Parineeti Chopra

The bubbly actress, born on 22nd October 1988, landed in the film industry quite accidently. The aspiring investment banker, who holds a triple honours degree, joined the Bollywood bandwagon as a public relations consultant with ‘Yash Raj Films’ and not as an actor.

However, it didn’t take much time for producer Aditya Chopra to find the talent hidden in her and made a three film contract with Parineeti, who got inclined towards building a career in acting during her days in the production house. Parineeti Chopra was born in Ambala, Haryana, to Punjabi parents and actress Priyanka Chopra is her cousin.

After completing her school education from ‘Jesus and Mary Convent School’ she moved to London at the age of 17 to pursue triple honours degree in business, finance, and economics from Manchester Business School. She had always wanted to become an investment banker and she has stated in interviews that she never even thought of acting as a career option. She even went to the extent of calling acting as an excuse to put over make up. However, on the wake of the global economic recession right after the completion of her college education, she returned to India and moved to Mumbai to stay with her cousin Priyanka Chopra. It was Priyanka who helped her to land a job in Yash Raj Films. During her days at Yash Raj Films, her outlook on actors and acting changed and she reached the conclusion that her perceptions were wrong. It didn’t take much time for her to find out what her real passion is and she decided to resign from her executive job to attend acting school.

After knowing her interest to act in films, it was director Maneesh Sharma who facilitated making a deal between the actor and producer Aditya Chopra. She was signed up for a three movie deal with Yash Raj Films and debuted as a supporting actress in the 2011 rom-com ‘Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl’ alongside Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma. Even though the film delivered only a mediocre performance in the box office, Parineeti got critical acclaim for her role and, also she got the best debutant actress award and a nomination for the best supporting actress. Her performance in her first movie helped her to bag the female lead role in her next film ‘Ishaqzaade’, which told the story of a Muslim girl who fell in love with a Hindu goon, and the movie turned out to be a box office hit. She did four more films after ‘Ishaqzaade’ namely ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’, ‘Hasee Toh Phasee’, ‘Daawat-E-Ishq’, and ‘Kill – Dill’. ‘Hasee Toh Phasee’ was her first film outside the ‘Yash Raj Films’ banner and she played a very different role of a crazy scientist in it.

Besides acting, Parineeti Chopra is also active in philanthropy works and supports many causes. She has also endorsed with multiple brands for advertisements and is also the mentor of the reality TV show ‘India’s Best Cine-Stars Ki Khoj’.