I'm sick of my bubbly image: Preity

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sheetal

@sheetald

Rocker

Posted: 19 years ago

Just as she has made it through life and death scenes on the big screen, Preity Zinta has survived terrifying experiences in real life too. She has testified against a mafia don and survived the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Throughout it all, she has managed to keep the dimpled, chatty girl-next-door image. But it has been eight years since Zinta's debut in Dil Se and now she wants to erase the image that has made her famous before her characters become caricatures. "I'm sick of it. I'm sick of being bubbly. I'm sick of being talkative and I'm sick of being cute," says Zinta.

"That image has stuck with me. I mean, you evolve, you know?" Zinta is hoping her role in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna will help her find a new public image.

The movie has drawn a lot of attention in Bollywood, largely for its star-studded cast which includes some of the industry's biggest draws, such as Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee. The actors have been tightlipped about the plot, saying only that it's about relationships and marriages not being as perfect as they appear.

Preity wants to erase the image that has made her famous before her characters become caricatures.
Zinta plays a "very ambitious magazine editor." Zinta has a reputation for choosing roles that go against India's traditional mores, even if she has smiled her way through them. She played an unwed mother in Kya Kehna. In last year's blockbuster Salaam Namaste, she played a woman who defied her family and moved in with her boyfriend before getting married.

"I always look for something interesting," she says. Apart from her reel-life, she has also made headlines, but not the sort most actresses make.

Zinta was a star witness at the 2003 trial of a movie financier, Bharat Shah, who police suspected had links to Mumbai's mafia. She testified about threats she had received from a gangster thought to be tied to Shah.