NEW DELHI: Bollywood’s multi-talented diva Priyanka Chopra is a jack-of-all-trades. Whether it’s acting, singing or anything else, she never takes the backseat when it comes to trying her hand at something new. This is the reason why she’s not known for just one thing; we know Piggy Chops as a former Miss World, a leading actor in Bollywood and a singer collaborating with big names in global music. And with so much on her plate, she balances her personal and professional life beautifully.
The stunning 31-year-old is now trying her hand at boxing for an upcoming role. According to her, the training she is undergoing for her role as boxer Mary Kom, in an upcoming biopic on the Olympic medallist, is so thorough that she can now actually box while wearing high heels!
She gave a sneak-peek into her newly-acquired talent at an event on Thursday. Dressed in a chic lace dress, the former Miss World looked confident as she shared what she has learnt over the past few months. “I’ve learnt boxing very well. So much so that I can box a bit in high heels, too,” she said, while showing the right way to raise an arm to hit and the other arm for defence.
Kom is a Manipur-based, five-time world boxing champion and the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships. Her most notable achievement to date was winning a bronze medal at the London Olympics. “Playing Mary’s character has been a wonderful experience. When people make biopics, they are mostly on deceased people or who have [already] lived a [large] chunk of their life. Mary is 33, and she is still a champion; so, it was a lot more difficult for me to play her.”
I am personally treating the film like the story of every girl who faces opposition to what she wants to do. Mary silenced every person who questioned her capability. So, it’s actually like a lot of girls’ story,” said Priyanka.
The biopic on Mary Kom is being directed by Omung Kumar and is produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The actress says the project has been especially challenging because she was never keen on sports during her school days.
“I was never sporty. The only sport I used to play was basketball and that because I was tall. I used to hate it. The Mary Kom film, in that sense, has been my most important film. It has been making my life upside down to play a character whose life is about sport. It’s tough to act like a sportsperson, and so you have to learn it to play it right,” added Priyanka.
“I don’t believe in dieting and [going to the] gym, I am blessed with a high metabolism. But for this particular film, I have done six hours of boxing each day, two hours of gym and eaten ghaas phoos [vegetables and salads]. It’s very hard for a Chopra,” she quipped.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2013.
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