preity zinta

ZINTALICIOUS!

Who is the real PZ hidden behind her memorable and diverse characters? Let us say Salaam Namaste to Preity Zinta and find out.

She talks nineteen hundred to the dozen, and you don't interrupt, because she makes sense. Somewhere behind Preity Zinta's effervescence and fizz lies substance – and seriousness. Yes, the Preity Woman is comfortably entrenched in the A-bracket for the last five years, and has shunned the boring variety of cinema with focussed determination.

But she strikes the right balance between ambition and self-confidence. After all, long before she became an actor (after being a Miss Shimla), she was grooming to be a psychologist, so a healthy outlook seems a natural corollary. It's been a zinta-lating resume of hits, a few flops and lots of high-energy performances. Eight years into her career, she has had the cream of filmmakers too – in a mere list of 19 films!

Excerpts from an interview:

Is Salaam Namaste a staple Yash Raj product or a Yash Chopra-meets-Dil Chahta Hai new age cinema?
Salaam Namaste is a very contemporary film that is as modern as modern can be. It's about young people today who want society to let them live their lives the way they want to. They don't want drama and emotions and being told what to do and what not to do. The characters Saif Ali Khan and I play are in a live-in relationship, and when you are in such a mode, unlike when you are in love and view life through rose-tinted glasses, you get to know the negative sides of each other too. And they cannot now run to their elders for guidance for help in solving the problems that arise. So there is a new level of maturity coming in. Salaam Namaste has a very strong social message hidden behind the romantic comedy. Otherwise, it's a fun film.

How much do you identify with your character?
I am too Indian and family-oriented at heart for such relationships. In any case, I have a job that's very erratic in terms of my presence here. I was out for three months, then home for a month that's zipped by so fast, and now I will be travelling for four months! Even if I am here, I value my freedom too much to have a live-in kind of arrangement.

Let's get superstitious. All your films with Saif Ali Khan – Kya Kehna, Kal Ho Naa Ho, even Dil Chahta Hai (not paired romantically), have worked big time.
Yeah, and this is my fourth one with Saif. Let's get more superstitious, for four is my lucky number, ha, ha! Saif is such a dear friend now. Our chemistry is amazing. We have both worked very hard and these characters suit us particularly well together. So unless we're really going through a patch of bad luck, this film will work too!

Have the criteria for accepting a film changed after eight years in the profession?
No, I always thought it important to be a part of a film that's progressive as well as entertaining. There are so many Indians living below the poverty line, and so many uneducated. They easily get affected by the films we do, so somewhere there has to be a message, no matter what, and a positivity in whatever we do. I do not like dark films. For me a happy ending and a light at the end of a tunnel are important. I am an eternal optimist. A film should never depress, but at the same time level of intelligence must be there too. Thankfully, cinema today is getting more realistic and people are accepting us as characters rather than stereotypes.

You are one top heroine who has steered clear of off-beat cinema.
To me, cinema is cinema. If it excites and appeals, or my instinct tells me to do it, I'll work in a film in any language. I have lots of respect for those who do 'arthouse' stuff, but I do not believe that the cinema I do is not art. I know that what I do is as artistic as other art films, and I want to be part of that art that makes people smile and relieves their stress as opposed to making them serious and hyper. I want to return from work feeling happy and creatively satisfied.

Will you die with your acting boots on, or work only till it suits you?
No, I will not die with my boots on, or wait long enough to dye my hair gray and keep dyeing it, ha ha! Everything has a time and a place. My educational phase was a happy one, and acting made me discover my independence, financially and personally. I'm happy about this phase and what I am doing. After that there'll be a phase when I want a family and then I'll concentrate on that. I'm not going to wait till I become old and wrinkled for that!

How much is knowledge of psychology an asset here? Do you evaluate people and characters better, or protest against inconsistencies in your character?
Knowledge in general increases awareness, changes perspectives and broadens horizons. My speciality was forensic science and crime and criminals, so yes, I am more observant, and can read body language better. One of the things Psychology has also taught me is tolerance, and to be non-judgmental. As for characters, all I object to is weird dance steps and regressive scenes. Early in my career, an entire unit laughed at me when I refused a slap across my face from my reel husband because it would promote domestic violence.

How was The Hero as a working experience?
Obviously great because spies and espionage fascinate me!

Was there a perverse thrill somewhere with your liking for the subject to be dragged into the Bharat Shah affair then and the Salman Khan tapes imbroglio now?
At that point, all I was thinking about was that everything around was so corrupt. I stood up for what I thought and was completely frank and honest.

As for Salman, he's the media's official punching bag. To be honest, it's difficult to believe that someone who is so nice should have said something like that about me. But I have this attitude that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. If you keep throwing controversies in my way, I'll stand and fight, because however impulsive I am, I think before I leap!

But I seriously think that we have reached a saturation point in commercial and trivial journalism. It's ridiculous to say that stars sell as malicious headline material when the country has flood and rains and other problems happening. Earlier separate sections were there for gossip, today gossip blends with news! Our judicial system also needs to tighten up – in the US, you cannot get away with such things. Here they know that if you go to court it will take ten years. I have gone to court, because I do not want to be archived in a particular way if I am not like that.

Can you clarify your stand finally vis--vis Kareena Kapoor?
I have always been honest about something that bothers me, but in retrospect I think I was immature. Now that I know Kareena a little better because we keep meeting, I think she's a nice girl.

And all this ebullience and friendliness of Preity Zinta! Has anyone said you are a fake or a put-on?
No way, that's one thing my worst enemy will not call me – a fake! Yes, I am frank and opinionated. If you have a brain, you have an opinion.

And why are you doing only three films now?
In 8 years, I have done 20 films, so I have always been choosy. I am doing a cameo in Krissh and I have Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and Shirish Kunder's Janeman.

You recently organized a cleanliness drive in Mumbai.
Yes, I thought that we should all do our bit. The entire industry supported me, and Shah Rukh Khan joined me in the first chapter of this move. As stars we get a platform so we should use it. After Mumbai's (July 26) date with disaster, diseases can spread easily if there's no cleanliness around. And rather than just talk about how dirty India is, we should step out and do something.