MUMBAI: Bollywood diva and international singing sensation Priyanka Chopra has launched her debut album ‘In My City’, and is now doing the rounds to promote it, well, in her own city. She also touched upon the controversy surrounding her good friend Shah Rukh Khan.

Priyanka, a firm believer in pride for one’s home town, chose to release the album in India before it hits stands elsewhere in the world. Her debut single from the album, also titled ‘In My City’ featuring Will.i.am (of ‘Black Eyed Peas’) has already gone platinum, and Priyanka hopes for the same reception to the entire soundtrack as well.

Dressed in a simple yet elegant pencil grey fitted dress, with her adorable bangs framing her face, Priyanka spoke at the event in Malad about the experience working on an international music album, and the pressures she had to face while acclimatizing her voice to suit international norms.

Priyanka maintained that she didn’t know too much about the said controversy, but she did feel that sometimes people use celebrities to “advance their propagandas”

Said Priyanka, vehemently defending SRK: “I believe that people often use celebrities to advance their propagandas. Celebrities have become a soft target nowadays.”

The fracas began when Shah Rukh gave a first person account on being a Muslim, which was published in the Outlook Turning Points magazine, published in association with The New York Times newspaper. In response, Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed offered Shah Rukh an invitation move to Pakistan if he felt he wasn’t safe in India. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik then said that India should provide security to Shah Rukh. And thus the few remarks made by Bollywood’s reigning superstar Shah Rukh was embroiled in an “us-vs-them” controversy, with Indian ministers leaping in the fray, advising Malik to first provide security to the Hindu minorities in Pakistan, before offering protection or advising India to do so, towards its citizens.

The usually candid and media-friendly Priyanka turned slightly hostile when she was questioned on the SRK issue though. When Asked quizzed if she would have been courting even more controversies had her last name been ‘Khan’, Priyanka categorically said: “I get into controversies with ‘Chopra’ too. A big deal is being made out of nothing. You should be ashamed to even ask such a question in a country as secular as India.”

And that was that, as far as Priyanka was concerned.