Our man in Mumbai, DEVANSH PATEL, talks to his - and India's - favourite actress, Priyanka Chopra, about falling in love with a stranger

SHE has eclipsed many Bollywood actresses as the Indian film industry's most bankable face. But a good four years ago in London, when I met her for the first time, she said: "Look up insecurity in the dictionary. You will see my picture".

She was raw, vulnerable, edgy, telling me that she was worried about the way she looked, not being a good enough actor, and all the 'not good' things.

Admitting to all these things made her seem more real, a less glossy have-it-all Bollywood actor.

To understand Priyanka Chopra better, you need to meet her. More often than not, she is hard on herself. I tried to tell her how great she was in Kaminey and that she seemed to resonate the same skills as the young Meryl Streep, bringing something new and fresh and unpredictable.

All this and she just blinked away the compliment. And it's the very same reason that today, Priyanka Chopra is the best we have in the 'B' town brigade.

DEVANSH PATEL: Is it good to fall in love with a stranger?

PRIYANKA CHOPRA: Love is the most amazing thing in the world. To fall in love with a stranger is not strange at all. I mean, the first time you fall in love, the guy comes across as a stranger anyway. It is so nice when two people fall in love and don't know each other at all. That is when you experience the real love.

DP: But Anjaana Anjaani is a film with a social message, right?

PC: It is a simple love story, nothing complicated. We've been hearing so much about suicides, people killing themselves and so on.

Anjaana Anjaani has a social message. Imagine you know that you are going to die or want to die and start fulfilling every wish of yours before the D-day.

What is amazing is the moral of the story; celebrating life. If they would have been successful in killing themselves, they would have never met. I found that fascinating.

DP: You are experienced and Ranbir Kapoor is fairly new. How did you get along?

PC: It's not about being someone's senior or junior on the sets. I personally feel that Ranbir is far more experienced than I am. He wanted to become an actor when he was 14. He is born into an acting family.

And the day he was born, he was surely going to become the crown prince of Hindi films in years to come.

Ranbir has studied film-making, he has gone to the sets as a kid and has done all the things before he took acting professionally.

I've learned everything on my own. I've never had a teacher. I tried and tasted, failed, fell and got up on my own. So according to me, Ranbir has got the correct methods when it comes to acting. Mine is self-taught. We come from totally different schools of acting.

DP: Do you often become the character you play on screen when you're off the set?

PC: I subconsciously become my characters very often. It is very spooky, but people around me can tell.

It is actually very scary. I feel like I am Priyanka Chopra, but my friends and family might say that I am Kiara from Anjaana Anjaani and tell me to come out of that character.

DP: It seems as though every Indian director wants you to act in their film.

PC: I don't say that every director or producer wants to work with Priyanka Chopra.

If this happens in my sixth year as an acting professional, then what will happen later on [laughs]?

I just love what I do and try and be good at it. I don't think about how I'll make my shot the best.

I just think of how I can be glued to my character that I'm playing so that the world is believable and the person who is playing that looks believable. I never get conscious about the shades I am wearing, or the angle of the shot, my clothes etc.

Rather, I'd look at how it would be at that given moment in that emotion, in that scene when that character is at that point. That's when magic in acting happens.

DP: And what did you discover in Anjaana Anjaani?

PC: Anjaana Anjaani was a discovery of myself I should say. I went to shoot at a time when I was very sure I wanted to rediscover myself.

It was perfect to go far away to America and somewhere.

It was one of the most amazing experiences in the United States I've ever had.

Just walking on the streets of New York in freezing cold, all alone, felt so right.

DP: How easy or tough it is to show your dark and bright side in the films you do?

PC: To be doing a Saat Khoon Maaf and Kaminey and then to be doing Anjaana Anjaani are two different types of cinema. In fact, it's even tougher to shoot for a love story because you are not given any lines and characters which are too defined or written for you especially. You need to entertain your audiences and that's tougher than to just act.

DP: Which is your favourite song from the film? Does music motivate you?

PC: Honestly, I personally like Tujhe Bhula Diya. The remix version is even better.

I even love Aas Paas Khuda. Music motivates me a lot. Music is always in my ears. I have a problem with silence. Music makes me see whatever I want to see at that point. Music completes me. * Anjaana Anjaani was released