Preity at heart!

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

A lot has happened in Preity Zinta's life in the past few years that she kept away from the limelight and the wide screen to follow her heart in dedicating herself to cricket and her humanitarian projects. Come September 2012 and she is back after nearly a four year hiatus to vie for audience's attention with her debut production Ishq in Paris.

"Even though I was really nervous before the first shot, I realized that acting is like cycling. You don't forget anything even though it's been nearly four years. I wanted to do things differently with 'Ishq in Paris'. I started co-writing the script with Prem and then I decided to act and produce the movie," said Preity who had lost eight kilos to retain her Dil Chahta Hai curves.

Debuting in Dil Se in 1998, Preity had acted in more than 30 Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi and English language films. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress in 2003 for Kal Ho Naa Ho and played the lead in two consecutive annual top grossing films: Koi Mil Gaya and Veer-Zaara. She won the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival for her role in the Canadian production Heaven on Earth.

Speaking about her experiences working with Sri Lankans, Preity said that she has always found it a pleasant encounter. "I have met and worked together with Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Nuwan Kulasekara during the IPL T20 series and they have always been very cordial," said the bubbly actress who is the owner of the Kings XI Punjab.

Unveiling her ideas about her visit to Sri Lanka the Bollywood actress said that she is enthralled by the picturesque countryside and the hospitality of the Sri Lankans. She revealed that she would surely make another visit to the island post Carlton Super Sevens 2012.

After the recent success of Vidya Balan starrers The Dirty Picture and Kahaani, Bollywood is set to release a number of heroine-centric films in September. Bipasha Basu's Raaz 3 launches on September 7 followed by Kareena Kapoor in Madhur Bhandarkar's much hyped about movie Heroine on September 14. Preity and Sridevi's comeback vehicles 'Ishkq in Paris' and English Vinglish are both poised to take off on September 21 and Rani Mukerji's Aiyya will release on September 28. Though the films are not clashing on the same date, trade and industry watchers are anticipating some tough competition in the season in which the starlets take centre stage.

Queried if she is all set to face the music, Preity said that she sees the prospect in a positive light. "No doubt the month will belong to the actresses. It is almost a first in Bollywood history to see as many as five back-to-back women-centric films.

Rather than the competition I see this as a motivation for more actresses to showcase their acting talents on screen," she said."Rani and I have been lucky for each other in Chori Chori Chupke Chupke and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. I'm happy for both Kareena and Rani. Vidya is fantastic in Kahaani and director Sujoy Ghosh is amazing. It's great that content is now Queen - a positive sign for my movie," she added.

The challenge she faces these days is finding a child to star as her childhood version in the movie. The lass needs to be between four to seven years and should resemble Preity.

"It is so difficult to find a little girl to play 'mini me' thanks to the dimple on my right cheek! Ufff! I'm going crazy with the casting," Preity noted on the strange glitch that had risen to halt her production. The dimple has been Preity's trademark ever since she stepped into the industry but she admits that never in her wildest dreams that she thought that it would give her such technical concern.

Alia Bhatt, Mahesh Bhatt's younger daughter, played Preity's younger version in the critically acclaimed 1999 film Sangharsh. Alia will be making her movie debut in a lead role with Karan Johar's Student of the Year (SOTY) in October.

"Can you believe it? The girl who played the younger me is Karan's heroine in SOTY! How time flies," Preity tweeted on her site.

'Ishkq in Paris' is directed by Prem Raj and is said to be inspired by the 1995 Hollywood movie Before Sunrise. A romantic drama set in France, the original was about a young American man and French woman who meet in a train in Europe and end up spending a romantic evening together in Vienna. The underlying tragedy of the tale is that the couple is conscious of the fact that they might never meet again hereafter.

"Shooting in Paris has been very difficult, but all of us were so motivated that we did not care about the bone-piercing chill but just kept shooting. When we were shooting, the temperature plummeted to the coldest on record in France in 65 years. For a while I thought I would die, but it was a learning experience," she recalled.

Academy Award nominated French actress Isabelle Adjani and Arjun Rampal star in the lead roles in 'Ishkq in Paris'. Salman Khan plays a cameo in the film, returning Zinta's favour of appearing in a dance sequence in his 2009 movie Main Aur Mrs. Khanna.

With more actors and actresses turning producers and directors the grapevine states that Preity's next will be her directorial debut. She pooh-poohs such rumours by stating that she does not want to take too much on her plate.

Apart from movie-making she is also involved in the media and social activism. She was awarded the Godfrey Phillips National Bravery Award for her being the only witness not to retract in court her earlier statements against the Indian mafia during the 2003 Bharat Shah case.

She was appointed the Goodwill Ambassador in India for Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and hopes to become the 'voice for the voiceless' and transform the people's thinking patterns via collaborative projects.