Preity Zinta is a Bollywood icon but when it comes to numbers, she is not part of the top three. Younger actresses like Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif and Priyanka Chopra have taken her place. She gives us her take on competition.
“When I entered the industry ten years ago, I said that there will always be someone younger and hungrier standing behind you to take your place. At that time, I was the younger and hungrier person. Today, I want different things. What I wanted ten years ago, I don’t want that now. There are bigger mountains for me to climb. If I start comparing myself to the younger, newer heroines, or compare what I am now to what I was ten years ago, it would be a very sad situation for me. Competition is healthy but if it depresses and worries you, you must be a very insecure person with low self esteem. I am a very secure person from within”, asserts the vivacious Miss Zinta.
Preity explains she wants different things in life now. “I want a lot of growth in other areas of my life. Even film wise, the films I want to do now are not the ones the younger girls are doing. I don’t want to sound presumptuous but I turned down a lot of these roles and other people went ahead and did them. I don’t talk about it because I don’t think it is cool. So I think as an individual who is secure within oneself, every day is a new day and once you achieve what you have aspired to achieve, you go for a higher goal, you go for a different dream. The dream and success that you have realised isn’t that sweet if you keep sticking onto it. You have to go for higher ground, to a newer dream and ambition. I am in a very happy and content space today. The films that I am doing today are very different from what I did earlier because even the actor within me has grown up. Two years ago, I was frustrated because I didn’t feel I was growing as an actor. Five years from now, I will want to achieve something else and totally different from what I want now.”
And Preity has already garnered praise for her stellar performance in the independent film Videsh: Heaven on Earth. “The film has made a lot of money abroad. Foreigners have understood the message of the film completely. I was even nominated for the Genie Awards, which is the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars, alongside Susan Sarandon, so that felt amazing. I remember at the first screening in Toronto, a famous American actress from the 70s grabbed my arm and said, “Where have you been hiding? You are such a talent!” It feels great that I have done something different and I am being appreciated for that. Now I just want people in India to like the film,” signs off the actress.
Videsh: Heaven on Earth hits Indian theatres on March 27.
Preity explains she wants different things in life now. “I want a lot of growth in other areas of my life. Even film wise, the films I want to do now are not the ones the younger girls are doing. I don’t want to sound presumptuous but I turned down a lot of these roles and other people went ahead and did them. I don’t talk about it because I don’t think it is cool. So I think as an individual who is secure within oneself, every day is a new day and once you achieve what you have aspired to achieve, you go for a higher goal, you go for a different dream. The dream and success that you have realised isn’t that sweet if you keep sticking onto it. You have to go for higher ground, to a newer dream and ambition. I am in a very happy and content space today. The films that I am doing today are very different from what I did earlier because even the actor within me has grown up. Two years ago, I was frustrated because I didn’t feel I was growing as an actor. Five years from now, I will want to achieve something else and totally different from what I want now.”
And Preity has already garnered praise for her stellar performance in the independent film Videsh: Heaven on Earth. “The film has made a lot of money abroad. Foreigners have understood the message of the film completely. I was even nominated for the Genie Awards, which is the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars, alongside Susan Sarandon, so that felt amazing. I remember at the first screening in Toronto, a famous American actress from the 70s grabbed my arm and said, “Where have you been hiding? You are such a talent!” It feels great that I have done something different and I am being appreciated for that. Now I just want people in India to like the film,” signs off the actress.
Videsh: Heaven on Earth hits Indian theatres on March 27.
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