Bollywood starlet Priyanka Chopra came to Vancouver with her eyes set on her first-ever Times of India Film Award. “(I think you) come hoping to win,” said Chopra, who was named best actress for her performance as Jhilmil, an autistic girl in “Barfi!” “’Barfi!’ was my most difficult performance to date.” And when her name was announced Saturday night at B.C. Place, the award was first handed to her father, who took the 30 hour flight just to be there with her. As she looked out to the crowd, she thanked her father and everyone who supported her and expressed her gratitude for TOIFA becoming a “Barfi! night.”

Chopra devoted a lot of work to her role as Jhilmil, visiting children at autistic schools and working with kids with Aspergers and cerebral palsy. “Differently abled children – you see that they … they’re not like us where we’re feeling cold and angry and excited,” she said, adding that they only ever experience one emotion at a time. She wanted to be sure that she gave these children the proper justice they deserve in the film. “It’s very easy when you play characters like that for it to become a little bit of a caricature,” she said. “We had a vision and we worked on her until we got it right.” Chopra also had to focus on ditching her glamorous image. “People know me as me – how I look and how I behave,” she said.

“The challenge was to be able to make people believe that that was not Priyanka.” “That was tough for us especially because we didn’t do any prosthetics, we didn’t do any special makeup – nothing. It was just curly short hair and body language, so that was hard for me because I didn’t have any crutches.” But it’s difficult roles like this one that Chopra likes doing the best. “I’ve always pushed myself and I like to do things that shock me,” she said. “Sometimes I fail, but when you succeed at really challenging feats it’s a lot more fun.” And “Barfi!” certainly wasn’t a failure, she said.