Poised. Powerful. Propriety personified. Personality perfect. Priyanka Chopra Jonas. You feel all this — and more — the moment she walks into a room. Any room. The desi girl who is now a global star shares space (both on screen and off) with the biggest names in the Hollywood business. She steers projects, she commands both respect and remuneration. She is in a place and position to not only propel herself but also push fellow South Asian creative talent to the big stage. And now, she is the lead of one of the biggest streaming shows, globally, in recent times.

Priyanka, 40, plays super agent Nadia Sinh, matching punch for punch — both literally and figuratively — with Richard Madden in Citadel. The six-part high-octane action espionage series from Marvel men Joe and Anthony Russo is an ambitious project not only for Prime Video (on which the first two episodes will premiere on April 28, with a weekly episode drop thereon) but for streaming in general, with Citadel intended to be the mothership series which will spawn off future interconnected international spinoffs. An India spinoff with Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu is already in production, while the one in Italy has already wrapped up shoot.

Earlier this month, Priyanka was in India, co-actor Madden (we know him better as Robb Stark from Game of Thrones) for company, to kick off the global promotions of Citadel from Mumbai. t2oS was among select media from around the world who attended the premiere of the series in Mumbai, preceded by a one-on-one with Priyanka. We spoke about what being a part of Citadel means to her career in the West, why she doesn’t wear the responsibility of representing India and why she will never ever buckle under pressure.

From one Priyanka to another. In India, Priyanka is such a common name. In Hollywood, do people treat it as an exotic name?

Oh ya! I take full advantage of the fact that I am the only Priyanka most Americans know. But when I come to India, there are at least six Priyankas in the room! (Laughs) So over the years I have got used to being just PC in India.

But when I go to America, I am the only one. I don’t even use my last name most often there anymore. I want to now become like Cher! Or Rekha! Just Priyanka! (Laughs) I love it.

You are not someone who is new to big-scale films, both in Hollywood and in Hindi cinema. But having the name of Joe and Anthony Russo attached to a project immediately elevates it, given it’s the Avengers men we are talking about. Where does Citadel figure in the vast and illustrious filmography you already have?

As you pointed out, I am not new to big budgets and big productions. I have worked with the best film-makers in India. In America, I have worked with very few film-makers, and they have all been wonderful. But with everything I do, I want to go one step up. With the Russos — as it was working with Lana Wachowski in The Matrix (The Matrix Resurrections) — I felt I was in safe hands. Just knowing that the Russos are film-makers who have handled not just scale but also storytelling, and in such a beautiful way.

Citadel required that. It required someone who understands that it’s not just about the fancy action or the explosions and the sets blowing up... it’s also about the audience investing in your characters. Joe and Anthony do that really, really well. I felt really great going into the show with them.

Nadia, your character in Citadel is just not a hard-nosed agent, she is a complex, emotional woman. Did Priyanka and Nadia meet at some point?

Nadia looks like me, she dresses like me! (Laughs) I love her wardrobe... oh my gosh! I wanted to take Nadia’s full wardrobe home because everything is designer! I don’t know why spies need designer clothes (laughs). Whether it’s Bond or Mission: Impossible, spies are always in fancy designer clothes, even when they are on some deadly mission where clothes should be the last thing on anyone’s mind! For Nadia, I had Tom Ford and Gucci... and I was like, ‘Wooh! Please let’s take this whole wardrobe home!’

But that’s the only thing. Otherwise, Nadia and I are very different people. She’s very guarded, she keeps her cards close to her chest, she doesn’t trust a lot of people because she was raised in a family of spies. She has a lot of trust issues. And she doesn’t have a sense of humour (cringes her nose and laughs). She’s sarcastic, but she doesn’t know what humour is.

Unlike Nadia, I am a total goofball. I like laughing, I like joking, I love eating, I like the simple joys of life.... Nadia is like Atlas, she bears a lot of burden on her shoulders. As people, we are very different. She’s a very good liar, I am a terrible liar!

Oh really?

Yeah, for people who know me. If you don’t know me, then I can get away with it. That’s why I am an actor (smiles). But for people who know me, I get caught very quickly.

A moment from Citadel, premiering on Prime Video on April 28

You have said that every decision in Nadia’s life is laden with a lot of pressure. Would that also be true for you, especially the position that you are now in?

Honestly, I don’t wear the stress or the pressure of who I am effortlessly. It needs a lot of hard work. But the kind of pressure that I have is not anyone’s business to see (smiles). I am in the business of show business and I have always been private about my struggles and my strife. I fight my battles behind closed doors. This is the job I chose, nobody forced me into it. You choose it and you then need to withstand the pressure that comes with it. I try and navigate it in the best way that I can. But the world doesn’t need to seethat. What it needs to see is my work and the fact that they like my work shows that I have been doing pretty well.

Do you thrive under pressure?

People say I do. I don’t know if I thrive under pressure, but the fact is that I am not somebody who will buckle under pressure. I might need a moment to step back and say, ‘This is too much’. I might need a break, but I have not reached a point where I have buckled. I have always found a new way... I have navigated somehow to get out of thepressure and not feel overwhelmed. I used to thrive under pressure when I was younger, in my 20s maybe. I don’t like it anymore! I don’t like working with stress or with people who give me stress (smiles). I don’t like anxiety. I like having fun going to work. We are making movies. It’s not rocket science, I am not saving someone’s life (laughs). Let that be for the people who do real intelligence (points to the Citadel poster behind her) and real doctors who save lives. I am an actor and I want to be able to create a positive, happy environment where everyone enjoys themselves.

(l-r)Priyanka with her Citadel co-star Richard Madden in Mumbai earlier this month, Quantico, The Matrix Resurrections

NOTABLE NOTES

QUANTICO

Priyanka’s first acting gig in America ran over three years on ABC and made her the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series. Quantico may have had its share of highs and lows, but as an FBI agent on the run, PC was faultless. Her #bawse vibes on Quantico earned Priyanka two consecutive People’s Choice Awards.

THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS

The fourth film in the Matrix franchise had Priyanka teaming up with Keanu Reeves, who returned as Neo,where she played Sati, An exile program created without a purpose who met Neo shortly before the end of the Machine War. It was a small role but she did make a solid impact.

BAYWATCH

The film may have been a misfire on all counts, with not even good ol’ beach bods in red swimsuits nostalgia working for it, but there was no denying that PC rocked her bad gal act like only she could, taking on the likes of Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.

You are a bonafide representative of India in Hollywood. But in India, more often than not, we forget that our icons are also human. Look at the kind of insane expectations the Indian cricket team has to live with all the time. Do you feel burdened by that or have you accepted it as something that comes with the territory?

We are all humans. The members of the cricket team are people at the end of the day, they have homes and families to go back to. I understand the nature of the job and I also understand that I am not standing in a crowd of too many people. In the position that I am in today, I am just standing with very few people. I won’t lie... ya, the pressure is scary. And this pressure has made me more cautious. I am not as open as I used to be (smiles). I am not as free as I used to be. I am more aware of the words I choose... I am more mindful of the decisions that I make. I can also make mistakes but I try not to because I know I will be slapped across the face really hard for it! (Laughs) It will come down on me much harder than it would on a lot of other people. I know that the standards are slightly different for me in the way that I am looked at and scrutinised. But that’s how it’s happened. It’s a byproduct of my journey. It’s not something that I was seeking, I didn’t expect to be the ‘ambassador’ of India... I didn’t run for elections (smiles). I just kept working, and it happened. But I don’t take it lightly. I understand the responsibility of it. I try not to be embarrassing to my people! (Laughs) I try and make them proud every day. I try to make my parents proud every day. My parents taught me really deep values of our incredible nation and I carry that everywhere with me. That gives me my roots. And that’s why I don’t feel unstable. But I also know that the scrutiny is tremendous. At the end of the day, I have to protect my family, I have to protect myself. I have become a lot more private, I think.

How are the choices that you are making now in the West different from when you first went there?

Now I have choices. When I first went there, I just did the work that I got. When you are starting off in any industry, you can’t say, ‘Aah, I would like to do this kind of thing. I would love this job’. I have never been an entitled person. Even when I started in Bollywood, I chose from the roles that I got, and that’s what I did when I started working in Hollywood. But now, I have reached a point where I can make something that I want to star in. I can create a vehicle not just for myself but also for other people that I know and want to support. And I know that the project will get made. I now have the choice, but it’s taken 10 long years to get here.

India had two big triumphs at this year’s Academy Awards. You are a big name there. The country’s talent is fast gaining a foothold in the West. How does Hollywood view India now?

I can’t speak on behalf of Hollywood but I am aware, by virtue of being in the right rooms and hearing the right conversations, that there is a tremendous curiosity in Indian entertainment... and it always has been. Just think about it from the point of view of business. We are such a large, booming industry with the maximum number of filmscoming out every year. I think Hollywood has never been able to crack what makes the Indian film industry tick.

But now the boundaries are blurring. We have Hollywood movies dubbed and subbed here. We will have Citadel coming out in six languages in India alone. So the West’s interest in Indian cinema is tremendous and there is enough talent that can cross over. Filmmakers from South Asia are now demanding to be seen and to be treated with equity and to be respected. I think it’s going to be a really interesting time, especially with streaming. Territories have become interconnected, the world is interconnected, and entertainment is interconnected. There is a tremendous amount of respect and it will be very interesting to see over the next fivesix years how this cross-pollination happens. Both ways, from here and from there, there is a lot of interest.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas promoting Citadel in London