Unfinished

Unfinished is a memoir by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, the Indian actor, producer, and former Miss World. The book traces her life from childhood in India through her rise in the Hindi film industry, her crossover into American entertainment, the loss of her father, and her marriage to musician and actor Nick Jonas. Priyanka frames the memoir through the metaphor of a train journey in which different people board and depart, and the time spent together is what brings love, joy, and connection.

Priyanka grew up in a family of Indian Army doctors. Her father, Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Ashok Chopra, was a gregarious surgeon from a Punjabi Hindu family, and her mother, Dr. Madhu Chopra, was a quietly confident physician. Their marriage was one of true partnership, and their warmth and humanitarian values shaped Priyanka's understanding of love and purpose. Two early experiences planted the seeds of her later advocacy: Her mother discovered an abandoned newborn girl under her car during a rainstorm, introducing Priyanka to the cultural devaluation of girls in India, and at 11, Priyanka accompanied her parents to a rural medical camp where mothers refused to let their daughters be examined, fearing a medical issue would ruin the girls' marriage prospects.

At seven, after acting out from jealousy over her younger brother Siddharth's birth, Priyanka was sent to La Martiniere Girls' College, a boarding school in Lucknow. She felt abandoned and spent weeks staring at the school gate, waiting for her mother. Over time she adjusted, excelling in singing, public speaking, and swimming. The experience made her fiercely independent but also taught her to compartmentalize pain, a coping mechanism she carried into adulthood. Her father, whose military career required frequent relocations, advised her to be like water and adapt to every new situation.

Shortly before turning 13, Priyanka visited her mother's sister, Kiran Masi, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and chose to stay and attend school in the United States. She spent the next three years living with various aunts and uncles. At John F. Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, she excelled academically and joined the school choir, which introduced her to musical theater. She later lived in Queens, New York, where the borough's ethnic diversity gave her a sense of belonging, and then in Newton, Massachusetts. At Newton North High School, a group of students subjected her to sustained racist bullying, including slurs, graffiti, and physical aggression. Her self-esteem crumbled and her grades dropped. After more than a year of enduring the harassment, she called her parents, and her mother flew to bring her home.

Back in Bareilly, Priyanka embraced reinvention, though she struggled academically because three years in the American system had left her behind in the Indian curriculum, with crucial board exams approaching. In May 1999, she won the May Queen Ball at the local Bareilly Club, her first taste of competition. Months later, her 10-year-old brother Siddharth persuaded their mother to submit Priyanka's photos to the Miss India competition without telling her. She advanced through the rounds, and on January 15, 2000, at 17, was crowned Miss India World.

Priyanka's mother moved to Mumbai to support her through intensive training, and on November 30, 2000, Priyanka was crowned Miss World in London. During the final question-and-answer round, she named Mother Teresa as the most successful woman living today, though Mother Teresa had died in 1997. The homecoming was complicated by political opposition to beauty pageants and threats against her family, prompting her parents to send 11-year-old Siddharth to live with relatives in America for over 18 months, a decision that deeply affected him. In early summer 2001, a doctor accidentally collapsed the bridge of her nose during a routine polypectomy, requiring multiple corrective surgeries and earning her the tabloid nickname "Plastic Chopra." She lost two film roles because of her changed appearance.

Encouraged by her father, who told her to try acting so she would never have a what-if in her life, Priyanka chose entertainment over academics. Both parents closed their hospital and moved to Mumbai. Her first film was the Tamil movie Thamizhan, where a supportive working environment restored her confidence. Early encounters with industry patriarchy were jarring: one director told her to get cosmetic surgery on multiple body parts; she was offered less than 10 percent of a male co-actor's pay; she was replaced in films when lead actors wanted roles for their girlfriends. After six consecutive box-office failures, she took a risk on Fashion (2008), a female-led drama directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, winning the National Film Award for Best Actress. The romantic comedy Dostana followed, yielding the hit song "Desi Girl," which became her enduring public nickname. Priyanka also reflects with regret on endorsing skin-lightening products during this period, acknowledging that she perpetuated destructive messages about skin color.

In 2009, venture capitalist Anjula Acharia and music producer Jimmy Iovine signed Priyanka to a record label as a potential crossover artist. Her single "In My City" debuted as the NFL's Thursday Night Football promotional spot in 2012, only to be met with racist hate mail. After three years she moved on from music. Keli Lee, then a casting executive at ABC, pitched her on American television. In early 2015, Priyanka read 26 pilot scripts and selected Quantico, in which she was cast as FBI recruit Alex Parrish, becoming the first South Asian to lead an American network series. The show aired in over 60 countries, though it brought controversies, including outrage over a plotline involving Hindu extremist terrorists that prompted an official apology from ABC.

Throughout her career, Priyanka's father battled cancer. Diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare liver cancer, in 2005, he survived complicated surgery and an emergency medical evacuation to Boston, went into remission, then relapsed in 2011. In April 2013, gravely ill, he insisted on attending the Times of India Film Awards ceremony in Vancouver, where Priyanka won Best Actress for Barfi! He walked onstage with her in what became his last public appearance and died on June 10, 2013. Five days later, filming began on Mary Kom, a biopic about the Olympic boxer, and Priyanka channeled her grief into the physically demanding role. She did not adequately process her loss. In spring 2016, she fell into a prolonged depression that deepened by 2017. She did not seek therapy but slowly chose to reconnect with friends and change her routines. A rescue puppy she named Diana, adopted during a BuzzFeed interview, became one of her portals back to life.

During a deliberate dating hiatus, Priyanka recognized a pattern in her past relationships: She would lose herself by prioritizing her partners' needs over her own. On New Year's Eve 2017, she wrote a list of five nonnegotiable qualities she wanted in a partner. Nick Jonas, the singer and actor, had first reached out via Twitter in 2015, and they met in person at the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party in February 2017. After reconnecting at the 2018 Met Gala, they began dating seriously in late May. Nick visited Mumbai, asked Priyanka's mother for her blessing, and proposed on the island of Crete on July 19, 2018. Their wedding, held over three days at the Taj Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur in late November and early December 2018, included both Christian and Hindu ceremonies. Priyanka's mother walked her down the aisle at the Christian service, and her uncle performed the kanyadaan, the formal giving away of the bride, at the Hindu ceremony.

The memoir closes with Priyanka settling into her first home with Nick in Los Angeles, reflecting on her work as an actor, producer, tech investor, and global UNICEF ambassador. In an epilogue written during the COVID-19 pandemic, she describes the isolation of filming under quarantine and the fear she felt during India's devastating second wave. She and Nick fundraised for relief through her foundation, though the sums felt insufficient against the scale of the crisis. She closes by urging readers to hold their loved ones close, still striving to follow her father's lifelong advice: to be like water.