Preity Zinta celebrates her birthday today (Photo: Instagram/ Preity Zinta) With her infectious bubbly energy and dimpled smile, Preity Zinta ruled the early 2000′s, making her way to the list of top female Bollywood actors. Her career began with a coin toss, as she nonchalantly put it to Simi Garewal. She might not have chosen to take up acting, had the toss gone differently. She was offered Shekhar Kapur’s Tara Rum Pum Pum, and decided to leave it to fate.
On Rendezvous With Simi Garewal, Preity said, “It sounds like the perfect story, but no. I think when I met Shekhar, when he wanted to sign me up for Tara Rum Pum Pum, I was just like this little kid looking at Shekhar Kapur. And I just wanted to be cool, so I said, ‘Okay, if it’s destiny then I’ll just flip this coin. I said, ‘Heads, I will take film as a career and tails, I won’t’.”
When Simi asked Preity what she would have done if she got tails, she replied, “I wouldn’t have signed that film. I promise you.” Simi was stunned and asked if Preity had really taken a film offer so lightly, she answered, “Just for style, anything for style at that point.”
Ta Ra Rum Pum Pum was shelved, and she made her Bollywood debut with Dil Se. Years later, Ta Ra Rum Pum was made by a different director, Siddharth Anand, and different cast, Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji.
In an old interview with Hindustan Times, Preity said that it was ‘destiny’ that she was not a part of Tara Rum Pum Pum. On being asked if she was hurt about not being approached for the film, she said, “For once I was quiet. The only thing that came out from my mouth was, ‘Oh’. Years ago, I went around telling everyone that I’m doing a film titled Tara Rum Pum Pum. Now I can’t.”
Yet, Preity made her mark in Bollywood with memorable films, such as the actioner Soldier, the urban cult film Dil Chahta Hai, and Kya Kehnaa. She was ‘raw’ as she once told Simi, and in the beginning of her career, she faced much trouble and was even yelled at by Saroj Khan. “I remember my first film Kya Kehna, Saroj ji yelled ‘Kahaan se leke aaye iss ladki ko, she doesn’t know how to dance!’ I felt silly, stupid with lip-syncing. But I told myself I’m a human being and you can’t talk to me like this. So I must work on it and push myself.”
Preity Zinta has worked with all the Khans. While she spoke fondly of Aamir and said that Salman was ‘always a pleasure to work with’, she said that there was some ‘connection’ with Shah Rukh Khan that she could just not figure out. Preity worked with SRK in Kal Ho Naa Ho, Veer Zaara and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa. She had once told Bollywood Hungama, that no one could ‘romance like Shah Rukh Khan’. She said there was something in him that was ‘unbelievable’. “When he starts his dialogue, I would just get lost. In all the movies I’ve done, I’ve never used glycerine, I’ve just looked at him and started crying.”
Once Preity had also said that her pairing with SRK had been the best, apart from her pairing with Saif Ali Khan. “I began my career with Shah Rukh…more than a friend, he has also been my mentor. He taught me everything I know, from how to stand, and how to give dialogue delivery, and how to pause in a scene. I love him for that.”
Though Preity Zinta has steered away from showbiz of late, she still left a profound influence on Bollywood and was one of the few actors who made the transition from the 90’s to the early 2000’s.
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