Priyanka Chopra on returning to Indian cinema: 'I missed it so much'

Priyanka Chopra realised how much she missed working in Indian cinema when she stepped onto the set of her upcoming movie Varanasi.

The Indian actress, who carved out a successful career in Bollywood before moving to Hollywood, is returning to Indian cinema for the first time in around six or seven years to star in Varanasi, directed by RRR filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli.

Chopra has been working on the epic movie for 14 months already and still has six months to go, and while it has been tricky flying back and forth between the U.S. and India, the actress has had a "really gratifying" experience so far.

"If there was any film to be done, it would have been this. This is the best way of going back into Indian films," she praised during an appearance on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast. "I missed it so much. I missed dancing, I missed the chaos on set, I missed the creativity.

"With S.S. Rajamouli, his mind and his vision (are) so far beyond limited imagination that just to be able to see what he's thinking and kind of be the vessel to tell that story is great. My part is amazing; I have a beautiful graph of ups and downs in that movie."

The Bluff actress went on to praise her co-stars, such as Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran, noting that they are "great to be around", "know their stuff", and arrive on set on time.

"It's been a really, really gratifying journey so far," she continued. "It's long; he takes a long time to make movies. It's almost been 14 months. It's going to be really special, and the journey of it has also been special."

Varanasi, in which Chopra plays a character called Mandakini, is described as a globe-trotting fantasy action-adventure epic. It follows a Shiva devotee who is sent on a mysterious mission to find an ancient cosmic artefact. As he travels through history uncovering clues, he discovers the one who assigned the quest is an evil mastermind seeking world control.

The movie is slated to be released in India in April 2027.