YouTube star Navpreet rejects Bigg Boss 11; says ‘don’t call me Priyanka lookalike’

Rumours had recently been rife that YouTube star Navpreet Banga, a Canadian video blogger (or vlogger), was approached for the 11th season of the reality show Bigg Boss. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Navpreet clears the air, saying, “I found out from an article that I’m even in consideration for the show. I got the final call, where they wanted me to think about it. And I rejected it right away.”

Navpreet says she doesn’t want to be part of a show where the mere reason she’s considered is her resemblance to Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra. Agreeing to do such a show, she feels, would take away her credibility as a YouTube star — Navpreet posts videos on the content sharing platform, and the views run into a couple of millions; she is fairly big on Instagram as well, with 175,000 followers.

In several of her photos, Navpreet does look like a doppelgänger for Priyanka Chopra, but she doesn’t want to dwell on that. “This lookalike thing makes me feel that I’m nothing else but that. People call me [Priyanka’s] lookalike all the time. Some even say that I do it on purpose. I can’t change the way I look; I am born this way and I sound this way. I don’t want to be known as PC’s lookalike because I am so much more,” says Navpreet.

‘People call me [Priyanka Chopra’s] lookalike all the time. Some even say that I do it on purpose. I can’t change the way I look; I am born this way and I sound this way. I don’t want to be known as PC’s lookalike because I am so much more.’ — Navpreet Banga

Her YouTube videos cover a range of subjects. “I talk about mental health so much, and I make people laugh, and I want to be known for these things. News brings traffic my way, which is cool, but people have the wrong idea of me, which I don’t appreciate,” says the star vlogger. “I feel that it’s discrediting so much that I do. I think part of the reason people wanted me to go [on] Bigg Boss was because of what I look like. That’s not a good enough reason to go anywhere. I have earned a position, I want to be called Navpreet Banga, and they recall me [by] that name and that’s how I want to move forward in life.”

There are plenty of comments on social media on the subject of Navpreet’s resemblance to Priyanka. She says, “Every day, I get about 10 new comments on my timeline about Priyanka Chopra. I am just a normal person. And all of a sudden, I find myself in the news. It’s shocking, as I’m just a 22-year-old, living my normal life. There’s always this news about you. And I can’t really process it (laughs). It can be overwhelming for anybody, and especially for me, because I’ve been trying to grow my channel for such a long time, with videos on fitness, beauty, cooking, and comedy.”

A full-time YouTuber, Navpreet wants to pursue a career in acting. She will be seen next in a Punjabi film set in the 1920s. “I got this film, because the producer’s cousins were fans of my comedy, and they loved my videos,” she says. “They have given me a powerful role. We shot [for the film] in Rajasthan in the month of March and April.”