National award-winning actress Priyanka Chopra's father, the affable Ashok Chopra, is seriously ill. The cancer that struck the doctor a few years back has returned.

He is currently admitted at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital.

He is in a "very critical condition", according to one of Priyanka's friends.

'Daddy's lil girl', Priyanka, who even has a tattoo of the same words, is very anxious and worried. She has now postponed all rehearsals for Omang Kumar's Mary Kom biopic.

Till last week when her father's condition deteriorated Priyanka went about her work as normal. Only those close to her know what she's going through. Priyanka was attending the rehearsals for the Mary Kom biopic while attending to her father in her free time.


"Priyanka was religiously attending each and every rehearsal. She doesn't talk about her father's illnss with anyone. Nothing in her outward behaviour suggests anything irregular in her life. Only her close friends know what she is going through," said a source from the Mary Kom film crew.

Back in 2005 when Priyanka was shooting for Rohan Sippy's "Bluffmaster", her father fell ill. Even then, Priyanka had not shared her agony with anyone on the sets.

"It's the same now. Priyanka hasn't told anyone at her work place how unwell her father is. When she does all the pugilist practice for her Mary Kom role, it's almost as though she's venting all her grief through her fists. But now she has postponed all rehearsals," the source added.


Her frail father had accompanied Priyanka for an awards function held in Vancouver earlier this year. She had won the best actress trophy for her stupendous performance as an autistic girl in "Barfi!".