5 ways Priyanka Chopra turned her life around: the Hollywood and Bollywood star’s memoir Unfinished revealed a new side, but how else did she keep things positive over the years?

Feb 24 , 2021

Priyanka Chopra didn’t get where she is today without enduring struggle, as these five stories prove. Photo: @priyankachopra/Instagram

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Priyanka Chopra has just released her memoir, Unfinished, which describes in detail her bumpy start in the entertainment industry. Growing up as a dark-skinned girl who wanted to be fairer, she was also told to change her look when she started acting, with surgery presented as her only option.

But instead of capitulating to the pressure, Chopra took these negative experiences and transformed them into forces for good. Here are five ways she did it.

She thought her dark skin wasn’t pretty

Priyanka Chopra in a controversial face cream ad. Photo: Ponds

Colourism is a rampant problem across the globe, and not even the former Miss World could escape it. Chopra, now aged 38, told Marie Claire that growing up she believed dark skin was not pretty and she did everything she could to alter her appearance and make her skin lighter, such as applying talcum powder. She even promoted a controversial skin-lightening cream.

It was only years later that she learned to accept her darker skin, and realised that she had been sending out the wrong message to women and girls like her. She has gone on record saying this is one of her greatest regrets and has since decided to work on her own skin care line that is more inclusive and positive towards different skin colours.

She was told she needed plastic surgery

Besides being bullied growing up and ridiculed by some when she began acting in Hollywood for being too “dusky”, the movie star also faced criticism for her appearance from those who controlled her fate – directors. In Unfinished she relates how once during a casting a director asked her to “stand up and twirl around”. She continues: “He stared at me long and hard, assessing me, and then suggested that I get a boob job, fix my jaw, and add a little more cushioning to my butt.”