'Hassee Toh Phassee heroine Parineeti Chopra, 25, talks about her career and life in a candid interview with select media persons. She is often compared with Kajol in her demeanour for her uninhibited style of acting.

Born and brought up in Ambala, a district of Haryana, Parineeti Chopra reveals that her dad is this typical orthodox, narrow-minded Punjabi man, in front of whom you can't even utter the word called boyfriend. He expects you to get up at seven in the morning and go for a jog.

She adds that they had little money and would go on a cycle to school. But her nana lived in Africa and was very affluent, as he owned a big insurance company and so every summer vacation they would fly first class for their holidays there and from there to a new country.

` My mom had come to Delhi for a one-year course and her relatives wanted to marry her off. She went to see this boy at a singing performance where the Chopra brothers, Priyanka's father and my father, were performing (they did shows for their passion) and my mother fell in love with my father and married him. I have always been a big city girl, so post college in Ambala, I went to Manchester and did a triple honours degree in Business, Finance and Economics, but in 2009, when I graduated, recession had hit hard and there were no jobs for bankers. So I had no choice but to come back to India. I had gone on a big student loan to study there with some help from my nana. I would do part-time jobs to sustain my life and study there. I worked with Manchester United and used to do a catering job. I would meet the entire team, including David Beckham, everyday.

I knew he was a star and my friends would get envious as I got to see the matches for free, but I was not a football fan at all. For me, it was just a well-paying job. I also took orientation classes for new students at the university and worked at a departmental store,` she maintains.


Parneeti says `Coming back to India was a big jolt, as it was a waste of degree and money. Due to recession, there were no jobs in banking even in India. So I had once come with my sister Priyanka to YRF, while she was shooting for a film. I used to judge films and actors and feel they were useless and would often tell my sister, 'You have such an easy job. You just have to wear good clothes and travel the world and make money.' She would get very disturbed and say, 'You don't know what acting is.' But all that was theory for me. So I applied and got a job as a marketing intern with YRF and started enjoying films and then got myself a permanent job. After a year, I thought of giving acting a shot. I had only done school plays for annual days before that. The good thing was I did not struggle and got my first film, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, easily. I had worked on the marketing of Band Baaja Baaraat and Maneesh Sharma would often see me and say, 'Why don't you become an actress?' That got me thinking, but I did not tell him till one day he sent me to the casting director to give my audition. After a few months, I resigned from my job as I had decided to go and take an acting course. But the very next day, I got a call from Maneesh saying they wanted to sign a three-film deal with me. I went to meet Adi and just cried and hugged him. That how my life and career started and is blossoming.