Mumbai: Preity Zinta may have been away from the limelight in the past year (Keeping the Ness Wadia controversy aside) but she’s all set to make a comeback and how! At the moment she’s busy with her IPL team Kings 11 Punjab, and is also gearing up to be a judge on the upcoming season of Nach Baliye and is shooting for her film Bhaiyyaji Superhit opposite Sunny Deol. We caught up for an exclusive chat with the dimpled actress at a suburban hotel, where she reveals, “I don’t plan things in life, I follow my heart. Last year I was in this headspace where I didn’t want to do any work in India. I did some 20 odd appearances, shows and events in America. I went from Florida to Washington DC to New York to San Jose to San Francisco. I did live events where I met interesting people and I was also working on something that people will soon find out about. So I was in a different headspace, this year it’s different, I want to take on work and I’m enjoying it.”
There has also been speculation that she is dating someone based in the US. Without revealing too much Preity says, “Yes I am dating someone for quite sometime but I’m just not the kind of person who wants to say this is the person, this is his height and weight, this is eye colour and hair colour, the fingerprint, that’s just not me. In today’s day and age when there is so much of you out there it’s important to keep something’s to yourself.”
When a female celeb does enter something that is usually a male dominated space like cricket, there are bound to be controversies be it Preity’s case against Ness or Anushka Sharma being blamed for Virat Kohli’s bad performance. “Dogs bark sometimes you just got to shoot them with an airgun, specially these kind of barkings. Relevant people making a comment upsets you but random people’s comments are irrelevant. Next time Virat hits 100 and gets Man of the match, Anushka should go onstage to receive it and say it’s because of me. Poor thing, it was so sweet of her to go and support Virat.”
Telling us about her IPL team who has been putting on a good performance this season, she says, “I hope every player stands out in one game at least, not just one player in the entire tournament. If I have to choose my favourite has always been Viru (Virendar Sehwag) but I feel bad for the other players, I’m taking his name all the time but its true and I can’t lie about that. But I am also rooting for the younger players. When we started the tournament people said ‘Oh Kings 11 bowlers are not that good but after Monday’s game everyone’s telling me ‘Oh my God, Your bowlers are fab’ and stuff like that. Especially the younger boys who are not stars, people underrate them but they are going to rock it.”
Speaking of other ventures, Ishkq in Paris proved to be a dud at the box office but Preity remains optimistic about producing films. “I want to produce movies before I turn to direction. Maybe one day I’ll direct but at the moment I’m excited about the business opportunities I’m getting into. Now the cricket bit is a little settled and I want to venture into other stuff. At some point I want to settle and have children, so that part of life will also take over. On the acting front, I’m completing Bhaiyaji Superhit and I have some new projects yet to be announced.”
Moving on to her TV show Nach Baliye, this is the first time Preity is collaborating with Ekta Kapoor. “I’ve known Ekta before she started production, before I became an actress. We used to go to Joggers Park to workout together. I admire her because she is the original power woman from the industry. To start of on your own and make a huge empire, that’s admirable. We have never worked together. This is a first so I’m really hoping we prove to be too much, in a good way. I got excited about Nach because they have changed the format and it’s completely new and secondly our dates were matching perfectly , because it’s being shot in between IPL. Earlier I used to get a lot of offers from reality shows to be a judge, I never went for it because to give one day a week for two and half months is a big commitment. You can’t travel or go away but here since I had the IPL it was a perfect fit. I’m just going to be me on the show, It’s not like I’ve passed law and become a judge, that’s when you need to be strict in life. I can’t take myself too seriously. There are lot of contestants who have never faced the camera before, their other halves are famous, some are housewives. It’s very endearing and it’s also about encouraging people. I’m very mindful of what is right and wrong so I want to be fair to everybody but you can be fair without being nasty. I myself am not from the industry, when I came in acting was still easier but dancing was difficult, to catch that lipsync and dance for the camera, it’s very different. I used to get rattled when someone would scream at me. So you always take back something from your own experiences and you do to others what you want others to do to you.”
