Priyanka Chopra Jonas recalls the ‘culture shock’ of witnessing Vijay’s stardom in Chennai

Priyanka Chopra was just 18, new to acting and fresh off her Miss World 2000 win, when she stepped onto the set of her first film, the Tamil production ‘Thamizhan’ in Chennai. What greeted her was a crowd of hundreds who had gathered simply to watch her co-star dance. That co-star was Vijay.

More than two decades after her first day on a film set, Priyanka still remembers exactly what it felt like to watch ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay walk in. In a recent interview on the ‘Not Skinny But Not Fat’ podcast, the actress looked back on her Tamil debut and described the scale of Vijay’s stardom as something that genuinely stopped her in her tracks.

“It was a movie called ‘Thamizhan’ in the Tamil language. I remember the film; I phonetically learned the language. It’s almost impossible to learn a completely new language that quickly. But it was my first exposure to fame through my co-actor. His name is Vijay and he is extremely popular,” Chopra recalled.

The actress described the experience as a culture shock that reshaped her understanding of what celebrity could look like. Watching hundreds of people gather on set just to see Vijay dance, she said, felt like witnessing a demigod.

Beyond the spectacle of Vijay’s fan following, Priyanka was paying close attention to how he carried himself when the cameras were not rolling. She recalled that he had tremendous humility on set and that once he arrived, he never left. He stayed, spoke to the crew, understood the shots being taken and remained present throughout the day.

It was a lesson she said she still follows.

“I rarely go back to my trailer between shots unless there is a long wait,” she commented, emphasising that she likes to be on set, understand why different shots are being taken and speak to the crew. What she observed in Vijay in her very first film became, without her entirely realising it at the time, a professional habit she carried into a career that would take her from Chennai to Hollywood.

‘Thamizhan’, directed by Majith and produced by G Venkateswaran, released on April 12, 2002 and remains Priyanka Chopra’s only Tamil film to date. The movie also gave her an unexpected musical moment: Vijay himself recommended that she sing a song in the film after he heard her humming on set.