A decade of Parineeti Chopra

Parineeti Chopra blazed her way onto the big screen with her debut film Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (2011), in which she wowed everyone with her performance as Dimple Chaddha. She followed it up with brilliant performances in films like Ishaqzaade (2012), Shuddh Desi Romance (2013) and Hasee Toh Phasee (2014), becoming one of the most unconventional and refreshingly risk-taking actresses in Bollywood.

Even as she showed she’s unafraid to walk the path less travelled, in 2021, Parineeti mesmerised everyone with three big performances in films like The Girl on the Train, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar and Saina. On her 10th year in cinema, Pari states she’ll never ‘play safe’ in her career.

“I’ve been fortunate to work in some of the landmark films in the history of Indian cinema and (to) collaborate with some of the best directors, actors and technicians of our illustrious film industry. When you love your work, time flies and it’s happened to me,” she says. “As I complete 10 years in cinema, I feel I’ve just started my journey. I’m raring to go actually for my next decade in cinema. I love the kind of offers coming my way because I’m getting the freedom to express myself freely.”

Adding that she’s “not going to play safe anymore”, Pari believes with The Girl on the Train and Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, directors are seeing her in a new light, offering her the kind of work she’s always wanted to do.

“I guess this is life. My name ‘Parineeti’ means destiny. And I do believe a lot in destiny myself. So it was like an amalgamation of multiple experiences coming together,” philosophises the girl who picked up happy-go-lucky kind of characters and is delving deeper into newer genres for the first time. Then stating that actors have the hunger to do all kinds of roles but cannot do them till they find the opportunity, she adds, “I want to break the monotony of the kind of films and roles I’ve been doing. I want to do something where I could surprise people and people would tell me that they had never seen me before in that role.”

Parineeti, who claims to have changed over the years, says she was the kind who always wanted to top in class. “I was a geeky, academic student and always wanted to ask questions to my teachers. Then I was a banker before I became an actress. But my films changed me as a person and as an actor. And my process has changed. The way I choose and read scripts also has. I work harder now,” she says with a giggle. Parineeti will be seen next in films like Uunchai with a veteran star cast including Amitabh Bachchan, and Animal opposite Ranbir Kapoor.