'KANK Made Me Realise How Traditional Ind

Preity Zinta is chilling out these days and seems to be in no hurry to sign films. She's happy with the way her career is moving. Very few actors can claimy to be selective about their films and still maintain a high success ratio. Preity is also happy about the fact that she's played two diametrically opposite characters in both her releases this year, KANK, and Jaan-e-Mann, and is looking forward to her next, Jhoom Barabar with Abhishek Bachchan and Bobby Deol!

Do you think DON ruined the chances of JAAN-E-MANN?
I don't think so. There was a time when Aamir Khan and Sunny Deol had their films releasing on the same day and both the films did well. Indians have an appetite for cinema. Don, and Jaan-e-Mann were as different as chalk and cheese. Don was an action film while ours was a family entertainer. Jaan-e-Mann didn't do well initially but it picked up later, I was told. Anyway, I don't go by the success or failure of my films. I still believe that it was a good film with a cute script. It was the script that appealed to me. It will always be a film that I cherish.

You seem to have worked a lot with new directors!
I really enjoy working with them and have proved to be lucky for them. They are very good. Shirish Kunder is someone to watch out for. I liked his script of Jaan-e-Mann and his style of narration. He was a revelation to me. He's so clear in his vision and is technically very sound too. He's such a perfectionist that at times he'd make us rehearse for three hours. It was so frustrating but the end product was good. I felt like a kid in a candy shop while watching the film. He's also a very chilled out guy. I always look at Shirish's hair and ask him how he manages to have hair straighter than mine (laughs).

You've played mother in both your films this year! Don't you have hang-ups about doing that?
Nargis played mother to two men who were about her age in Mother India. It's too superficial to be conscious of these things. It's substance in the film that's more important.

Your character in JAAN-E-MANN was quite different from the characters you've played before!
I've always played a strong woman in most of my films. I really enjoyed Jaan-e-Mann as I was playing an ultra feminine character, something that I rarely get to play. I enjoyed shooting the climax of the film. I've never shot a climax like that. In KANK, I had to be all dressed up all the time, I couldn't move freely and had to center all my energies into fighting with one of my favourite screen actors and good friend. It's not easy to stand there in front of Shah Rukh and fight with him and even slap him. On the other hand, Jaan-e-Mann was a de-stressing experience for me. I danced and had fun while shooting (laughs).

How did it feel working with Salman and Akshay after a long time in JAAN-E-MANN?
We still share the same rapport that we did earlier. Both of them are extremely nice guys. As far as Salman was concerned, the famous tape controversy was clarified and things came out in the open. But I never had doubts about Salman right from the beginning. There were so many
controversies around Jaan-e-Mann even before it started. That brought all of us closer.

Is it true that Akshay Kumar called you 'Basanti' on the sets of JAAN-E-MANN?
No. I don't know where this has come from but he used to call me 'Gadhadhari Bheem' because I was always hyper on the sets (laughs).

KANK raked up a few moral issues!
I always knew it would do that. Morality is a big issue in our country. Bollywood heroes and heroines have always been painted white. Here they had shades of gray. But if Karan Johar had made Kal Ho Na Ha part 2, people would have said, 'so boring'. KANK gives you issues to ponder over. The film showed problems between husbands and wives. After this film, I realized how traditional Indians are.

How did it feel when Shah Rukh Khan left you for Rani in KANK?
SRK and me are such good friends in real life. Even I felt that it wasn't fair that he divorce me in KANK. He died for me in Kal Ho Na Ha, he even waited 25 years for me in Veer Zaara and now he divorces me in 'KANK'. But that was Karan Johar's idea of a joke. Just kidding! Actors are paid slaves. We have to go according to the script.

What was people's reaction to it?
People judge your character in a film on the basis of what you are as a person. After Veer Zaara, a lot of people told me, 'why didn't you tell your father that you like Shah Rukh Khan and want to marry him, not the other guy.' (Laughs). I had to tell them that it was Zaara, not Preity, for her to behave like that. The same thing happened with KANK. They told me, 'how could Shah Rukh divorce you!'.

Were you convinced about Shah Rukh walking out on you?
I wasn't happy. I said, 'how can he leave me?'. But when you slip, you slip. There's no reason for it. We had moved so far apart from each other that it was impossible to get back together again.

Shah Rukh Khan calls you Ms. Righteous!
That's because you're always suing somebody! This time I'm suing a cheesy tabloid. I'm a decent person who pays her taxes and is living a respectable life. I don't want garbage being written about me.

Would you do a completely different kind of role?
I would love to. I've even had people coming to me with such scripts but I find these films so different and dark that I don't really want to do them. A lot of people tell me that they can't cast me as a poor girl. So I have to play a rich NRI girl. I try to do something different within this. But unfortunately we don't make so many different films in this country.

How about playing a bubbly teenager again?
I don't mind as long as there's something in it for me to do.

Would you do a film on lesbianism?
I would love to if it has an amazing script. It's not so much the fascination for the role as for the script. But the problem is when they make these kinds of films in India, they kill them. It's important for directors to make unconventional films. I've always tried to play as many different characters as I can and am still trying to cover as much ground as possible.

Somewhere you'd said that had you been a journalist, you wouldn't have covered films! Any particular reason for it?
It wasn't meant that way. The person misinterpreted what I'd said. What I meant was that there's so much media happening today, and film is the most widely covered subject. So I would do other beats. I also meant that I wouldn't indulge in fluffy and yellow journalism.

A little about your next film …
Jhoom Barabar has Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, and Lara Dutta, besides me. It's a fantastic film. I'm sure people are going to love it. This film has Abhishek and me, finally paired together. I worked with him for the first time in KANK and it was a wonderful experience. He's one of the most cultured and funniest persons I have ever met. I'm working with Bobby after ages after Soldier. We're truly fond of each other. But it's too early to say anything else about the film.

Have you signed anything new?
I'm still listening to scripts. Soon I'll be going through a few scripts. I want to take my time and not rush into it. The worst part is that just after I sign a film, I'm offered the best film and I have to refuse as my dates have just been given away. Eight years back, when I joined the industry, I wondered at the kind of films that were being made. But today I'm happy with the kind of films that we are making here.

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