Priyanka Chopra Jonas On Why She Quit Bollywood: 'I Was Being Pushed Into A Corner

Priyanka Chopra Jonas has opened up about why she quit the Indian film industry despite having made a name for herself already.

The actress, who is married to singer Nick Jonas, explained that she left the industry to start afresh in the U.S. because she was tired of politics.

After moving to the U.S., she landed a breakthrough role in ABC's "Quantico" and has since starred in "Baywatch," "White Tiger" and "Matrix Resurrection." In addition, she is set to appear in Amazon's "Citadel" and the romantic comedy "Love again."

Keep on reading to learn more.

During her appearance on the "Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard" podcast, Priyanka discussed why she left Bollywood to pave a new path in Hollywood.

The actress shared that despite being a massive star in the film industry, she got "tired of the politics" being played by some showrunners and felt it was time to take a break.

Priyanka recalled, per Variety, "I was being pushed into a corner in the industry. I had people not casting me for reasons… I had beef with people. I was tired of politics. I was just like, 'I need a break.'"

Her first foray into a career away from her homeland saw her delve into music, a part of her talent yet to explore fully.

Commenting about the experience, the actress said it provided her the "opportunity to go into another part of the world" and not have to thirst for the movie roles she wanted to get in her home country, which would have required her to "schmooze certain clubs and cliques of people."

Still, in no time, she would return to her first love, landing a breakthrough role in ABC's hit series "Quantico," which debuted in 2015.

"I read the pilots. I knew what the tone of the show was. And I worked with an acting coach. I did the diligence when I went in. And when I got the job, I realized that that's all it takes. And that comes very naturally to me — prep," the actress recalled the experience on the podcast.

Starring as Alex Parrish in the thriller series, which only spanned three seasons, Priyanka's acting received immense praise from critics and fans.

After the first season, she won the People's Choice Award for Favourite Actress In A New TV Series, making her the first South Asian actress to do so. She earned a second People's Choice Award for Best Dramatic TV Actress the following year.

Priyanka has since garnered more Hollywood experience following her breakthrough tv series role.

She starred in Seth Gordon's "Baywatch" alongside Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron in 2017 and "In a Kid Like Jake," which debuted at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

The latter, centered on gender variance, saw her share the set with "The Big Bang Theory" star Jim Parsons and Claire Danes.

She subsequently starred in the Todd Strauss-Schulson comedy "Isn't It Romantic," opposite Rebel Wilson, and the Netflix children's superhero film "We Can Be Heroes" directed by Robert Rodriguez.

In 2021, she starred in and exec produced the Netflix movie, "White Tiger," and later that same year played a small part in the latest installment of the Matrix franchise, dubbed "The Matrix Resurrections."

Priyanka will next appear in the Russo Brothers' Amazon Prime Video series "Citadel," where she will co-star with "Eternals" actor Richard Madden.

During her Dax Sheperd podcast appearance, she described the show's narrative, saying it cuts across different languages.

"Because it's a global spy organization that is going to be the American show. It's an English-language show. And then we have an Indian show, which is my character's origin story. There is an Italian show we just finished production, which is another origin story. So basically, the stories are all kind of connected, that we move time, we're in local countries speaking local languages," Chopra Jonas said.

The actress will also star in James C. Strouse's "Love Again" alongside Sam Heughan and Celine Dion.