17 February,2026 10:28 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Priyanka Chopra
Bollywood superstar and global icon Priyanka Chopra Jonas addressed students at Harvard Business School during an India Week session. However, at one moment, she turned emotional, as seeing an auditorium filled with young Indians in sarees and kurtas filled her with pride. Reflecting on her own teenage years in the US, the global star said the moment made her hopeful for her daughter Malti Marie's future.
PeeCee shared a video giving a glimpse into her day as she supported her friend in concluding India Week at the prestigious Harvard Business School. The topic was âThe India We Imagine.' However, the actress further revealed that looking at the audience changed everything for her.
"But looking out into the audience today, I only had one thought - you are the India I imagined. Let me explain," she added.
Priyanka shed light on her own experience while studying in the US years ago as a teenager. Recalling those years, she spoke about feeling like an outsider. "When my 12-year-old self landed in a high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and subsequently at Newton North High School in Massachusetts in the mid-'90s, there were not many who looked like me."
Priyanka also expressed her thrill and sheer surprise at seeing so many Desi faces at an international university. She said she never imagined that decades later she would be addressing a packed hall at Harvard. "I would have never imagined in 30-something years that I would be speaking to you, the future of our culture, our world, on this stage, in this iconic chamber, where so many incredible people have not only spoken, but where so many leaders of the world as we know it were born. The audience was packed⦠and we were Desi⦠and Desi allies," she shared.
"It made me want to cry, because this is not what my teenage experience looked like. But I'm so happy that you get to have it. We all stand on the shoulders of the generations before us. I'm so excited that my daughter will have all of you to look up to."
Expressing pride at seeing representation at one of the world's top institutions, she wrote, "To see an auditorium full of students dressed in sarees and kurtas at the campus of HBS (harvard) in Boston, Massachusetts, where I grew up⦠to see so many people from my community at one of the best schools in the world made my heart burst with pride. You are the future."
Priyanka concluded by thanking the students for their warmth and also expressed gratitude to her husband, Nick Jonas, and daughter, Malti Marie, for their support, calling them her "forever Valentines."
Talking about the actress, on the professional front, she is gearing up for her upcoming Hollywood film The Bluff, where she will be seen in a power-packed role. She is also set to star in filmmaker SS Rajamouli's much-anticipated project, Varanasi, which also features Mahesh Babu in the lead alongside her.
