ms bollywood

L and I took a business class flight from Bangkok to Mumbai last Sept 14. We've been in transit since 11.30 am from Manila and we were both tired. As soon as I took my seat, I immediately open the entertainment booklet and started reading. Three and a half hours later, the pilot announced that we were descending soon. When the plane finally landed, L and I started grabbing our things and readied ourselves. While waiting for the plane to open its doors, I noticed that several Indian men were murmuring and whispering. Curiously, I looked at them - they were busy staring at someone. My eyes went over to where they were looking and I saw 3 girls at the left window side (we were seated at the right side window). One was an old lady, presumably their mom or older relative, one was wearing a spaghetti-strapped top and of average height, but the other one was tall (around 5'8), with perfectly coiffed hair, black glasses, very little makeup, and wearing the long sleeved plaid shirt and blue jeans. I thought "this must be who they're staring at..she was very pretty." But then I noticed that the Indian guys can't stop looking at her and even the other Asian men beside them have started looking at her, and they were all smiling and there was an air of excitement. I looked back at the pretty girl and stared hard. "Hm... could it be?" I whispered to L, "I think she's a bollywood actress..Priyanka Chopra.. that's why they're all staring at her." L didn't know who Priyanka was, I did, since I follow Bollywood when I'm in Mumbai (beats reading about cricket and Pakistan in the news everyday). And I bought 2 DVDs (Dostana / Fashion) which she starred in.


And so we got off the plane and started walking towards Immigration. Before that, you have to pass by the health clearance desk, where you give your signed health form certifying you dont have swine flu. I headed towards the counter and gave my form to the girl. she took it, approved it, and was handing it back to me when Priyanka went to the counter to my left. All the staff behind the counters (including the one i was talking to) suddenly were in a frenzy. They opened their notebooks, grabbed a pen and everyone just went a little crazy. "Ma'am can I have your autograph please?" The girls all said, while the guys were more aggressive, they took out their camera phones and said, "Ma'am can I have a snap with you?" Now even the passengers were looking at her, those who recognized her greeted her and shook hands with her. I wanted to go over and talk to her, especially since I was the almost nearest to her and I bet she'll be very flattered knowing that someone from Manila knows her. But I didn't and I also didn't took a photo of her (it was hard to take a snap when there were people swarming over her). and i've never been a fan-crazy girl in front of celebs (just inside my home haha).



So how did she take it? Very graciously. To think it was already 10 in the evening, but she was very nice. She took time to sign autographs, talk to the fans and shook hands with them. Even at the baggage claim area, some guys will come over and introduce themselves, she was very nice and she was always smiling. I guess that's why she's very popular. Not only is she beautiful (she was Ms India!), she is very nice and simple and very talented. She didn't stay long because she handcarried her white Fendi trolley bag. She just said goodbye to her friend and left the airport.


Pretty cool experience huh? Maybe next time I'll meet her boyfriend, Shahid Kapoor or John Abraham :)

Below is her new film, showing when we left India a few weeks ago. She plays 12 characters in the movie.