IANS

Actress Priyanka Chopra's opening night appearance at the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was her first-ever brush with a global film fest.

"I am relatively new to the film industry - I've been around for only three years," she said, admitting that she was really happy "to open her film festival innings with our own IFFI".

In the hours leading to the 90-minute Bollywood extravaganza that preceded the screening of the opening film - Spanish maverick Pedro Almodovar's critically acclaimed Penelope Cruz-starrer "Volver" - Priyanka was understandably nervous.

"I'd better go and rehearse. After all I will be performing before a 4,000-strong audience, which will include a host of people whose job is to view everything with a critical eye," she said.

She was referring to the 400-odd accredited film critics covering the ongoing IFFI 2006. Priyanka's act, performed in tandem with Salman Khan, was the finale of the opening night gala song and dance show.

Did she stay on to catch a few films?

"I would have loved to, but I can't because I have a shoot in Mumbai tomorrow morning," she said. A Bollywood actor, she admitted, finds it difficult to spend time at film festivals because "we do four-five films a year".

Priyanka added: "In the West, an actor works on one or two films a year and can, therefore, afford to watch films at a festival."