Parineeti Chopra, born on 22 October 1988, is an Indian actress who mainly works in Hindi films. She has received a Filmfare Award and a National Film Award and has appeared in Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list since 2013. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (2011) and the National Film Award Special Mention for Ishaqzaade (2012). She is married to the politician Raghav Chadha, and they have a son.
She was born in Ambala, Haryana, into a Punjabi Hindu family. Her father, Pawan Chopra, is a businessman and army supplier at Ambala Cantonment, and her mother is Reena Chopra. She has two brothers, Shivang and Sahaj, and the actresses Priyanka Chopra, Meera Chopra and Mannara Chopra are her cousins. She went to the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Ambala and, at 17, moved to England, where she obtained a triple honours degree in business, finance and economics from Alliance Manchester Business School. While studying she worked part time for Manchester United as a team leader in the catering department. She is also a trained Hindustani classical singer with a degree in music.
In 2009 she returned to India during the Great Recession and moved to Mumbai, where she joined Yash Raj Films as an intern in the marketing department and later worked as a public relations consultant. While working on the promotion of Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), she decided to pursue acting, and after a screen test the producer Aditya Chopra signed her to a three-film contract.
She made her screen debut in a supporting role in Maneesh Sharma’s Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (2011), starring Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma, playing the rich and spoiled Dimple Chadda. The film was a moderate commercial success, but her performance won high praise, and the critic Komal Nahta wrote that she had “the best role, the best lines” of the three women. It brought her several Best Debut awards, including the Filmfare, Screen and IIFA awards, and Best Supporting Actress wins at the Producers Guild and IIFA awards.
Her second film, Habib Faisal’s Ishaqzaade (2012), opposite Arjun Kapoor, was a commercial success in which she played the gun-toting Zoya. Taran Adarsh called her “simply fantastic”. The film grossed over Rs 46 crore domestically, and her performance won her the National Film Award Special Mention at the 60th National Film Awards and her first nominations for the Producers Guild, Screen and Filmfare Best Actress awards.
She followed with Shuddh Desi Romance (2013), with Sushant Singh Rajput and Vaani Kapoor, in which her portrayal of the outspoken Gayatri was highly praised, and Hasee Toh Phasee (2014), her first role outside Yash Raj Films, as the mad scientist Dr Meeta Solanki opposite Sidharth Malhotra, which was a commercial success. Daawat-e-Ishq (2014) was her second film with Faisal.
After a three-year hiatus and several poorly received films, with the exceptions of the horror comedy Golmaal Again (2017) and her brief role in the war drama Kesari (2019), she earned praise for the black comedy Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar (2021), a supporting role in Uunchai (2022) and the biographical drama Amar Singh Chamkila (2024). She has sung some of her film songs, including “Maana Ke Hum Yaar Nahin” and “Teri Mitti”, and in 2022 she judged the reality show Hunarbaaz: Desh Ki Shaan on Colors TV. She is also a prominent celebrity endorser for brands.
Featured image: Ambala Cantonment railway station (file photo, 2024; Parineeti Chopra was born in Ambala, and this is not a photo of her). Photo by Ravi Dwivedi, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
