Indian cinema is becoming more real: Preity Zinta
Noreen Aslam

NEW DELHI—Actor Preity Zinta believes Indian cinema has changed for the better with Bollywood dream merchants becoming more experimental and films offering a higher quotient of reality to ring in box office collections. “The demographics of Indian cinema have changed. Youngsters in the industry have loads of potential and they want to experiment. Even the audience is ready to take a chance. Human beings are great and then there is variety,” Preity told reporters.
“When there is Kiran Bedi in real life then why not in reel life? Apart from just looking glamorous in the film, heroines are doing unconventional roles. Even heroes are playing characters with grey shades contrary to enacting the clichéd good-boy role,” she added. The actor, who is brand ambassador of Godfrey Philips Bravery Awards, was here Saturday, to launch the globally renowned Golden Ovary Awards.
The award has been brought in the country by the corporate social responsibility initiative of leading tobacco company Godfrey Philips India in association with the Guild Of Women Achievers, an international network of women committed to helping women maximise their potential. So what is bravery for Preity?
“Courage is contagious. It spreads from one person to the other and engulfs society and humanity. When we salute one woman from a remote village in India, an entire village of women stands up and holds its head high. “Bravery is not just physical... showing compassion, supporting others and contributing towards bettering the world where we live in is also an act of courage.
“And Indian women are extremely strong and resilient... even physically. I have met a 17-year old girl who saved nine healthy men from drowning, a mother who fought with a leopard to save her child, to name a few.” Preity herself won the Godfrey Philips Bravery Award in 2002 for being the only witness in court who did not retract earlier statements in a case against film producer Bharat Shah.
Priety Zinta feels homesick: Even while her home in Mumbai is being re-constructed, Preity Zinta is dreaming of building a house in Shimla. “I always wanted a family home in my home town. I’m now going to build a house there. The older one is in a locality that’s so crowded I don’t recognise it any more. Earlier it was just our house and lots of trees,” she shares. Preity has an ancestral land which she has been planning to use to build a dream house. “Now’s the time to do it. Build a farm house where my kids and my brother’s kids will grow up. It’s a little away from Shimla near the golf course. I want to make it completely eco-friendly. I’m also trying to buy an eco-friendly car. Look at the fumes in Mumbai.” “Where does one go in Mumbai to relax? The other Sunday when I had a day off I had no place to go! Either you go to a restaurant or a movie.