Preity Zinta claims she was the only actor from any generation who did one film at a time and survived. PHOTO: FILE
A co-owner of IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab, Preity, who is coming to the small screen as a judge on dance-based reality show Nach Baliye, said she wanted to keep her focus on cricket back in 2008.
“I wanted to focus on cricket that time. Acting is not something that you can just do. When you go and start performing, you put yourself in a safety deposit box and you become somebody else. A lot of me was required in cricket because I was starting a new business,” she said.
“I went through the whole process on my own and I didn’t think it was possible for me to do all that and become somebody else. Something was going to suffer and after all these years in the industry, I didn’t want to end up doing films where either production suffered or I as an actor suffered. I was quite happy to take on cricket and do that. I wanted growth,” Preity added.
Now that it’s been eight years of IPL, she feels, “IPL doesn’t need me anymore”. She said, “Now I just have to come and watch the game. The business is doing well, the team is doing well. Things have fallen into place. Now, doing Nach Baliye or movie sounds exciting to me because I’ve been away from them for some time. I’ve come back with a fresh perspective and I’m in a different space. I never thought that I would be so excited about judging a dance reality show,” she said.
A producer, writer, entrepreneur and a dance lover, Zinta, who considers herself ‘in good space right now’, promised to feature in more movies this year.
The 40-year-old, who was last seen in a full-fledged role in the 2013’s Ishkq in Paris, is now busy filming her upcoming film Bhaiyyaji Superhitt and Nach Baliye 7, which she is co-judging with author Chetan Bhagat and choreographer Marzi Pestonji.
Talking about her filmography, the Sangharsh star, who made her Bollywood debut with Dil Se in 1998, said she is happy about having done selective work.
“I was the only actor from my generation or any generation who came and did one film at a time and survived,” said the actor, who has featured in over 30 films, including cameos.
Sharing her movie production experience, she said, “I’m very proud of Ishkq in Paris. It’s okay to do one or a couple of things wrong. It was a great learning experience. Hopefully, I’ll come back with bigger and better things.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2015.
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