Olivia: Most people think a global superstar's career is built on a master plan. What if the secret is the exact opposite? Jackson: Oh, I like where this is going. You’re telling me it’s not all vision boards and five-year plans? Olivia: Not even close. Think more along the lines of a 10-year-old brother's petty revenge, a botched nose surgery that became a public spectacle, and getting fired for standing up to a powerful director. That's the real story here. Jackson: Okay, that's a wild resume. What are we talking about today? Olivia: We are diving into Unfinished, the memoir by Priyanka Chopra Jonas. And what's fascinating is that she wrote this not just as a celebrity tell-all, but as a collection of personal essays on navigating two vastly different cultures. It became a New York Times bestseller, but it also got some pretty mixed reviews, which I think makes it even more interesting to unpack. Jackson: Right, because a polarizing response often means an author is touching on something raw and real. So, where do we start? You have to tell me about this petty revenge plot. How does a sibling squabble lead to global fame?

Olivia: It’s almost unbelievable. It’s 1999, Priyanka is seventeen and just back from living in the U.S. Her ten-year-old brother, Siddharth, has been kicked out of his bedroom to make space for her. He is, to put it mildly, annoyed. Jackson: I can definitely relate. I still hold a grudge against my sister for taking the bigger room. Olivia: Well, Siddharth decides to take action. He sees an ad for the Miss India pageant and tells their mom, "You should enter Mimi in this." "Mimi" is Priyanka's nickname. He just wants her out of the house so he can get his room back. Their mom, probably just to appease him, sends in some photos without telling Priyanka or her father. Jackson: Wait, so her brother just wanted his room back, and that's what launched this global career? That sounds like a sitcom plot! Olivia: Exactly! And that single, almost random event, becomes the catalyst for everything. But it only worked because Priyanka had unknowingly been training for it her whole life. Her father was a doctor in the Indian Army, so they moved constantly. Every two or three years, a new city, a new school, a new life. Jackson: That sounds incredibly disruptive for a kid. I would have hated that. Olivia: She did, at first. But her father gave her this incredible piece of advice, a quote from Bruce Lee. He told her, "Be like water making its way through cracks... If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup... Be water, my friend." He framed it as a superpower: with every move, she had the chance to reinvent herself. Jackson: That’s a powerful way to reframe something that feels like a negative. So instead of 'the new kid,' she's 'the mystery girl with a blank slate.' Olivia: Precisely. And this philosophy was forged in some really challenging, and sometimes hilarious, ways. She talks about being sent to a strict boarding school, La Martiniere, after her brother was born because she was acting out with jealousy. The separation was traumatic. Her mother would visit, and Priyanka would just cling to her, crying. Eventually, the school principal told her mom to stop visiting for a while to force her to adapt. Jackson: That sounds harsh. Did it work? Olivia: It did. She learned to compartmentalize her sadness and focus on moving forward. She made friends, excelled in school, and even discovered a love for performing. She describes it as her own version of being like water—organizing the different parts of her life, even the painful ones, and just keeping the flow going forward. Jackson: Okay, I see the serious side. But you mentioned a hilarious story? Olivia: Oh, this one is gold. One day at school, she's watching a monkey on the playground struggling to peel a banana. She just starts laughing at it. The monkey stops, makes direct eye contact with her, scampers down the tree, slaps her right across the face, and then climbs back up to calmly eat its banana. Jackson: No way! That's incredible. A lesson in humility from a primate. Olivia: She says she totally deserved it! But it’s another small example of learning to adapt and read the room, or in this case, the playground. But this 'be like water' philosophy was truly tested when she moved to the U.S. for high school. Jackson: Right, because there she wasn't just the new kid, she was an outsider in a much more profound way. You said she was bullied. How does 'being like water' work when you're facing racism? That's not a situation where you can just 'flow.' Olivia: That’s the crucial point. It didn't, not in the same way. She was in Iowa, then New York, then Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, the bullying got vicious. Kids would yell "Brownie, go back to your country!" in the halls. She lost all her confidence. She tried to ignore it, to flow around it, but it was relentless. The water was hitting a dam. Jackson: So what did she do? Olivia: She called her parents and said, "I'm coming home." And this is the pivot. Instead of seeing it as a failure, her return to India became the ultimate act of reinvention. She decided if she was going to be an anomaly, she’d be "the shiniest damn anomaly around." She walked into her new school in India, Army Public School, wearing tight jeans and makeup, deliberately standing out. After being shamed for her otherness in America, she decided to own it and turn it into her strength in India. That confidence, born from a painful experience, is what carried her into the Miss India pageant.

Jackson: Okay, so she reinvents herself, wins Miss India, then Miss World. But the entertainment industry is a whole different beast. It's one thing to be confident, it's another to survive in a place like Bollywood or Hollywood. You mentioned she got fired. What happened there? Olivia: Her entry into Bollywood was a trial by fire. The industry, as she describes it, was deeply patriarchal. And she learned this the hard way, very early on. She meets with a famous director-producer, and he tells her to stand up and twirl for him. Jackson: Ugh. That's so demeaning. Olivia: It gets worse. He then says, and this is a direct quote from her memory, that to make it, she needed a "boob job, fix her jaw, and add a little more cushioning to her butt." Her own manager at the time agreed with him. Jackson: Wow. To have your appearance dissected like that, and your own team siding with the critic... what did she do? Olivia: She walked away. She fired the manager and decided that her body was not a project to be fixed for someone else's approval. But the most powerful story of her agency comes a little later. She was cast in a film and was supposed to do a seductive song. The director, discussing the costume, said something to the stylist that she overheard: "Whatever happens, panties should be seen. Otherwise, why would people come to watch the movie?" Jackson: That is just... grotesquely objectifying. Olivia: She was horrified. She felt like she was nothing more than a commodity for titillation. So, the very next day, she quit the film. The producer was furious and confronted her on the set of another movie she was filming. It was a huge scene. Jackson: To walk away from a role that early in her career... that takes guts. That could have blacklisted her. Olivia: It almost did. The only reason it didn't completely blow up was because the star of that other film, Salman Khan, who is a massive figure in Bollywood, stepped in and smoothed things over with the producer. But she still had to pay the production back for the days they had filmed with her. She chose her self-respect over the role. Jackson: That's a powerful statement. But did she ever feel pressured to compromise? I'm thinking of the controversy that came up later, the one the book addresses, about her endorsing skin-lightening creams. Olivia: She addresses it head-on, and it's a really important moment in the book. She calls it one of her "biggest missteps." She explains that growing up, she was called "kaali," a derogatory term for a dark-skinned girl, even by some relatives. This ingrained a deep insecurity. So when she became famous, and these fairness cream endorsements were offered, it was a huge part of the industry. Jackson: For listeners who might not be familiar, can you break down why that's such a loaded issue, especially in that context? Olivia: It's tied to colorism, a prejudice that favors lighter skin over darker skin within the same racial group. It's a remnant of colonial-era hierarchies and is deeply embedded in many cultures, including India's. These creams don't just sell a product; they sell the idea that being fairer is being better, more beautiful, more successful. Olivia: Priyanka acknowledges that by endorsing them, she was perpetuating a "destructive message" that had harmed her own self-worth. She eventually stopped and says she hasn't done a skin-care campaign in India since. It’s a powerful example of the "Unfinished" theme—she made a mistake, she learned from it, and she's holding herself accountable.

Jackson: That theme of accountability and navigating difficult truths feels like a perfect bridge to what you said is the most personal part of the book—her experience with grief. Olivia: Absolutely. The emotional core of this memoir is her relationship with her father. He was her biggest cheerleader. When he was diagnosed with cancer, her world tilted. She describes in heartbreaking detail his final public appearance. He was incredibly weak, but he insisted on flying to Vancouver to see her win an award for her film Barfi!. Jackson: That must have been an incredibly emotional night. Olivia: She says he tucked his drainage bags under his suit and used a wheelchair to get into the theater. When she won, she brought him onstage with her. He got a standing ovation and started to cry. It was the last time he appeared in public. He passed away two months later. Jackson: That's just... devastating. It puts a whole different light on her subsequent move to America and her career explosion with Quantico. Olivia: It does. She admits she threw herself into work to numb the pain. She moved to Montreal, then New York, to film Quantico, and she fell into a deep depression. She was completely isolated, staying up all night, eating alone, and gaining weight. She was just going through the motions. Jackson: So how did she pull herself out of it? It sounds like the 'be like water' philosophy wasn't working for her emotions either. Olivia: It wasn't. She says she had to make a conscious choice. She looked at herself one day and realized she was tired of being sad. She missed the person she used to be. So she started with one small thing: she adopted a dog, Diana. That little bit of life and responsibility started to pull her back. She made a conscious decision to "choose herself" and focus on the blessings in her life instead of the gaping hole her father had left. Jackson: It's a powerful reminder that grief isn't something you conquer, it's something you learn to live with. And that brings us to Nick Jonas. The book makes their romance sound like a whirlwind. After all that self-reflection and pain, did she just fall back into old patterns? Olivia: That’s the beautiful part of the story—she didn't. She writes about how in her past relationships, she would lose herself, prioritizing her partner's needs to overcompensate for her own demanding career. But after her period of grief and self-reflection, she made a list of five non-negotiables for a partner. He had to be honest, appreciate family, be serious about his own profession, be creative, and be ambitious. Jackson: He had to be her equal, not someone she had to manage or shrink for. Olivia: Exactly. And Nick embodied that. There's a wonderful story where they're on a boat with his friends, and she has a work meeting she needs to get to. She's agonizing over canceling it, falling into her old pattern of wanting to please everyone. Nick pulls her aside and says, "I’m not going to ask you to stay... You’ve worked so hard for so many years to be where you are... I will never stand in your way." Jackson: Wow. That's not just support; that's a deep understanding of her ambition and a respect for it. Olivia: It was a game-changer. He wasn't threatened by her success; he was proud of it. He saw all of her, the ambition, the grief, the "unfinished" parts, and loved her for it. That's why the whirlwind worked. It wasn't just passion; it was a profound alignment of values that she was only able to recognize because she had finally taken the time to understand herself first.

Olivia: So when you look at the whole arc, her story isn't just a celebrity memoir. It’s a roadmap for building an identity in a globalized world. It shows that strength doesn't come from a rigid plan, but from an incredible capacity for adaptation—that 'be like water' philosophy. Jackson: And it’s also about having the agency to walk away from things that devalue you, even if it's a huge role or a massive paycheck. That's a lesson that applies far beyond Hollywood. Olivia: It really is. And ultimately, it's about understanding that you can be a work-in-progress, or 'unfinished,' and still be whole. You don't have to have it all figured out. The process of learning, grieving, and reinventing is the point. Jackson: It really makes you think. In the book, she imagines her life as a house with different rooms—one for her career, one for philanthropy, one for family. It makes me wonder, are we building walls between the rooms in our own lives, or are we letting them flow into each other? Olivia: That's a perfect question for our listeners. What does being 'unfinished' mean to you? Let us know your thoughts on our social channels. We'd love to hear your stories of reinvention. Jackson: This is Aibrary, signing off.