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When Priyanka Chopra walked the ramp for the last time in Fashion she got a standing ovation from the audience at a theatre. But the one to get most emotionally moved was her dad, who broke down seeing his daughter’s performance.

Watching Priyanka play the small-town girl who leaves home to become a model in the metropolis in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion was a deeply emotional experience for Ashok Chopra.

“He just broke down. Watching my character Meghna in Fashion, he saw his little girl from Jamshedpur going all the way to Mumbai to become Miss World. In fact his sense of identification with that whole portion in Chandigarh where I’m this plump Punjabi girl leading a sheltered life with her parents, was very deep,” said Priyanka from Dubai, where she attended the Fashion premiere Thursday night.

“I identified deeply with those scenes where my character is trying to find her way in Mumbai. The only difference is my character Meghna knows exactly where she was going. I had no clue. Also, my dad never stopped me from pursuing my dreams. He was concerned, yes. But never disapproving like Meghna’s father. In fact my dad moved to Mumbai to be with me when I decided to move to Mumbai,” she added.

Days after the film’s release, there’s a sense of outrage about the fashion industry being shown as a place of constant undercutting and heartbreak.

But Priyanka said: “It’s like that in any competitive field. We slogged hard on the research. Madhur and I gave our life and blood to the film. I was in discussions over the script with Madhur for five months before I said yes to Fashion.”

The Dubai premiere saw a few Bollywood members too as the cast of Do Knot Disturb were shooting in the city.

“We had David Dhawan, Lara Dutta and Riteish (Deshmukh) who were shooting in Dubai. Then we had the royalty from Dubai,” the actress said.

She added: “Earlier we had a special screening of Fashion for the modeling world in Mumbai. I had a ball catching up with the old times, screaming and shouting. The best thing is that the fashion industry supported us in such a big way. People from the fashion industry love Fashion. We’ve definitely taken real-life incidents from the ramp. Even the wardrobe malfunction scene is so poignant. The designers, models, choreographers…they were all supportive.”

Model Carol Gracias, whose wardrobe malfunction incident has been incorporated into Fashion, saw the film and apparently liked the way it was handled.

“She loved the film. Carol thought it’s very classily done,” said Priyanka.