After Priyanka Chopra came back to Bareilly from the United States when she was a teenager, her father Ashok Chopra installed iron bars around their house in Bareilly following one horrifying incident.
Born to Ashok Chopra and Madhu Chopra, who were both physicians in the Indian Army, Priyanka Chopra spent her childhood and early years in a number of cities including Delhi, Chandigarh, Ambala, Ladakh, Lucknow, Bareilly, and Pune. The actress even went to the United States to study and live with her aunt for three years when she was 13.
Priyanka’s mother Madhu Chopra has now recalled how the Fashion actress attracted a lot of ‘unwanted attention’ when she moved back to Bareilly from the US. She also revealed that the actress stopped wearing western clothes in the Uttar Pradesh city after a shocking incident when a starnger broke into their house.
Talking to Lehren Retro, Madhu Chopra shared that after Priyanka came back to Bareilly from the United States, she would dress, talk, and walk like an American teenager and local boys started following her, but the situation got series after one frightening incident. She said, “One day, a boy jumped our fence and entered our house. That was scary. The next day, her father covered the entire house with iron bars. From the boundary to the terrace…even monkeys couldn’t enter. That house is still the same.” She added that she and her husband were being “overly protective” about their daughter. “We were like chote sheher mein badi machhi (small fish in a big pond) and then you can’t have anybody coming into your house and messing with you toh humara bhi thoda rutba tha hi (we also had a good reputation)”, she added.
Madhu shared that Priyanka’s father sat down with her after the shocking incident, and after their discussion, Priyanka changed her wardrobe. She told the portal, “I don’t know what conversation they had. The next day, she came back from school and said she wants to go shopping. I took her and she selected such dull and drab clothes…all salwar kurtas. She selected colours like off white, brown, beige to look dull. I don’t know what he said. She never told me and he also didn’t tell me but this was the reaction. After that, she did not put on western clothes in Bareilly.”
While living in Bareilly, Priyanka applied for Miss India and came second in the beauty pageant in 2000. In the same year, she went on to win Miss World and later became an actress. Chopra is now a global star after starring in several Bollywood blockbusters and a few English movies. The actress now lives in the United States with her American singer-songwriter, husband Nick Jonas and their daughter Malti Marie Chopra Jonas.
