PeeCee's incredible journey has had its fair share of ups and downs.
Images: Kind courtesy Om Books International
Priyanka Chopra has lived an enviable life.
She tasted success at just 17, when she became Miss India.
She went on to claim the Miss World 2000 crown, become an A-lister in Bollywood, and then moved over to Hollywood and international television.
If reports are to be believed, PeeCee has already moved on to the next phase of her life.
We do a recap of her life in showbiz -- captured so well by Bharathi S Pradhan in Priyanka Chopra: The Dark Horse -- through a series of insightful photographs and captions from the book.
This is how it all began -- Priyanka's first photo shoot in Bareilly with photographer Rajeev Suri.
The pretty face caught the eye of the photographer and his pictures set mother Madhu's mind ticking.
Off she sent her daughter's pictures to the Miss India beauty pageant and the Bareilly ki ladki went on to create history.
My time or yours?
Aseem Merchant, her first steady boyfriend in Mumbai.
He was with her when she went through the highs and lows and sighs of the world beauty pageant. And she stood by him when he faced tragedy at home.
Surviving setbacks -- huge ones.
The big debut that packed up within days over her botched-up nasal surgery was producer Vijay Galani's (second from left) film co-starring Bobby Deol and Suniel Shetty (second from right) which Mahesh Manjrekar (centre) was to direct.
Pahlaj Nihalani (far left), then a big-time producer, gave the mahurat clap.
It didn't make a splash -- the photo that lost her half-a-dozen films.
The Chopras had packed their bags to return to Bareilly.
Scorching chemistry -- Suneel Darshan's Andaaz, directed by the late Raj Kanwar, threw Akshay Kumar and Priyanka together and they hit it off so well that they went on to become a very saleable box-office couple.
It was Andaaz that gave Priyanka her first taste of commercial success in the Hindi film industry.
Brand value -- Tarun Mansukhani initially found her clueless about high fashion.
Love thy neighbour -- a friendship with Shahid Kapoor that was typically kept under the radar.
A stage whisper -- her six-year relationship with Shah Rukh Khan was clandestine as expected and never publicly acknowledged. It was rumoured to have begun with Don 2, the sequel to their commercially successful Don, which was a new spin on the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer.
When the tumultuous relationship ended, it was such a wrench that Priyanka admitted, 'Heartbreak is a bitch.'
Excerpted from Priyanka Chopra: The Dark Horse by Bharathi S Pradhan, with the kind permission of the publishers, Om Books International.
