Preity first caught the eye of the producers when she appeared in the Cadbury’s Perk commercial. She shot to fame as the refreshing, cool, wet model in the Liril commercial; her dimpled smile won the hearts of millions.

Preity Zinta, born on 31 January 1975 in Shimla comes from a non-filmy family. Her father Durganand Zinta was in the Indian Army. Zinta spent her early years at the Jesus and Mary boarding school in Shimla. She is a graduate in English from St. Bede’s College in Shimla after which she did a degree in Criminal Psychology.

Zinta made her acting debut in ‘Dil Se’ in 1998 followed by a role in ‘Soldier’, the same year. These performances earned her a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, and she was later recognized for her role as a teenage single mother in ‘Kya Kehna’.

After these movies there was no looking back for Preity as she did a series of successful films like ‘Koi... Mil Gaya’ and ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ which were both critically and commercially acclaimed

Preity has also done a series of offbeat films. She made her international debut in the Canadian film ‘Heaven on Earth’; her first English film was Rituparno Ghosh`s ‘The Last Lear’

In addition to movie acting Zinta has written a series of columns for BBC News Online South Asia. She is known in the Indian media for publicly speaking her mind and openly expressing her opinions.

Along with Ness Wadia and others, Zinta acquired ownership rights in 2008 for the Mohali-based Twenty20 cricket team of the Indian Premier League. She is known as the face of the Kings 11 Punjab team and has actively taken part in all its promotion events.