' ₹1,300 crore in my bank account?' Priyanka Chopra's savage reply to Kapil Sharma goes viral

Actress Priyanka Chopra set the tone for laughs and buzz with her appearance on the season opener of The Great Indian Kapil Show Season 4, where a playful exchange about her upcoming film Varanasi quickly became the talking point online.

During the episode, host Kapil Sharma brought up reports around the film’s massive budget, widely rumoured to be around ₹1,300 crore. Smiling, Priyanka acknowledged the chatter with a simple “Haan (Yes),” prompting Kapil to take the joke further.

“So will these ₹1,300 crore be spent only on making the film, or are you also providing jobs to the people of Varanasi?” Kapil asked, drawing loud laughs from the audience. He then added another punchline, saying he had heard the film’s budget was not this high initially and had gone up only after Priyanka came on board.

Priyanka looked sceptical at the suggestion and shot back, asking Kapil if he was implying that half the budget had been transferred directly into her bank account. When Kapil cheekily replied, “It’s obvious,” the actor countered without missing a beat: “Matlab aap ulta naak pakadne ki koshish kar rahe hain? (Are you trying to pin it on me?)” — a comeback that left both Kapil and the audience in splits.

The conversation later turned to Varanasi, one of the most ambitious Indian films currently in the works. Directed by blockbuster filmmaker SS Rajamouli, the project also stars Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran, making it a high-profile, pan-India collaboration.

When Navjot Singh Sidhu attempted to get Priyanka to reveal details about the film’s storyline, Kapil stepped in, reminding everyone of Rajamouli’s famed secrecy. He joked that if the director could keep the mystery of Baahubali under wraps until release, Varanasi would be no different.

On the work front, Priyanka has already begun shooting for Varanasi in Hyderabad. Sharing pictures with her co-stars on social media, she recently wrote that collaborating with Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran — and being part of a Rajamouli film — was a privilege. She also noted that the team has begun engaging with international media nearly a year ahead of the film’s release, adding that the growing global anticipation is both exciting and humbling.

Varanasi is slated for a Sankranthi 2027 release and is being positioned as a large-scale adventure drama unfolding across continents and timelines. For now, however, it is Priyanka Chopra’s effortless wit on Kapil Sharma’s stage that has given audiences a memorable preview of the film’s star power.