Priyanka Chopra covers the latest issue of InStyle, and it’s a lovely, striking cover. She is a beautiful woman, but I always found her to be kind of a boring interview? Especially before she fell for Nick Jonas, her interviews weren’t that great. This one is okay though – she talks about Nick a lot, and the backlash to their wedding extravaganza, and a lot more. My favorite part is when she talks about saris and how there should classic Indian style should be. Some highlights:
On happiness: “Obviously, the purpose in life is to be happy. Nobody put you on this earth to feel like sh-t. I think the point of existence is to make the journey the best that you can. Create your own circumstances.”
On not wanting to be stereotyped: “I knew that American pop culture was not used to seeing Indians outside the box. I was definitely not signing up for something like My Big Fat Punjabi Wedding. Or something where people would see me as a Bollywood actor with, like, 15 people coming out of a car and all of those stereotypes. I wanted to be able to shift that narrative, because that’s the India I know.”
On the age difference with Nick: “People gave us a lot of sh-t about that and still do. I find it really amazing when you flip it and the guy is older, no one cares and actually people like it.”
On the terrible article from The Cut calling her a “global scam artist”: “Nick, Joe, Sophie, my mom, his parents, everyone was there furiously typing on their phones. They were so mad…. Commenting on some stupidity means it eventually becomes important because I gave it importance. A lot of people don’t understand that way of thinking. It’s not a myopic thought … it’s a long-term plan.”
Indian fashion: “Saris are my favorite. My problem is when it comes to Indian fashion, there are always these shiny, sequined, over-the-top Christmas-tree outfits. Those are not the saris I wear. I grew up with my mother wearing saris to the hospital, as a doctor. She’d wear these beautiful ones made of French chiffon, with a bindi over here,” she says, pointing to her forehead. “And the nape of her neck would smell like Dior’s Poison. That, to me, was a modern woman. And that’s what I want to show the world. Indian designers make such incredible clothes that are inspired from beautiful embroidery and patterns.”
On her body: “I’m a very curvy woman. I like my curves. I embrace them. It took me the second half of my 20s to understand this, but I would love for people to understand it from me saying it as well.”
The only thing I really dislike is that Priyanka describes herself as “curvy.” She’s not. She has a great figure and a proportional bust, and the reason why she was able to break into Hollywood was because she did NOT look that different from American celebrities – she’s a beautiful woman with a nice figure, it’s not groundbreaking in that sense. Also: I love saris too and I also associate them with beautiful silks and embroidery, not tacky, shiny, cheap-looking material. Bring back classic saris.
Cover and IG courtesy of InStyle.
Is she saying she didn’t embrace them before?
I know this is the trend now, but conventionally beautiful women who got nothing but praise for their appearance talking about their struggles and embracing their conventionally beautiful looks sound so hollow to me.
I find it frustrating when a woman who is heavier than Priyanka here says the exact same thing “I’m a curvy woman, I like my curves” – the weight police come out in full force and yell at her for glorifying obesity (even when she isn’t obese) because heaven forbid women like themselves even if they are overweight.
I love her description of her mother. Simple and chic.
I wore a sari to the Winterfest Ball in college. First one to ever do so apparently. #sarinotsari
So by curvy she means she has boobs. Got it.
I’ve learned “curvy” no longer really means anything. Thin women use it, heavy women use it and people in between use it. If it makes it feel better about your body to “define” it that way more power to you. I have eyes that work and I know what’s up.
As a true hourglass shape, I no longer know how to identify my body type becauae the word curvy has been very misused when it comes to body shape. Online dating profiles, it usually means you are overweight.
@ isabelle, I agree. I just say I’m JLo but with bigger boobs, smaller waist and none of her abs.
By Hollywood standards she is curvy. She is not stick thin and she has a roundness to her limbs, hips, boobs, and flesh on her back and other places. Besides, I think women of many different sizes can be curvy – it’s about having curves that go in and out instead of straight lines.
NONSENSE, Priyanka is definitely very curvy next to me.
I understand that curvy means different things to different people which makes complete sense.
I’m skinny and tall with really long, long legs and arms and not even an A-cup chest. On the flip side, I don’t have to worry about wearing a bra, only a tank top under my tops or a sagging chest in 20 years when I’m 48 years old.
My only saving grace is that I have inherited my mom’s beautiful face with her flawless, pore-less skin, thick hair and a small bubble butt.
Otherwise I would look like hell.
She is attractive, not a beauty, but her skin tone is lovely.
I wish she would be less fame thirsty and could actually act.
Shoot, but the Jonas WIVES standard, she’s curvy.
In my culture, curvy always mean T&A and a small waist. An hourglass, despite weight. You could be slim curvy or thick curvy, but you had to have the small waist and T&A. Thick is when you are not skinny but have that hourglass shape. Overweight was just overweight or heavy, etc.
@Isabelle, I think the word you used –“hourglass” — would work as a descriptor.
She is a very beautiful woman but her beauty is outmatched by her thirst for fame, recognition and LOOK AT ME desire. Chica is not a great actress and again though pretty that’s all she brings to the table.
Sigh, just shut up Piggy Chops (that is her actual nickname I didn’t make it up).
“Or something where people would see me as a Bollywood actor with, like, 15 people coming out of a car ”
What is she even talking about? How is that a Bollywood stereotype?
I was wondering the same thing. Isn’t that a clown stereotype lol ?!
That is an appalling slur of a nickname and you shouldn’t perpetuate it.
Calm down, lady. That isn’t a slur. That’s a nickname given to her by a co star of hers – Abhishek Bachchan (during the making of the flop film “Drona”) , who was at point one of her dearest friends in the industry. In fact, he was the one who popularised that nickname in the media. Indian actors are often referred to by their nicknames by journalists – there’s duggu, chintu, Lolo, bebo, sasha etc etc
IIRC, the Indian media labeled her when she was a starlet in Bollywood (after her reign as Miss World). It is a stereotype. I do not like it.
As an Indian who watched Priyanka when she first became an actress in Bollywood…she was never curvy back then. She was very thin. She has gained some weight over the years but not enough to call herself “curvy”…at least not in my opinion.
Hmm.. I have to point out there are some pretty messed up implications about ‘american beauty’ vs Indian women implied in that last paragraph… I mean ‘the reason why she was able to break into Hollywood was because she did NOT look that different from American celebrities – she’s a beautiful woman with a nice figure’. As opposed to whom?
I think it just meant as opposed to heavier women (and I just mean heavier than Hollywood standard) who have a hard time making it in Hollywood.
She is curvier than most conventional Hollywood celebrities, though not curvy by normal people standards. If you look at recent pictures of her, her stomach is soft, her thighs probably touch. It’s nice! She’s curvy in a world where Kate Upton is curvy.
You don’t realize how skinny Hollywood actresses are until you see something else. I remember when I first started watching Bollywood movies like 10+ years ago, noticing how the women had body fat. They weren’t fat, but they were allowed to have soft stomachs and hips and upper arms that weren’t toned. I loved it. But it was shocking to realize how skewed the representation of women in Hollywood was. I hear that has changed and bollywood is moving towards a Hollywood standard of skinniness (oddly I think Chopra was one of the newer wave of more “fit” Bollywood stars when she was younger). Bollywood has its own issues with favoring fairer, more Caucasian looking actresses, but they used to be better re weight at least.
The issue with curvy is that it used to mean women with hips and a proportionate bust, and a defined/smaller waist (in comparison) Now it means whatever the person saying it means.
I said pretty much the same thing in my reply to Jessica above. That is the definition I always had for curvy. Ijs.
It cracks me up when women with boobs bragplain about being “curvy” like they are groundbreaking rebels for that. Speaking as a flat-chested woman who has been thin and heavy and everything in between: boobs are never unpopular.
bragplain! HA, spot on!
I have recently fallen in mad love with Lizzo.
Now THOSE are curves, my chunky sisters.
Watching her shake that ass makes me think, hey, maybe I can shake mine too.
So i take a few steps in the kitchen and all the sudden I am dancing and hollering ‘feeling good as hell’. and maybe take another tiny step towards feeling it on the inside all the way
This pretty littles thing can talk about her wee bumps and dips but I prefer self-love Lizzo-style
That’s exactly what she wants you to think! Keep up the good work! The kitchen is an excellent place to dance. I like the living room too.
<3 from another Lizzo stan. Thick chicks FTW.
Oooh yeah, because the world is so mean to women with big boobs, smaller waists and large hips… It takes a lot to accept this misery. #bodypositiviy
I think she is curvy. Not just in the boobs. She’s got body. Looks good on her and it is good seeing a variance to the normal Hollywood body type.
For better or for worse, curvy means overall size, not proportions anymore. P means she is bigger than most Hollywood actresses, who are size 0 at most, where she appears to be a 4/6, maybe an 8 in some brands. For most Americans and Indians, that’s not big at all, but she operates and has operated her whole career in a community with different norms.
I don’t really agree with curvy=big usage. Some very thin women have curvy proportions, and some larger women have straight-up-and-down proportions. I guess we call formerly curvy people folks with “hourglass” or “coke bottle” or “guitar” shapes. But that’s the new way it’s used now, Priyanka didn’t invent it.
I’m slim but I have curves. I don’t agree with using curvy as a synonym for obesity. It’s like people don’t want to call someone fat (because that’s rude) so they call them curvy instead. Works just as well as vanity sizing. We should just stop referring to sizes when it comes to bodies and people.
I’m a fan of zaftig, but no one outside of NYC seems to know what it means.
I agree that P is saying that she is rounder – and indeed, curvier – than most LA actresses. She mentioned that she used to fight it when she was younger, which we all know is a pointless battle. I think she’s saying a positive thing here.
Yeah, it used to just mean “hourglass shape.” I’m from the Midwest where women tend to be a bit larger than average. When I was a teen, I was 5’5″ 125 lbs with a true hourglass shape. I was set up on a blind date and I described myself as “curvy” and the guy got suddenly weird and was unavailable to meet. We ended up meeting in person a while later at a party and I was like, “oh hey, we were supposed to go on a date but never got our schedules to match up.” and then he asked if I recently lost weight, and I said no, and then he said that he didn’t go out with me because when I described myself as curvy he thought I was saying that I was fat.
Suddenly, he wanted to go out, but I said that I wasn’t interested. I am a big eater, drink a bunch of craft beer, and my family is heavy, it was just purely random that I wasn’t heavy yet. I’m an athletic 160 lbs now, but I’m sure I’d be hideous to him and I’m fine with that.
I am still just scratching my head at her marriage to Nick Jonas. Just. . .how? I get that love is love, but honestly, it’s such an odd couple–and has nothing to do with age. Like how did their paths even cross? What is it about Nick that she loves, because even in his mid 20s he looks like a teenager. Maybe that is why people comment on the age difference? She looks like a grown up and he looks like almost a grown up? I dunno. But I love Love and hope they make it.
Interesting they got married right before the Jonas brothers new album and comeback tour. No chemistry at all. Got engaged after two months?
I think she isnt curvy but a tad flappy wit broad shoulders..
Umm…she is definitely curvy, particularly by Hollywood standards. Curvy is not just for plus size and thick women. Curvy means your body has curves -hourglass figure and softer features- and she certainly does. I’m not mad at her using the term.
That’s what I think too. I agree. Curvy doesn’t automatically mean “fat.”
At Meghan’s wedding the other “stars” invited looked less curvy comparatively. Put her next to Meghan Markle, and she’s definitely curvy.
She’s not fat by any means, but I don’t think she’s necessarily as slim as Nicole Kidman either. She’s slim, I guess, but not AS slim. I don’t think I’d classify her as thin. In terms of being toned, I don’t think she’s as toned as other Hollywood actresses — you could kind of tell on Quantico, so when she talked about not exercising on the set of Baywatch, I was, like, yeah, I can see that.
She is so ‘mrican that she is even looking down on saris. She certainly didn’t have issues wearing “over the top, christmassy” saris when she was a bollywood actress. Reminds me of every smug Indian American I’ve ever met who keeps trying to explain to me what saris are “supposed” to look like and what the definition of a “tacky” or “classy” saree is. The very beauty of a Saree is that they come in all lengths, colours and designs. We Indian women have worn them with pride, regardless of how “tacky” the likes of self-hating poc like her m may deem them to be. Ever she’s stepped into the America, she’s been on a mission to erase everything she ever was in the past.
Yeah she does come across as snarking at saris right? She’s worn enough Christmas-tree stuff herself. Plus this whole “French Chiffon” “Dior at her nape” deal is so weird. Indian sarees come in so many types: Benares, Mysore silk, Kanjeevaram, Bengali, Paithani, etc etc. There are so many. French chiffon by it’s very name isn’t…Indian? So how would that be a representation? Imo, she’s trying to distance herself from the ‘Indian’ stereotype. I understand that but feel like this could have been better phrased.
Not seeking to defend her, because by real word standards she is normal sized to me. However in Hollywood I can very well imagine that she is considered ‘curvy’ and correspondingly I can see that hurting her castings.
The whole Hollywood size debate has been discussed endlessly in the media and it’s no accident that a quite a few actresses fit the size 0-4 category. Add the reality of being a brown girl to that and I can see that maybe Hollywood is starting to get to her hence the lack of perspective and her belief that she is curvy….
I don’t get why heavier women are called curvy anyway. Some gain weight in ways that curves are apparent but most do not. Talk about winning the genetic lottery! lol!
Is Priyanka curvy? It depends how you apply the word. She’s definitely not waif like.
Curvy in Hollywood is slim in normal life. That girl needs a reality check asap.