Priyanka Chopra: Don't build your life on bluffing other people | Exclusive 

Priyanka Chopra Jonas stars in and co-produces The Bluff, a film about courage and motherhood. In an interview with India Today, she talked about fame, motherhood and excessive PR in the film industry.

For an actor who has navigated two of the world’s most competitive film industries, the idea of a “bluff” feels loaded. Is it deception? Is it survival? Or is it simply self-belief dressed up as bravado? In her upcoming film The Bluff, Priyanka Chopra Jonas plays a woman - read former pirate - negotiating danger, instinct and motherhood in equal measure. Off-screen, she reflects on ambition, confidence and the fine line between projecting strength and performing it.

Talking about her idea of bluffing, she said, “If you’re bluffing to yourself to gain confidence, that’s absolutely normal, and it’s human behaviour." Speaking to India Today exclusively over Zoom, she said, "We all do it. You know, when you talk yourself into something, when you give yourself that extra boost of confidence, I’ve needed that my whole career."

She pauses, then smiles at her own honesty. “I’ll tell myself, you own this room, queen. Like, I don’t, but I tell myself that, so then I walk that way and I, I feel that way.” For Chopra Jonas, that internal pep talk isn’t pretence. It’s her armour.

“Because all of us get nervous and, in new environments, meeting new people, that’s human, so let’s normalise that. It’s okay to bluff to yourself,” she explains. But she draws a firm boundary: “I think it’s positive as long as you’re not bluffing to other people. I don’t think you should make gains by portraying a wrong version of yourself or trying to project something that you’re not.”

In an industry often accused of over-curated personas, she is refreshingly blunt. “People need to relax on the PR. Everybody has their own version of showing their best person. I think it’s okay to have flaws. I think it’s okay to make mistakes. We all do. I’m a sum of all the mistakes I’ve made, and I’m still proud of my younger self for getting me where I am today. Just don’t build your life on bluffing other people.”

Straddling Bollywood and Hollywood has meant confronting power dynamics, gatekeeping and reinvention. Chopra Jonas acknowledges that every journey shapes the person you become.