I have two careers now, says Harvard returned Preity Zinta

In a conversation with Swati Chaturvedi of Spicezee.com on her chat show ‘Kahiye Janab’, Preity talked about her experience of `going back to school`!

She may not be dazzling the silver screen these days, but Preity Zinta has been keeping herself busy all this while. In a conversation with Swati Chaturvedi of Spicezee.com on her chat show ‘Kahiye Janab’, Preity, who claims to have ‘two careers’ now, talked about her experience of ‘going back to school’ and expressed her take on Indian politics. Excerpts:

Swati: You’ve not been around for a quite a while now. What apart from endorsements have you been doing? Preity: Movies, cricket, living life of course, and studying! Swati: Two weeks back on this show, I had told Katrina (Kaif) that you had gone to Harvard for studying, and she couldn’t believe it. She was shocked. Do you think it’s strange for an actress to do what you’ve done? Preity: See, I’m an individual first and then an actress. When I realised that I didn’t have anything much to do during those two months, I thought why not! And I always wanted to do that particular business course from Harvard. It was about negotiations – about deal making, and I had to study a lot, I used to get up at 5.00 in the morning… I’ve never worked so hard even for films. But I enjoyed it. Now I have two careers – actress and deal making. Swati: So there will be better negotiations when you discuss a deal with Lalit Modi now? Preity: No… you guys are giving it a very filmy outlook… so nothing like that. But I mean for acting, the only course that I’ve ever done was for Deepa Mehta’s ‘Heaven On Earth’. And when I did that I realised that there was so much for me to learn… I realised that I should have done that earlier. So if I get a chance and I have the time, I’d love to do a longer course. Swati: In my opinion, actors earn major amount of their money from endorsements these days and films are just for creative satisfaction. What do you have to say about that? Preity: See, there’s a market for endorsements. Films are not just for creative satisfaction, it’s just that your perspective keeps changing with what you do. I always used to do films with the perspective of an actress, but when I ventured into IPL, I started thinking from the perspective of a brand… you know, Kings XI Punjab is a brand for me…I used to keep thinking – when we have red and silver there, we shouldn’t have blue – like that. Swati: They say that most of the actresses here are dumb blondes. What do you have to say about that? Preity: No, that’s completely untrue. I think that if you have become an actress of that level, you can’t be dumb. You know for doing the role of a doctor, you really have to learn about that profession, and put yourself in the shoes of a doctor. When I played the character of Romilla Dutta, a reporter, in ‘Lakshya’, I really had to learn so much about the guns and everything…you know you have to be aware of that…so it’s always enriching to be a heroine. I believe that if you are not very threatening, you are called dumb here. Swati: I’m sure you would hate the word ‘bubbly’ (laughs)… don’t you? Preity: I mean it’s all right…I’m bubbly, but there are so many other traits of my character. I’m thoughtful, deep thinking, I like to write…I like to put my thoughts on paper. Then I’m also interested in sports…I’ve myself said so many times that I talk a lot, but then there are times when I’m very quiet…so there are lots of traits of my personality other than that. Swati: Do you think you have been typecast? Preity: See, I think every heroine is typecast, but you have to really fight with that image, like I’ve done so many serious roles too… I have done a variety of roles in my career, from a reporter to a doctor to a battered wife to urban women. Swati: Any plans of taking up politics, because it seems that you would do really good as a politician? Preity: I don’t want to be a politician. For me, if I ever was a politician, I would just love my country. Swati: So what do have to say about the state of Indian politics right now? Preity: I’m not happy with the condition of politics in our country. You know our GDP is high, Indians are doing so well for themselves…but still you have people escaping out of various small cities of the country as they don’t have the basic facilities there. I mean why someone has Rs 20,000 crores and someone doesn’t have even Rs 20,000 here…so that has to be taken care of. Even during the Mumbai terror attacks, NSG commandos had to take buses… that’s bad. But one thing I like about Congress is that it’s allowing the youth to come forward. In films also, since the time young blood has taken over, we’ve started getting better films. It’s a young country, so it’s important that the youth comes forward. So, I request the government to give us leaders that we can be inspired by. Swati: One last thing… is Preity Zinta single and ready to mingle? Preity: I’m absolutely single. Swati: And ready to mingle? (laughs) Preity: (Laughs) That’s a weird question! Adaptation: Bhavna Khullar