After winning the Filmfare best actress award for her role in Fashion, things are not hunky dory for Priyanka Chopra on another level. Known for her usually restrained image and ever so politically correct statements, Priyanka rubbed Aishwarya Rai Bachchan the wrong way while giving her thank you speech after she received the award.
This incident follows Priyanka's fallout with once-upon-a-time good friend Abhishek Bachchan who too is upset with Priyanka for wanting to groove to the same song ('Ma da laadla' from Dostana), which he had selected for the same function.
Priyanka had said that she felt honoured to have won the award after being nominated with the likes of beautiful Aishwarya( Jodha Akbar) and talented Kajol (U, Me aur Hum). Aishwarya’s grudge comes from the fact that while Priyanka praised Kajol for acting; she chose to keep the Bachchan bahu in beautiful category only. Sources present on the occasion say that Aishwarya was seen losing her cool on the matter for the first time; otherwise she is generally sport to such comments or rivalries. An actor who was present at the function said, on condition of anonymity, "Priyanka should have chosen her words carefully. How can Priyanka sideline Aishwarya's acting abilities?"
"Aishwarya rarely loses her cool. But this time, she did. She is mighty upset with Priyanka," added our source. The buzz doing the rounds is that it might have something to do with Abhishek-Priyanka tussle at the same award function. In fact, Abhishek wanted to perform on ‘Ma da ladla’ number from ‘Dostana’, but Priyanka had already selected that number and this created friction between them. A source quotes; "Priyanka selected the track first. Later, Abhishek also wanted the same song. As he was performing after a long time, he wanted to get jiggy on this particular track.” With Abhishek to not willing to budge, Priyanka decided to take the high road and let go of her act. May be it added to Ash’s displeasure with Priyanka and she could not take anymore from her, when Priyanka ignored her acting talent on stage.
Priyanka was in Delhi recently for work over the weekend we tried to clear the rumours of her fall out with good friends Ash- Abhi, and since it was the weekend – time for some chhutti for most people – we asked if she went around the city afterwards.
“I keep coming to Delhi, but almost always, I’m here for work. I can never really go out on personal visits – I don’t have much of a personal life anyway,” says the actress.
That’s sad. But then, she’s also working a lot – having bagged the Filmfare award for her role in Fashion, she’s now working on Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey. But is it true that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was upset with her for calling Kajol ‘talented’ and Ash just ‘beautiful’ in her acceptance speech? “I don’t think Aishwarya said anything about being upset with me. I admire her as an actor and she’s like an icon today. She’s brought Indian cinema international recognition. She’d never say something like that,” says Priyanka.
That said, this was among the few controversies that PC was dragged into. How come she isn’t involved in too many? Isn’t that boring? “Yeah, I prefer not to get into anybody else’s business. I am also a little diplomatically correct always. But I don’t keep my opinion to myself either. If I feel strongly about an issue, I speak my mind and that’s important,” she says.
But on her the subject of her co-stars, Priyanka is still diplomatic. On Harman, with whom she’s now doing What’s Your Raashi, she says, “Harman has and will always be a great friend.” And on Shahid Kapur, with whom she’s doing Kaminey and with whom she’s been linked as well, she says, “I prefer not to give out any more unnecessary details that add to these stories. I’ll talk about my role – I play a college going, 20-year-old girl, Sweety. The character is really interesting and is a Maharashtrian. I don’t know Marathi at all and I really had to work hard for that.”
All right, then, what about her nickname, Piggy Chops – does she dislike it? “That’s so not true. I love the name and I think it’s different and unique. Abhishek Bachchan named me that and I find it quite cute. It is just that the ‘Piggy’ part of the name mystifies me – I’m hardly a pig!” she laughs.
