Priyanka Chopra said she was not fond of war but called herself 'patriotic'. Photo: John Sciulli/AFP

The incident, which was widely shared online, took place during a cosmetics event on Saturday in the US city of Los Angeles when audience member Ayesha Malik accused Chopra, who was appointed a United Nations goodwill ambassador in 2016, of "encouraging nuclear war against Pakistan".

"My friend and I were walking around and we walked by Priyanka's talk," Malik, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, told Al Jazeera on Monday. "We did not want to watch or stick around but I heard her start talking about how she's a humanitarian - she said we should 'love our neighbours' and I just thought that was very funny of her to say."

In the video of the confrontation that was posted on Twitter, Malik is heard saying: "It was kind of hard hearing you talk about humanity, because as your neighbour, a Pakistani, I know you are a bit of a hypocrite, because you tweeted on February 26, 'Jai Hind [Hail India] #IndianArmedForces"".

"You are a UNICEF (Goodwill) Ambassador for peace and you are encouraging nuclear war against Pakistan, there is no winner in this," she told Chopra.

The former Miss World posted that tweet soon after Indian fighter jets crossed into Pakistani territory, conducting air raids that resulted in an escalation in hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours. The Indian raids followed a suicide attack in the Indian-administered Kashmir town of Pulwama earlier that month. India blamed Pakistan for the February 14 suicide bombing, a charge the latter denied.

The venue's security took away the microphone from Malik while she was still speaking.