Priyanka Chopra was on her way to becoming a global star when she won Miss World in the year 2000. After this, she moved to Mumbai to start her film career and her mother, Dr Madhu Chopra, moved with her as Priyanka tried to find her way in the film industry. But while Priyanka’s parents were supporting her through her film journey, her younger brother, Siddharth, grew up with his grandparents and was “overshadowed” by his sister’s success.
In a recent chat with Lehren Retro, Madhu spoke about Siddharth’s childhood as he grew up under the shadow of his successful sister. “Sometimes, I feel that, but he turned out all right. He landed on his feet. He is quite an independent, free thinking person. He is very different personality. With him, it was that without any internal influences… I mean family can become clawing sometimes, he grew up without that influence and he just grew up. He grew up with both his grandmothers,” she said.
Madhu shared that he is a “very responsible child” but added, “But many times I feel that during his growing up years, when he was a teenager, his father’s influence wasn’t much, my influence also wasn’t much, the grandmothers were the primary caretakers. He had a very pampered life.” She recalled that Priyanka would take Siddharth along to her shoots, or whenever she was going out for her shows. Talking about being overshadowed, Madhu said that all of them were overshadowed by Priyanka. “Even a blade of grass won’t grow behind a big banyan tree,” she said. Siddharth recently got married to Neelam Upadhyaya. The wedding was attended by Priyanka.
In the same chat, Madhu recalled when Priyanka moved to the US for the first time at the age of 13 and started studying there. “My sister said that education is better in the US but that’s not true at all. Education is so much better in India but the environment was better there for overall well-rounded development,” she said. Madhu’s sister was living in the US and was ready to be Priyanka’s guardian for the time she studied there.
But, amid all this, Priyanka’s father Ashok Chopra wasn’t in favour of Priyanka moving abroad and live without her parents. “Papa said, see, she is a teenager, this is not the right age for her to live there. She should be with her parents at this time. I said that is not something we should worry about. She will live with my sister, and she is strict, she will do a good job,’ she recalled.