Preity Zinta
Preity G. Zinta is an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi films. After graduating with degrees in English honours and criminal psychology, Zinta made her acting debut in Dil Se.. in 1998, followed by a role in Soldier in the same year. These performances earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, and she was later recognised for her role as a teenage single mother in Kya Kehna. She established a career as a leading Hindi film actress of the decade with a variety of character types. Her roles, often deemed culturally defiant, along with her unconventional screen persona won her recognition and several accolades.
Following critically appreciated roles in Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Dil Chahta Hai, Dil Hai Tumhaara, and Armaan, Zinta received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kal Ho Naa Ho. She starred in two consecutive annual top-grossing films in India, Koi... Mil Gaya and Veer-Zaara, and was noted for her portrayal of independent, modern Indian women in Salaam Namaste and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, top-grossing productions in domestic and overseas markets. For her first international role in the Canadian drama Heaven on Earth she was awarded the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress and nominated for the Genie Award for Best Actress. She followed this with a hiatus from acting work for several years, with intermittent appearances such as in her self-produced comeback film, Ishkq in Paris, which failed to leave a mark.
Zinta is also a social activist, television presenter and stage performer. Between 2004 and 2005, she wrote a series of columns for BBC News Online South Asia. She is the founder of the production company PZNZ Media, a co-owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Punjab Kings since 2008, and the owner of the South-African T20 Global League cricket team Stellenbosch Kings since 2017. Zinta is known in the Indian media for publicly speaking her mind and consequently has sparked the occasional controversy. These controversies include her being the sole witness not to retract in court her earlier statements against the Indian mafia during the 2004 Bharat Shah case, for which she was awarded the Godfrey Phillips National Bravery Award.
Early life and background
Preity Zinta was born on 31 January 1975 in Shimla into a Himachali Rajput Hindu family from Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh. Her father, Durganand Zinta, was an officer in the Indian Army. He died in a car accident when she was thirteen; the accident also involved her mother, Nilprabha, who was severely injured and consequently remained bedridden for two years. Zinta called the tragic accident and her father's death a significant turning point in her life, which forced her to mature rapidly. She has two brothers; Deepankar and Manish, a year older and a year younger, respectively. Deepankar is a commissioned officer in the Indian Army, while Manish lives in California.Zinta, who describes herself as having been a tomboy as a child, has emphasised her father's military background as having given her a lasting impression on how family life was to be conducted. He asserted the importance of discipline and punctuality to the children. She studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary boarding school in Shimla. Although she confesses to loneliness in the boarding school, she noted that it was compensated by her finding a "...perfect set of friends" there. As a student, she developed a love for literature, particularly the works of William Shakespeare and poetry. According to Zinta, she enjoyed schoolwork and received good grades; in her free time she played sports, especially basketball.
After her schooling at Convent of Jesus and Mary, Zinta enrolled at St. Bede's College in Shimla, an affiliated college of Himachal Pradesh University. She graduated with an English honours degree, and then started a graduate programme in psychology. She earned a postgraduate degree in criminal psychology, but later took up modelling. Zinta's first television commercial was for Perk chocolates, the result of a chance meeting with a director at a friend's birthday party in 1996. The director persuaded Zinta to audition for the spot, and she was selected. Afterwards, she appeared in other catalogues and commercials, including one for the soap Liril.
Acting career
Debut and early roles (1998–1999)
In 1998, Zinta met Shekhar Kapur when she accompanied a friend to an audition in Mumbai and was asked if she would audition too. Upon seeing her audition, Kapur insisted that she become an actress. She was originally scheduled to make her screen debut in Kapur's Tara Rum Pum Pum opposite Hrithik Roshan, but the filming was cancelled. She reminisced the experience: "I began to recognise the power of destiny. I had no intention ever to be an actress." Kapur later recommended her for director Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.., a romantic thriller about a terrorist group in New Delhi. Zinta often recalls that when she joined the film industry her friends teased her that she would typically "wear white saris and dance in the rain", thereby motivating her to seek unconventional parts.Zinta commenced shooting for Kundan Shah's Kya Kehna, whose release was delayed until 2000. The delay of another film, Soldier, meant that her first release was Dil Se.. opposite Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala. She was introduced as Preeti Nair, a middle-class Delhi girl and Khan's fiancée. The film was considered an unusual launch for a newcomer, as her role called for only twenty minutes of screen time. However, she was eventually noticed for her role, particularly for the forthright character she played. Her scene with Khan, in which she asked him, "Are you a virgin?", became well-known, and her portrayal earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. Khalid Mohamed of Bombay Talkies said that she "radiates confidence and spunk even if she's given just scraps of footage". The film did not attract a wide audience in India but was the first Hindi film to enter the UK's top 10 box-office charts. Zinta's second release of 1998 was Abbas–Mustan-directed action-drama Soldier, one of the biggest commercial hits of the year. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her performance in both Dil Se.. and Soldier.
Zinta next acted in two Telugu films, Premante Idera and Raja Kumarudu. She followed with the leading role in Sangharsh, a 1999 thriller directed by Tanuja Chandra and written by Mahesh Bhatt. Zinta portrayed Reet Oberoi, a Central Bureau of Investigation officer who falls in love with a captured killer played by Akshay Kumar. Having been impressed with Zinta's work in Dil Se.., Chandra approached her for the part after several leading actresses had refused the offer, which Zinta viewed as an opportunity to expand her range. Sangharsh was not a box-office success, although Zinta's performance received favourable comments by critics. An article published by The Tribune described her performance as "an amazing act" in an "intense film", documenting her career path thus far with the observation: "She wowed the audiences with her cameo in Dil Se.., then she zapped the viewers with her sensuality in Soldier and now Preity Zinta is all set to shock everybody with her stark performance ." Subhash K. Jha reflected in 2013 that Sangharsh marked a rare occasion in Hindi cinema at the time where a top male star played a secondary role to the leading lady.
Breakthrough and career advancement (2000–2002)
Zinta's first role in 2000 was in the drama Kya Kehna, which exceeded expectations to emerge a major box-office success. The film addressed themes of single parenthood and teenage pregnancy, and gained Zinta wider recognition from the public as well as film critics. Her portrayal of Priya Bakshi, a teenage single mother who fights social prejudice, earned her several award nominations, including her first nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards. Anupama Chopra from India Today reported that Zinta belonged to a new breed of Hindi film actors that breaks away from character stereotypes. Further positive feedback came her way that year for her starring role in the romantic comedy Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega. She next appeared alongside Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's drama Mission Kashmir. Set in the valley of Kashmir during the Indo-Pakistani conflicts, the film dealt with the topic of terrorism and crime; it was an economic success, becoming the year's third-highest-grossing release in India. Zinta's role was that of Sufiya Parvez, a TV reporter and Roshan's childhood love. A review in The Hindu noted her for lending colour to an otherwise serious subject matter, and she shared similar sentiments about the character, citing its positive nature within the dark film as having sparked her interest in the part.In 2001, Zinta was paired with Sunny Deol in the action film Farz. Her role was dismissed by critics, and the film failed commercially. Abbas–Mustan's family drama Chori Chori Chupke Chupke was released later that year after a one-year delay due to [|the trial of producer Bharat Shah] and opened to a wide audience. One of the first Hindi films to address the controversial issue of surrogate childbirth, it starred Zinta as Madhubala, a golden-hearted prostitute hired as a surrogate mother. Initially reluctant to play the part, she eventually accepted it at the directors' persuasion and, to prepare for it, visited several bars and nightclubs at Mumbai's red-light areas to study the lingo and mannerisms of sex-workers. Reviews of the film were varied, but critics singled out Zinta for praise. She received a second Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Filmfare Awards for her performance, of which reviewer Sukanya Verma wrote: "Preity Zinta, who clearly has the meatiest part of all, makes the best of it. Her transformation from the cocky and unabashed prostitute to a sensitive and warm person is amazingly believable."
Two more 2001 releases featured Zinta, including Farhan Akhtar's coming-of-age Dil Chahta Hai. Depicting the contemporary routine life of Indian affluent youth, it focuses on a period of transition in the lives of three young friends. Zinta played Aamir Khan's love interest Shalini, who is conflicted about her upcoming, loveless marriage. Dil Chahta Hai was popular with critics, some of whom believed it broke new ground with an unusually realistic portrayal of India's urban milieu. It was named Best Feature Film in Hindi at the 49th National Film Awards and received the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film. A moderate box-office success in India, it performed well in the big cities but failed in the rural areas, which was attributed by trade analysts to the city-oriented lifestyle it presented. Dinesh Raheja took note of Zinta's "casual and appealing acting", and Sita Menon described her as "beautiful and vibrant, wavering between endearingly naive and confused". Next followed Deepak Shivdasani's Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke, a romantic drama co-starring Ajay Devgn and Madhuri Dixit which was commercially and critically unsuccessful.
In 2002, Zinta collaborated once again with director Kundan Shah, as the protagonist in the family drama Dil Hai Tumhaara, alongside Rekha, Mahima Chaudhry and Arjun Rampal. She played Shalu, an adopted daughter craving love, a role she identified with due to its rebellious nature. Billed as a star vehicle for Zinta, Dil Hai Tumhaara did not succeed financially, but her portrayal was uniformly acclaimed by critics, with those critical of the film marking her presence as its main highlight. Taran Adarsh from entertainment portal Bollywood Hungama noted: "...Preity Zinta, in an author-backed role... steals the show with a sterling performance... Here's a performance that is sure to win accolades from the junta and critics whole-heartedly."