Priyanka Chopra is famous for not only being one of the most beautiful women in Bollywood but a smart and intelligent thinker who's not afraid to speak her mind.
In a new interview with BellaSugar.com, the 31-year-old Guess girl sounds off on her hair secrets, how she keeps her pouty lips looking so gorgeous, what she learned from competing in the Miss World pageant and what she thinks North Americans can learn from Bollywood beauty. (Hint: family and respect are important.)
But one of the most interesting parts of the interview is when the actress is asked what she thinks is one of the biggest stereotypes facing Indian women today, when it comes to their beauty practices.
"I’d tell the world that we don’t always have henna on our hands and stickers on our forehead. We love bindis and henna, by the way, at weddings especially! Whenever I wear an Indian outfit I love wearing bindis. I think they look beautiful. ..But for the young girls, it’s mostly just because it looks cool. And with henna, it’s something to do when you’re celebrating togetherness, like maybe a wedding or maybe a festival. It’s something we wear at that point. Eating turkey at Thanksgiving is like wearing henna at a wedding... But it is an individual thing, and it can be just as much worn as a fashion statement because we think it’s pretty. It can be as casual as that, too."
The "I Can't Make You Love Me" singer is known for making fashion statements, even if sometimes a tiny wardrobe malfunction gets in the way. But thanks to her Miss World experience (she was crowned with the title in 2000), the raven-haired beauty is able to pull off her public persona with grace and finesse.
"During the pageant," she said, "it was very important to have your game face on all the time. Regardless, I was raised like that — to believe a woman is a lady [who should be] eloquent and well spoken."
As for today's beauty queens, Priyanka has some choice words for them.
"The one thing that really bothers me about beauty queens is the women who don’t really believe in the things that they say and don’t understand the effect it will have. Girls shouldn’t take the intelligence of the audience for granted. The audience can tell the difference between a woman who really wants to make a difference in the world and a woman who is just saying she wants world peace, because that’s what she thinks you’re supposed to say. There should be actions behind the words that you say."
Seems like we have a lot to learn from this wise woman!
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