‘After Yoga, She’s the Best Thing to Come Out of India’: Anjula Acharia on Priyanka Chopra’s 7-Year Hollywood Hustle

Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ transition from one of Hindi cinema’s leading stars to a recognisable name in American entertainment can look remarkably smooth in hindsight. Anjula Acharia, the entrepreneur and talent strategist who helped build Chopra’s US career, says the reality was anything but an overnight crossover.

In a conversation with entrepreneur and creator Masoom Minawala, Acharia reflected on the years spent trying to establish Chopra in the United States, including an unsuccessful attempt at launching her as a recording artist, meetings far below the level of access she commanded in India, and eventually the television opportunity that changed the trajectory of her international career: Quantico.

Acharia also offered a striking assessment of what Chopra represented to her beyond entertainment.

Recalling that some people initially worried she was taking Chopra away from India, Acharia said her intention was the opposite — to take India to the world through the actor.

She then added: “I think, after yoga, she’s the best thing to come out of India.”

Anjula Acharia Says Priyanka Chopra Was ‘Not an Overnight Success’

One of Acharia’s strongest points was about the way successful careers are often reconstructed after the breakthrough happens.

She said people now look at Chopra’s Hollywood rise as though success arrived almost immediately.

According to Acharia, that perception misses years of work.

She told Minawala that they had been working and “hustling” for years before Chopra reached the breakthrough stage associated with Quantico and subsequent major American magazine covers.

The precise chronology deserves some context. Chopra’s American career did not begin with Quantico. Her team initially attempted to establish her through music.

That experiment did not produce the breakthrough they had hoped for.

The First Plan Was Music - And It Didn't Work

Acharia’s relationship with Chopra’s US career began through a different industry entirely.

She recalled founding a label with music executive Jimmy Iovine and signing Chopra with the intention of developing her as a recording artist.

Chopra released English-language music during this phase, including the 2012 single In My City featuring will.i.am and Exotic with Pitbull the following year.

But Acharia now describes the larger attempt to establish Chopra as a singer in America very simply: it failed.

Instead of abandoning the project, Acharia pivoted.

She moved from trying to build Chopra’s music career toward managing her and exploring opportunities in American television.

That pivot ultimately became far more consequential than the original plan.

Chopra Had to Start Again Despite Being a Major Star in India

Perhaps the most revealing part of Acharia’s account concerns the imbalance between Chopra’s position in India and her position when entering Hollywood.

By then, Chopra had already been Miss World, built a major Hindi-film career and appeared in films including Fashion, Don, Dostana, Barfi!, Krrish 3 and Mary Kom.

None of that automatically gave her equivalent status inside the American entertainment business.

Acharia recalled Chopra taking meetings with people she described as the “assistants of the assistants” while the two of them worked to create opportunities.

For Acharia, Chopra’s willingness to do that was evidence of an unusual lack of ego.

She argued that someone who had already reached the top of one entertainment industry could easily have expected comparable treatment elsewhere. Instead, Chopra accepted that entering another market meant rebuilding professional relationships and status.

That part of the story is arguably more revealing than the “after yoga” quote.

Hollywood did not simply import Chopra’s Bollywood stardom. She had to establish a second career while already possessing a successful first one.

Then Came Quantico

The decisive shift arrived with ABC’s Quantico.

Chopra played FBI recruit Alex Parrish in the thriller series, which premiered in the United States in September 2015.

The lead role significantly increased her visibility with American television audiences and became the breakthrough around which much of her later international career was built.

Acharia also described its importance in more practical terms.

According to her recollection, the team had made little money from the US venture before Quantico. She described the series as providing their “first real paycheck.”

The show ultimately ran for three seasons.

The Partnership Has Now Lasted Around 15 Years

Acharia’s recent remarks are not coming from an outside observer assessing Chopra’s career after the fact.

The two have worked together for approximately 15 years.

Earlier in 2026, Chopra and Acharia appeared together at the India Conference at Harvard for a conversation subsequently released by South Asian Trailblazers.

The programme described them as best friends and business partners and framed the discussion around how they constructed Chopra’s crossover from Bollywood into Hollywood.

Its official episode description similarly notes that Acharia recognised the possibility of Chopra becoming a genuinely global star at a time when that outcome was far from assured.

The conversation also reinforces an important point about their partnership: the original strategy was not a perfectly executed roadmap.

It required changing direction.

The ‘Power of the Pivot’ Was Part of the Strategy

Acharia has discussed that willingness to change course before.

In a 2022 appearance on the Behind Her Empire podcast, she spoke specifically about applying the “power of the pivot” to Chopra’s career after learning the concept through entrepreneur Payal Kadakia.

The episode description traces the sequence from Acharia’s meeting with Jimmy Iovine to working with Chopra and then the effort required to launch her in the United States.

Seen in that context, the music phase was not simply an embarrassing failure before the “real” career began.

It was part of an experimental strategy.

The initial route did not work. The team changed the route without changing the larger objective.

Why Acharia Calls Chopra an Ambassador for India

The most headline-friendly portion of Acharia’s latest comments is inevitably her comparison with yoga.

But the surrounding statement matters.

Acharia said people in India initially suggested that she was going to “steal” Chopra by taking her to the United States.

She viewed the strategy differently.

Her ambition, she said, was to take India to the world through Chopra and position the actor as a major ambassador for the country. The yoga comparison followed that argument rather than functioning merely as an extravagant celebrity compliment.

Whether Chopra should actually be considered one of India’s greatest cultural exports is, of course, Acharia’s opinion — not an objective ranking.

What can be measured more clearly is how unusual the career transition was.

Chopra went from established Hindi-film stardom to leading an American network drama and subsequently building a career spanning Hollywood films, international streaming projects, production and brand partnerships.

Priyanka Chopra Is Also Reconnecting With Indian Cinema

There is another reason Acharia’s comments are particularly timely.

Chopra’s career is no longer best understood as a simple move from Bollywood to Hollywood.

Her current trajectory is increasingly international in both directions.

She is part of filmmaker S. S. Rajamouli’s Varanasi, alongside Mahesh Babu, marking a major return to an Indian feature-film production after years in which her screen work was concentrated internationally.

Meanwhile, her global slate continues alongside that Indian comeback.

That makes the original idea Acharia describes taking India to the world through Chopra look somewhat different today. Chopra is no longer merely attempting to enter Hollywood from Bollywood; she operates between entertainment industries.

The Celebrity Hour Take

The “best thing after yoga” quote is memorable, but the more valuable part of Anjula Acharia’s account is what came before Priyanka Chopra became an obvious global success story.

The first strategy failed.

Chopra’s status in India didn't automatically translate into Hollywood influence.

She took meetings far below the level she was accustomed to, and her team spent years searching for the opportunity that could convert recognition in one market into a sustainable career in another.

Then they changed strategy.

That makes Quantico important for reasons beyond being another successful television credit. It validated a risky career reset undertaken by an actor who already had considerably more to lose than a newcomer starting from zero.

Acharia’s account also challenges one of the easiest narratives entertainment journalism creates: the overnight international breakthrough.

Chopra's career looks linear when viewed backwards - Miss World, Bollywood star, American music, Quantico, Hollywood and global celebrity.

Viewed from the point at which those decisions were actually being made, however, there was no guarantee that the next step would work.

That uncertainty and the willingness to keep changing course anyway is the more interesting story behind the crossover.

Sources & Verification

This report was independently researched around Anjula Acharia’s comments in her conversation with Masoom Minawala. The Celebrity Hour cross-checked the statements through published coverage reproducing Acharia’s remarks and compared them with earlier first-party podcast appearances in which Acharia discussed how she built Priyanka Chopra’s US career.

The official South Asian Trailblazers episode featuring Chopra and Acharia together was used to verify the length and nature of their professional partnership and the broader account of how they developed Chopra’s international career.