Priyanka Chopra teams up with Masti Dubai's chef Hari Nayak to start Indian restaurant Sona in New York City

Over the last three months, Priyanka Chopra Jonas has starred in the critically acclaimed Netflix film The White Tiger, released a bestselling memoir and launched a sustainable haircare line - and she's not done yet.

The actress recently took to social media to announce the release of her new New York City restaurant Sona, which she says she's “poured her love for Indian food into”.

“Sona is the very embodiment of timeless India and the flavours I was raised with,” she said when announcing the starting on Instagram.

The restaurant will be helmed by chef Hari Nayak, the person behind popular Dubai restaurants Masti, Moombai & Co and Bombay Bungalow. While Masti is well known for a playful, Indian undertake global cuisine, Moombai & Co is an old-school joint in Dubai's trade centre area that's made to have diners on a "journey back to traditional Irani-Parsi cafes of India."

“For years, I have been asked why I haven’t opened a cafe in New York, my home floor for over 2 decades while I have attended much corners of the world beginning many. It’s because New York is definitely my virtually all cherished dream. And like every beautiful dream it needed to be excellent,” the chef said in an Instagram post.

While little has been revealed about the menu up to now, the restaurant’s tagline “timeless India in the heart of NYC,” appears to suggest that it'll be real Indian food. Nayak has alluded to dishes having today's twist, and Chopra possesses added that it will require diners on a “meals trip” through her homeland.

The project is a collaboration with restauranteur David Rabin and businessman Maneesh Goyal, who revealed Chopra Jonas to be the “creative force behind Sona”.

“From the look to the menu to the music and even the name, Priyanka has already established her fingerprints around Sona,” Goyal said on Instagram. The word “Sona” translates to “gold” in English.

“There is no-one who better - and more boldly -personifies 'global Indian' than Pri. Sona is indeed lucky to have her inside our corner.”

Obviously, plans for the restaurant have been in the works for some time. Together with the posts announcing its release, Chopra Jonas possesses shared images of a puja (prayer ceremony) she undertook in 2019 to bless the area. Her husband, singer Nick Jonas, as well features in the photographs.

Sona is situated on 36 East 20th Street, New York City, and can open to the public later in March.