fuel for his next book; she played the titular character, Bindu Shankarnarayanan, an aspiring singer, whose story is told from Abhimanyu's perspective. Anisha Jhaveri of IndieWire praised Chopra for "grounding Bindu with flickers of genuine sensitivity and vulnerability hinting that there's more to the character behind that flighty surface." Rajeev Masand called her performance as "sincere", but felt that the actress was given very less to work thanks to the "flighty and fickle" nature of her character. She next starred opposite Ajay Devgn in Rohit Shetty's horror-comedy Golmaal Again, the fourth installment in the Golmaal film series. Bollywood Hungama noted, "Chopra has a crucial character and from the first sequence itself, there's an element of mystery surrounding her character that adds to the fun. She looks beautiful and does a good job." The film broke several box-office records and was eventually declared a blockbuster, thus becoming her highest-grossing film to date. It grossed over at the box-office, thus becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time.Chopra's only release of 2018 was a reunion with Arjun Kapoor after Ishaqzaade on Vipul Amrutlal Shah's romantic comedy Namaste England, a sequel to Shah's Namastey London which starred Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. The film emerged as a critical and commercial disaster at the box-office. Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters felt she was "sleepwalking through a role that didn't have too much meat in the first place" and Nandini Ramnath of Scroll noted that her usual spikiness was missing.
Chopra's first film appearance of in 2019 was in a brief role opposite Kumar in the historical war drama Kesari directed by Anurag Singh. It told the story of the events leading up to the Battle of Saragarhi, a battle between 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikhs of the British Indian Army and 10,000 Afridi and Orakzai Pashtun tribesmen in 1897. Chopra played the role of Jeevani Kaur, the wife of Ishar Singh, the leader of the Sikh soldiers, appearing in his imaginary conversations before and after the battle. Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com felt that she had "precious little to do" in the film. However, Rachit Gupta of The Times of India noted her "small, but impactful role", writing "it's her character's fun banter with Kumar that puts a smile on your face and her tears break your heart." The film emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, grossing over worldwide. Her second release of the year was the action romantic comedy Jabariya Jodi, which was based upon the tradition of groom kidnapping, prevalent in Bihar. The film marked Chopra's second collaboration with Malhotra after Hasee Toh Phasee, and film received unanimously negative reviews and emerged as a commercial failure at the box-office. Writing for NDTV, film critic Saibal Chatterjee felt that Chopra "punctuates her perky, no-nonsense girl persona with moments of demure docility" but "all the effort that she makes to traverse the gamut quickly ceases to convey any meaning in the absence of cohesion and clarity in the character's motives." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express wrote that "Chopra, togged out in the most outlandish clothes Patna may have been witness too, seems to have gotten stuck in a rut of familiarity."