Today's Edition
SAMIHAH ZAMAN (ABU DHABI)
Indian actor and global star Priyanka Chopra Jonas spoke about her love for Abu Dhabi on the second day of the BRIDGE Summit 2025, as she shared personal insights from a glittering career that has spanned more than two decades.
Taking to the stage with popular Emirati entrepreneur and interview host, Anas Bukhash, Chopra Jonas ensured the chat would be anything but boring.
“We would bore people? No chance! You and me – we’ll make it interesting!” she said during the session, titled “Mastering Your Craft in a World Obsessed with More”.
She then referenced her pragmatic side – how she had weighed the “pros and cons” of coming to Abu Dhabi, finally making a conscious choice to attend the session on Tuesday morning.
“I landed from Los Angeles last night and I am leaving back to New York tomorrow, so I am here just for one day and I had to think about it,” Chopra Jonas said. “[But] I want to come here and have this conversation with you, amazing people. I love coming to Abu Dhabi, I won’t lie that that was another big incentive.”
The pageant-winner-turned-actor-turned-producer therefore factored in the resulting jetlag, and figured out travel plans for her three-year-old to meet her in New York after a day, all so that she could herself fly to the UAE capital for a chat with the founder and co-host of #ABTalks.
“When I weighed all my pros and cons, I was just really happy to be making this trip, meeting the people I will meet, having the conversations with you, who I’m a big fan of, it was worth the trip,” she told a gracious Bukhash.
The two discussed Chopra Jonas’ various professional forays, including what it was that had made her try everything from acting to singing to filmmaking. She put it down to an instinct for survival.
“I didn’t have a godfather coming into [the film] industry [in India]. I didn’t know anyone [because] my parents are both military doctors. Mumbai was terrifying when I first got there as an 18-year-old. So when you talk about the pivots in my career, most of them have not been choices ... but because circumstances were such that I had to do something to survive,” she said.
Saying she had to “hustle” in her 20s, Chopra Jonas however cautioned others against foregoing their wellbeing in the pursuit of professional growth.
“I would work just as hard, but sometimes I did it at the expense of my mental health [and] my family, and I think I could have had a balance. But I just did not know how at the time,” she said.
“If you work hard at your dreams, you will find some way or form of achieving some version of it. But if you want to just dream, that’s okay as well,” she said to a round of applause.
Chopra Jonas urged her audience to “go easy” on themselves, especially in a world dominated by social media in which so much seems to hinge on every single like or view.
“There is so much pressure on everyone… You end up thinking that the whole world is only thinking about that one post that you put out. But that’s not true.
Think about how you consume social media: I know [as I doomscroll] that I am spending only about two seconds or so on a video. That’s how much time people are spending on your post. So why are we giving so much credence to every comment?”
Urging young people to “take power away” from social media, the acclaimed actor – who has worked in both Hollywood and Bollywood – emphasised that the platforms are just tools to help people connect with one another, and that they should not be used at the expense of one’s mental health and wellbeing.
Bukhash posed a final question, asking Chopra Jonas which parts of her life she was no longer willing to compromise. “My family and my home,” she replied without hesitation.
Having worked extensively in India before moving to starring roles in Hollywood productions, Chopra Jonas now cherishes her marriage with American singer-actor Nick Jonas, with whom she shares her daughter.
“My greatest accomplishment is building a content home, the kind of home that my family wants to come… and [be rested in], and that takes… many, many decisions. The biggest thing that I protect is my family and my sanity. If you take care of those two, the rest can bounce back,” she said.
