Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 5, 2017)

After collaborating with American rapper songwriter Will.I.Am in 2012 for her debut single, “In My City”, Priyanka Chopra followed up with “Exotic”, which also featured Pitbull. In 2014, she released a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s 1991 single, “I Can’t Make You Love Me”. Now, after a three-year hiatus from singing, the actress-filmmaker is ready to drop her fourth single, “Young and Free”, with Australian DJ Will Sparks, who is a fixture at global music festivals including Tomorrow Land.

“‘Young and Free’ is something new, something different. It’s my voice but it’s unique,” PeeCee says mysteriously, reiterating that she will never do anything run-of-the-mill. When asked why there was such a long gap between the singing gigs, the 34-year-old actress explains, “Singing brought me to America but the break was deliberate. When you make music, you have to also make time to write and record, and be able to promote it well. I am doing so much work in terms of acting and producing that there just wasn’t enough time to produce music.

Last year, the actress had recorded “Baba” at a New York studio as a tribute to her late father, Ashok Chopra, which was released as part of her Marathi home production, the Rajesh Mapuskar-directed Ventilator.

When composer duo Rohan Gokhale and Rohan Pradhan had pitched the idea to her, PeeCee had been apprehensive to sing in Marathi but the “powerful and moving” lyrics convinced her to take up the challenge. But she’s not planning to sing for any of her upcoming regional productions.