Priyanka Chopra Jonas has quite the impressive list of accomplishments to her name — she's a world-famous actress, producer, successful business woman and former Miss World. But her latest endeavor might just be one of her tastiest.
The star has teamed up with Rob's Backstage Popcorn to create a new Indian-spiced snack, Priyanka's Mumbai Nights. And while the popcorn was inspired by the flavors of her home country, there's another reason why this new project feels so special — it's a family affair! The brand was co-founded by her husband, Nick Jonas, along with his bandmate brothers Kevin and Joe back in 2021.
"I show love by feeding people," Chopra Jonas said. "I think maybe it's a cultural thing. But if you ever come to our house, you will always have food. I'm a big foodie and so is my husband. We, at lunch, talk about what we're having for dinner with our family. When we go to a different city, we're like, alright, where are we going to eat? I love trying local cuisines wherever I go. I'm a big food person, my decisions for my day revolve around my meals, so it was just an organic thing to be able to move into a food and beverage."
And popcorn specifically is a big staple in the Chopra-Jonas household. "Whether it's movie nights, game nights, awards night, parties, whatever, we always have popcorn," she says.
Unsurprisingly, because of her love of dining, this isn't the first time that she's ventured into the world of food. In 2021, she opened an Indian restaurant, Sona, in New York City. Later she expanded into Sona Home, a home brand centered around elevated dinnerware, table linens and more.
As far as teaming up with her husband goes, Chopra Jonas tells Shop TODAY that working with Nick is "so easy" — which is probably why they've done it a few times through the years (he even has a role in her upcoming movie "Love Again").
"Both of us have influences in each other's work, so it was just kind of organic," she says. "We are working together, we're investing together, we're creating TV and film together. We just ended up doing a bunch of stuff together, because we were doing it separately anyway, and then it just kind of made sense to collaborate on the things that we both found common ground on, which happens to be most things."
Shopping Diaries: Priyanka Chopra Jonas
We asked Chopra Jonas to walk us through some of her current favorite products, from the hot sauce she keeps in her car to the beverage that she sips on when she's backstage at a Jonas Brothers show.
Rob's Backstage Popcorn Priyanka's Mumbai Nights, 4 Bags
Rob's Backstage Popcorn was born during the Jonas Brothers' Happiness Begins tour, when Rob Garbowsky (father of the band's friend and former bass player Greg), showed up with a trash bag of his famous homemade popcorn for everyone to enjoy. "It was supposed to last us a couple of days, but it was finished before the guys went on stage," Chopra Jonas says. So in 2021, the brothers teamed up with Rob and The Naked Market to package the product and bring it to stores.
To create her own flavor, Chopra Jonas says that she worked with Garbowsky to perfect the spice mix — a combination of turmeric, garlic, cumin, red bell pepper and more — and the process involved trying a lot of popcorn (which sounds pretty ideal honestly). "We just went back and forth until all of us one day were like, wow this is it."
The name, Mumbai Nights, reminded her of home, she says. "I spent almost 15 years in Mumbai and Mumbai is a really amazing city, which is chaotic and super cosmopolitan, but the nights are humid, seductive and just beautiful. And the popcorn, the heat and the kick in it, sort of reminded me of my nights in Mumbai."
The tasty snack, which was released last week, is available in Walmart and Albertson's stores.
"Whenever I have looked for Indian flavors, when it comes to snacks, I always find them in the ethnic aisle in a grocery store," she says. "I'm just very proud to be able to have an Indian-inspired spice mix popcorn, which is super mainstream, and people will have access to it in the snack aisle and not in an ethnic snack aisle."
Olipop
Chopra Jonas says that being backstage at a Jonas Brother's show is "like a party." And while Rob's Backstage Popcorn is a must-have, there are also a few staple beverages that you can find her sipping on before a show. "A fun drink is great to have," she says. "If it's a drinking night, then it's usually [Nick's] Villa One Tequila backstage, if it's a non-drinking night, then it's usually an Olipop, which is another one of our investments, which I love and drink all the time."
Cutino Sauce Co.
"I always have in my car hot sauce, because I'm usually eating, and I usually eat in my car on my way to work," she says. "So, I switch out my hot sauces." While Truff was a recent favorite, right now, she's keeping a variety of Cutino Sauce Co. flavors in her car.
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Goop G.Tox Cleanser
For face wash, she looks for something that won't strip her face of its natural oils. "I'm using one from Goop at the moment, which I love — take my money, Gwyneth! It's called G.Tox."
Virgin Coconut Oil
"I'm obsessed with coconut oil," Chopra Jonas says. "My grandmother passed when she was 94 and she used no other products except coconut oil and she had like four wrinkles on her face." For certain skin types, she says that it can be a little bit heavy to use on the face, "but I definitely use coconut oil for my body and for a head massage."
While you can find coconut oil at just about any grocery store to try her DIY beauty hack, we picked this one, which is an Amazon bestseller.
L'Occitane Rose Hand Cream
"I'm a brown girl, I wash my hands a lot, so I always need hand lotion," she says. Currently, she's using this one from L'Occitane. "I'm into rose scents right now."
Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream
"My job requires my skin to be the best version of itself and beauty to be a really important part of my life, so skin care is really crucial," she says. "I never sleep with my makeup on. No matter how late I am, no matter what. But that is a really important part of my routine at night I'd say, just to take five minutes and make sure everything is off my face .. I switch around my skin care products every four or five months, because I feel like it's going to get too used to it. But I like using a face oil, a serum and a moisturizer."
Along with a 111Skin serum, she says that Augustinus Bader's moisturizer is currently in her rotation.
