Breaching the ‘Citadel’: Priyanka Chopra Gets Equal Pay as Her Male Lead and Gears Up for Meatier Hollywood Roles

After playing a few “blink and you miss roles” in Hollywood, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is working on a slew of lead roles. The first one is the spy series “Citadel,” which will launch on Amazon Prime later this month. The landmark, high-stakes drama is executive produced by the Russo Brothers’ AGBO and showrunner David Weil, and stars Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci, Lesley Manville, and Ashleigh Cummings in pivotal roles. The series drops its first two episodes on Prime on April 28, followed by a new episode released weekly on Fridays.

The story follows elite agents Mason Kane (Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Chopra Jonas), who had their memories wiped as they narrowly escaped with their lives after the independent global spy agency Citadel’s fall.

This week, the streaming service hosted the Asia Pacific premiere of the series with the who’s who of Bollywood. The “Quantico” star made headlines that day, not only for her turquoise floor-sweeping Versace gown with a thigh-high slit. Guests at the April 4 event were seen enjoying the evening, and also heaping praises on the action, the twists in the storyline, and the enormous scale of the spy series packed with covert operations, counter-intelligence, and double allegiances.

The series marks the first time Chopra Jonas will be receiving equal pay as her male lead, as reported by The Guardian. The much-anticipated launch comes after she opened up about her decision to leave Bollywood, and transition to Hollywood.

Speaking on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast she said she was “being pushed into a corner in the industry.” She said people refused to cast her, and that she had “beef” with people. “I am not good at playing that game so I kind of was tired of the politics and I said I needed a break.”

Apart from “Citadel,” she will be seen on the silver screen in “Love Again,” with Sam Heughan and singer Celine Dion. The film is a remake of the German movie “SMS für Dich” (Text for You), based on a 2009 book of the same name by Sofie Cramer.

At a media interaction in Mumbai, she said it’s “non-negotiable” for her to “work with people I don’t like anymore.” She said she has “to admire, look up to and like the people she works with, the people that she’s surrounded with. ‘I’ve been doing this for a very long time and I want to be excited about going to work, I want to be inspired about going to work and that’s become non-negotiable for me. So when I meet the people that I’m going to work with, I take notes in a little pad. But that truly is something that as I’ve evolved become very important to me.”

She made a few more Bollywood films while she looked for an American agent and eventually signed up with ABC for her career-making role in “Quanitco.” The series premiered in 2015, with Priyanka making history as the first South Asian to headline an American network drama series.

Her Hollywood film debut came in 2017 in “Baywatch” in which she starred alongside Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.

Apart from “Citadel,” she will be seen on the silver screen in “Love Again,” with Sam Heughan and singer Celine Dion. The film is a remake of the German movie “SMS für Dich” (Text for You), based on a 2009 book of the same name by Sofie Cramer. Chopra Jonas plays Mira Ray, a grieving woman who finds a special connection by sheer accident after she sends text messages to her late fiance’s number, unaware that it has been assigned to a man named Rob (Heughan). “A journalist, Rob is captivated by the honesty in the beautifully confessional texts,” the synopsis adds. “When he’s assigned to write a profile of megastar Céline Dion, he enlists her help in figuring out how to meet Mira in person … and win her heart.”

There’s also Amazon Studios’ “Heads of State” with John Cena and Idris Elba. It is directed by Ilya Naishuller off a script by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, with an initial draft by Harrison Query based on Query’s original idea. In Bollywood, she will be seen in Farhan Akhtar directorial “Jee Le Zaraa,” co-starring Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt.

However, promoting “Citadel” and attending the inaugural festivities of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) launch in Mumbai isn’t the only thing she did while in Mumbai. She also took the time to introduce her one-year-old daughter to the Indian side of her family and took her to the Siddhivinayak Temple.

Whether Ganesha answers her prayers and delivers Chopra Jonas’ first hit in this part of the world remains to be seen.