I'll always be there for Shekhar: Preity

Controversies aside, actress-cum-business woman Preity Zinta says she has the deepest respect for internationally acclaimed director Shekhar Kapur and that she will be always there for him.

"Shekhar is very special to me because he is the one who brought me into this industry. Though that film did not take off, I will always be grateful to him for bringing me to the film industry. I have great respect for him and I will always be there for him," Preity told IANS in an interview.

Kapur, whose ex-wife Suchitra Krishnamurthy blamed Preity for her divorce, had signed the actress for " Ta Ra Rum Pum " that was to be directed by Vishal Bharadwaj.

"But the film never took off due to some problems. We sat for a few meetings and worked on the scripts but things did not fall in place so we just let it go," Preity said.

Is she doing any film with him now?

"No, he did not approach me again."

What are the films that Preity is working on now?

"I have a lot of films which I have completed shooting for."

Preity said she has completed Jahnu Barua's "Har Pal", Rituparno Ghosh's English film "The Last Lear", Samir Karnik's "Heroes" and Deepa Mehta's Punjabi film "Heaven On Earth".

Out of these, Preity considers "Heaven On Earth" as the most intense film of her career.

"It is the best film I have ever done. If I am 80-years-old and if someone asks me which film do you want to show people, I would say 'Heaven On Earth'.

"Though 'Har Pal' and 'Heroes' are also very close to my heart, I think 'Heaven On Earth' was altogether a different journey for me."

The film has a host of award-winning actors from stage and is expected to hit the marquee later this year.

As far as "Har Pal" is concerned, Preity said she had a great time working with legendary actor Dharmendra.

"It was a lifetime experience of working with Dharamji and I had a blast with my co-star Isha Koppikar. The script is 200 percent original. Every one would think that 'Har Pal' is a serious movie, but let me tell you that it is a hilarious film with the right emotions."

What about your relations with 'Har Pal' co-star Shiney Ahuja?

"Relations are fine with him, but we are not best friends. He is a good co-star."

The actress, who has featured in commercially successful films like "Dil Chahta Hai", "Koi... Mil Gaya" and "Kal Ho Naa Ho", thanks Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh for introducing her to meaningful cinema.

"He opened the doors to working in meaningful films. I want that when I look back after 10 or 20 years, I don't have only 'masala' films to my credit. I want to see myself as part of meaningful films as well. It is because of him that I got 'Heaven On Earth' and I want to thank him for that."

In "The Last Lear", Preity teams up with Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal, Divya Dutta and Shefali Shah.

About "Heroes", Preity said it is a multi-starrer - a new genre of film with separate stories that have a common connection.

Besides Preity, it also stars Salman Khan, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Mithun Chakraborty, Sohail Khan, Dino Morea, Vatsal Sheth, Amrita Arora and Riya Sen.

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Preity Zinta takes art route

Pretty girl Preity Zinta is changing tracks with a vengeance. With an obvious attempt at shedding away her bubbly tag, especially after the box office failure of her high profile films like JAAN-E-MANN and JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM, she has headed for art house cinema.

One may term her films as meaningful, parallel or offbeat cinema but the fact remains that each of her upcoming films is a far cry from the cute and effervescent image that she has built for herself over the years. Whether it was her initial stint with the likes of SOLDIER and KYA KEHNA or her recent crop of films like SALAAM NAMASTE, VEER ZAARA and KOI MIL GAYA, she was finding herself trapped in a particular brand of cinema.

2008 may just about manage to change it all where she is working on number of art/offbeat films. These are:

Har Pall (directed by Jahnu Barua)
Heroes (directed by Samir Karnik)
The Last Lear (directed by Rituparno Ghosh)
Heaven On Earth (directed by Deepa Mehta)

Joginder Tuteja, Bollywood Trade News Network

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Preity plays a 'bad' actress

Arshad Warsi and Preity Zinta share an identical predicament. They've to play 'bad' actors in their latest films. While in Anil Kapoor's production, Shortcut, Arshad plays bad actor, in Rituparno Ghosh's Last Lear Preity is cast as a bad actress.

That isn't the only problem the actress had to face. Preity had a very real problem on the sets of Jahnu Barua's Harr Pal. Pritam Chakraborty has done the music score. Every time someone mentioned his name she thought they were calling out to her, because Pritam is the name given to her by Bobby Deol.

Harr Pal has been one of Preity’s toughest roles ever. But the role of the Punjabi NRI wife in Deepa Mehta's Heaven On Earth has been her toughest yet. She's still carrying the invisible wounds of the battered wives' character. The shooting was wrapped up on Sunday.

Doing Rituparno Ghosh's Last Lear posed its own problems for Preity. She had never worn a sari or a bindi in her life. "Suddenly Ritu-da asked me to stick on bindis that were almost as large as my face. Initially, I was most reluctant. But then I surrendered completely to his vision. I'm actually looking pretty in Last Lear." Even the international critics have noticed. The reviews make a special mention of Preity.

In its review, Variety mentions, "It's an interesting paradox to watch a star like Zinta deliver a good performance as a woman who's widely known as a bad thespian."

Subash K Jha, Bollywood Hungama

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