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We film industry folks are too insulated: Priyanka

ACTRESS Priyanka Chopra says she had a life-altering experience when she visited Tenga Valley in Arunachal Pradesh to record a special programme for a news channel.

After her trip to the valley, she realises people in the film industry are too insulated...

and their entire time is taken up with shooting and catching flights.

"I saw nature at its fiercest. I had earlier seen the tsunami... on the same date, July 27, two years earlier. Isn't that bizarre? I realised we in the film industry are too insulated. We're all taken up with shooting and catching flights. I feel if you want to keep it real for yourself, you can. As much as I love the luxurious life I like the thought of roughing it out once in a while," Priyanka told IANS.

Recalling her trip for NDTV 24x7, she said: "The funniest thing was, a week before I went to Tenga Valley, there had been a bomb attack on Guwahati. I didn't want to take the easy route and go to Ladakh and Siachen or the other places where our soldiers are stationed. I wanted to go somewhere no one else had. I wanted to show TV viewers where our soldiers have to be to fight for us.

"People don't even know Tenga Valley exists. It's the absolute border on the east. No one wants to go there because there's a lot of insurgency in that area. We had to drive from Guwahati to Tejpur and then to Tenga Valley."

Priyanka'a mother accompanied her.

"I really wanted my dad on the show because of his army connection. But he wasn't well, and I didn't want him to go through the gruelling journey."

On her way back she was stuck in a traffic jam due to a landslide.

"After doing the show with the jawans at Tenga Valley we were warned not to drive back in the night in the pouring rain. So we left at 3.30 a.m. Three hours later we were stuck in a landslide.

"A massive part of the mountain had fallen on the road. We had to spend nearly 12 hours stuck in the long line of traffic without any signal for the cell phones."

Once Priyanka got a hang of the situation, she had loads of fun.

"Thankfully, there was an army mess close by. We telephoned for help. The bulldozers came in half an hour. But it took them eight hours to clear the landslide. Thankfully, because of the mess, we had food and we distributed it in cars all around us."

The other travellers stuck in the landslide must have had a field day having Priyanka in their midst.

"For a while they took pictures of me, and the landslide. Then they got bored of both. The funniest thing was, after the landslide was cleared at 7 p.m. we left... only to be stuck again because the river Brahmaputra flowed on to the road.

"That was scary because the locals were all around us. We had to get out of our cars and get into a bus that was arranged. I've a video recording of all the adventure that we had. By the time we got to Tejpur it was almost morning. We were exhausted."

Priyanka, who is climbing the success ladder fast, is also moving into her new house.

"My interior designer Suzanne Roshan says at the end of October but I don't think it will happen before November-December. I'm very eager to move in," said Priyanka who has "Drona" and "Love Story 2050" in her kitty.