Priyanka Chopra: Please cast John in a Hindi movie, I’d love that

Priyanka Chopra announces her desi move in a chat with mid-day, along with her Heads of State co-star, John Cena, who she’d love to watch in a Hindi film too

Priyanka Chopra plays an MI6 agent in Heads of State

The Amazon Prime Video flagship film, Heads of State, opens with Priyanka Chopra Jonas slithering through a truck during crackerjack stunt sequences, at the
La Tomatina festival, in Buñol, Spain.

Now, where do Indians know this annual August gathering that involves pelting tomatoes from?

Chiefly, Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011). Which was the movie Zoya made before Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), starring Priyanka in it.

John Cena in the film

Zoya and her brother Farhan Akhtar were set to do another film (Jee Le Zaraa) with Priyanka, that’s yet to take off. Many Indians, on the other hand, would’ve watched Heads of State, because of Priyanka.

Only natural then to ask when do we see her back on the Indian screen? It’s been a while.

Priyanka says, “I am doing an Indian film this year. And we should be announcing it pretty soon!” To which her Heads of State co-star John Cena instantly butts in, “Well, didn’t you just announce it [now]?”

(From left) Priyanka Chopra and John Cena in conversation with mid-day, in London. Pics/AFP, Instagram

Priyanka laughs, “Well. I just said I am doing an Indian movie. The rest you can speculate, but I’m excited about it.”

This banter closes the quick chat with mid-day between crossover star, Priyanka, and the American actor, professional wrestler, John, before the London première of Ilya Naishuller’s Heads of State.

Wherein John plays the US President, who used to be an action star. That’s apt casting, alright. And you wonder if there are shades in that performance that remind you of other action stars, say Arnold Schwarzenegger, who became a top politician himself.

John is emphatic, “No. I try not to imitate. If any correlation shows, it’s by chance. The job title is enough. When you say, ‘President of the United States’, those words have global reach, and people have something in mind [to do with them, anyway].

“The takeaway is: It’s an important job. And the movie is [about this] ‘important job’ put in a situation they don’t understand. The script reads: he’s empathetic, positive, arrogant, stuffy, stubborn… You can take all of this, and form your own ideas [about the role].”

John is paired opposite Idris Elba as the UK Prime Minister for the US Prez’s frenemy in Heads of State. Both of whom get locked into a fun verbal duel inside the American presidential plane, Air Force One, that gets attacked.

These are top heads of states somehow looking to politically save the world. Guess who’s there to save them in person? Priyanka, as an MI6 agent.

For a film with two male hunks for heroes, it’s instructive that the best action set-pieces are reserved for the female lead. Also, Priyanka’s been global-mainstream for long enough that her character needs no South Asian roots, or any other kinda ethnic explanation.

Unlike, say, her debut in the US as Alex Parrish — in the ABC TV show Quantico (2015-18) — who was of Indian descent. It’s been a decade since. In Heads of State, Priyanka plays Noelle Bisset. Period.

Which is obviously the rarest of such seamless East-West mainstream transitions. We wonder how it’s to deal with the press from both parts of the world.

Priyanka says, “It’s very different. In India, the interviews are cheekier, fun, little snazzy; versus the western press, which doesn’t do that a lot, unless it’s entertainment media.

“The second difference is the familiarity with my work. Which the western media doesn’t have that much of. As against [the fact that] we’ve known each other’s history for 20 years!”

That’s basically the press that can tell John Abraham from John Cena. In fact, Priyanka says the latter John would kill it in desi movies too: “Are you kidding me? He’d be amazing!”

John jokes, “I’ve been seriously trying!” Both John and Priyanka have no dearth of fans in either hemisphere. “No one’s casting John. Please cast John in a Hindi movie, I’d love that,” Priyanka laughs.

The last we met Priyanka was when she’d emerged from a shower. This was during the shoot of the second season of the Prime Video spy-series, Citadel, which hasn’t dropped yet.

But her backbreaking action on that show is only topped by the topsy-turvy moves in Heads of State. If you’re a stunt fan, consider her stairwell sequence in the film’s finale.

Takes a toll? Priyanka argues, it’s the “trust with the [stunt] team you’re working with” that’s of essence here: “My stunt-double Anisha Tee Gibbs, who works closely with me, was the same on Citadel and Heads of State. I did actually three back-to-back [projects] with her.

“Because it’s easier. We have our own short-hand. She’ll do all the rehearsals, and the runs before. And then show me exactly what I’m supposed to do. That’s crucial for the physicality of it.”

The rest, one supposes, is timing, and chemistry. Priyanka also plays the former love-interest of the UK PM, as in Idris Elba, in Heads of State.

Idris’s character being the thoroughly sober, statesman-like. Which is in sharp contrast to John’s gregarious part, given to losing his lid every once in a while. John and Idris have earlier starred together in the super-hero film, The Suicide Squad (2021).

Once you meet John though, you realise, his actual self is in even sharper contrast to the role he plays in Heads of State. He’s supremely Zen, when he talks. For a man used to being in the middle of the ring, you’ve to strain your ears to hear him well. He’s polite beyond measure.

He’s also unwittingly offered me the social-media dopamine once, I tell John. This is when I woke up, long ago, to find that he’s following me on X, formerly known as Twitter. I went over to his account, and realised, he follows over 1 million people on X!

How does one even follow over a million people on X? John remarks, “That’s only because they cut me off at following a thousand a day!” Incredible. And what does that say about him?

He reveals, “In a world where we are so braggadocious about followers, my concept with X is to be inclusive. And I’m very braggadocious about those I follow.
“My goal is to have an open conversation with people from all walks of life.

I know there’s a lot of negativity, and impressionable groups out there. I don’t wanna ignore them.” Spoken truly like a head of state — that we all wish to have, or wish we had!