One of the first films that Priyanka Chopra signed after her pageant career was the romantic thriller Andaaz, co-starring Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta. The film’s producer, Suneel Darshan, is now rebooting the IP with a new project, headlined by an entirely different cast. In an interview, he recalled his first meeting and subsequent interactions with Priyanka, and admitted that he advised her to do something about the bridge of her nose, which she did ‘immediately’. In other interviews, both Priyanka and her collaborators at the time have spoken about this episode in her life; Priyanka has said that she had a sinus issue, which required surgery. The surgery was botched, which nearly pushed her to quit the film industry.
In an interview with Minutes of Masala, Suneel Darshan said that Priyanka wasn’t conventionally good-looking, but she had a powerful presence and an alluring voice. He also praised her tenacity, and said that he knew she’d go on to achieve great things even though everybody on the Andaaz set was focussing more on Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta. In the interview, Suneel was asked about actor Shefali Jariwala’s recent death, and the anti-ageing procedures that she was reportedly undergoing on a regular basis.
He said, “Before I did Andaaz, I did tell her that she should do something about the bridge of her nose. She knew that that was due, and her father and her mother were such good doctors. It wasn’t an issue, they got it repaired immediately.” Suneel said that cosmetic procedures can be ‘risky and dangerous’, and that sometimes, there is ‘perfection in imperfection’. He said, “I don’t normally suggest such things to people.”
On The Howard Stern Show a few years ago, Priyanka spoke about her state of mind following the botched procedure. “The surgeons made mistakes during the procedure. This thing happens, and my face looks completely different, and I went into a deep, deep depression,” she said. Director Anil Sharma, who worked with her on the film Hero: The Love Story of a Spy, recalled a distraught Priyanka coming to him after being fired from projects because of her appearance. He told Bollywood Thikana, “I’ll tell you what happened. A big tragedy happened with her. She was wonderful, I’d already signed her, my wife herself presented her with a cheque outside a temple. I left for a trip to America and Europe after Gadar released, and I returned after two months and found out that Priyanka had gotten an operation on her nose because she wanted to look like Julia Roberts. This is what I read in the papers, and I wondered why she’d do something like this; she was already good-looking.”
He said that Priyanka almost quit the industry. “She had decided to return to Bareilly and return after some months, and was offering her signing amount back to me,” Anil said, adding that Priyanka was ‘depressed’. He recommended a makeup professional, who aided her tremendously during that time. On Stern, Priyanka described Anil Sharma as ‘very kind’. Her mother, Madhu Chopra, also opened up about that period in her life. She told Pinkvilla, “She was upset, of course. She felt like, ‘I went for one thing and came back with another.’ But her father reassured her, saying, ‘There’s nothing we cannot fix. Don’t worry; this is a very small thing.’”
