After a busy week at the United Nations General Assembly, actor, producer and philanthropist Priyanka Chopra Jonas, along with director Anthony Russo, spoke passionately about their upcoming sci-fi espionage series, Citadel, for Amazon Prime Video, at a panel discussion on Inside TV’s Best Big Bet at the recently-concluded Fast Company Innovation Festival held in in New York City, USA.
Chopra Jonas, who plays an agent in the show, explained what really drew her to this global action franchise that demanded months of her time and led her to learn and speak six languages.
“You don’t have to watch the American show to understand; [the local language series] stands alone. But if you watch all the other shows, they’re all connected and that’s never been done in television. It’s such an interesting experiment, especially for a streamer like Amazon that caters to audiences across the world. To be able to offer a show which cross-pollinates audiences and languages is just so exciting to me. So it was innovative, and that’s what I loved about it,” said the actor, who is looking forward to the local spin-offs that will be made for Indian, Italian, Spanish and Mexican markets.
Chopra Jonas, who is the first Indian actor to have a first-look TV deal with Amazon Studios, was an obvious choice to headline the show for Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke and Russo. He shared, “When she [Salke] brought up Priyanka, it was like a light bulb went off. It was so intelligent and so smart because Priyanka represents the essence of what we’re trying to do with the show. The fact that she’s done such amazing work in India [and] internationally… she has this sort of dual identity – a foot in both worlds.”
Set in the near future, the storyline of Citadel centres on a global spy organisation called Citadel. Chopra Jonas plays one of the top agents at Citadel, alongside Richard Madden of Game Of Thrones fame. Talking about the series, Russo added, “This agency ends up coming in conflict with a new rival agency that has been developed by the world’s elite to sort of protect their self-interests. So, it’s a global struggle between these two competing points of view about what humanity should be.”
On a related note, the Indian spin-off of Citadel is being helmed by director duo Raj and DK and will star Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Prabhu is currently in the USA and is training with experts to get into the physique required for her part.
