Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; June 28, 2017)

British-Indian composer Anoushka Shankar, who’s collaborating with Indian artistes, said in a recent interview that the West is collaborating a lot with India because they have realised Indians are extremely talented, and there’s a huge market for them because we’re such a big country.

Priyanka Chopra agrees, “Of course, that’s true. It’s been happening for years in movies. Most American studios — Warner Brothers, Fox, etc, have set up here since six-seven years. That’s an old, famous mandate. We have technicians and writers coming down and working with us because we’re the biggest movie producing industry in the world. If you include regional films, we make about 900 movies a year. Our movies transcend borders. No other country can boast of something like that. In terms of business, India makes so much sense. The music industry is also realising that.”

The talented twosome
If she could collaborate with a music artiste, who would she choose? Pat comes the reply, “In America, Beyonce. I think she is amazing and a suave performer. I admire her.”

Down the drain
Ask her what happened to her music album plans, and she laughs, “It went down the drain. I got really tied up, and when Quantico happened, I wasn’t prepared for it. Nobody expected it to run into so many episodes. We started with just 13 episodes and it blew up, so a lot of my time was spent in doing Seasons 1 and 2 of the show and Baywatch. Before that, Bajirao Mastani and Jai GangaaJal were happening at the same time. I was caught up with all my acting projects, so I couldn’t do music at that time.”

Missing her riyaaz
The actress rues that she doesn’t get time to practise vocals. “I’m terrible at riyaaz. I think that is also half the reason that I am scared of going back into the studio. I’m so nervous that riyaaz nahi kiya, what will happen? But it is such an amazing experience to actually be in the studio and make music,” she concludes.