When I ask her if the spate of photographs of her hugging skipper Yuvraj Singh was distressing, she flashes an indignant look and then, “People judge you through their mentalities. In sports, there is an adrenaline rush and you react with spontaneity. There is nothing for me to be ashamed of. In movies, I hug a hero 300 times for a scene, so what’s the fuss about?”
Equally dismissive of reports of the off-field competition among glamourous team owners courtesy new arrival Shilpa Shetty, she says, “The biggest and most glamorous star Shah Rukh Khan was already a part of the game; as for women, Juhi has been there since the outset. Shilpa joining in was great – the more the merrier.”
Disappointed about her team’s non-performance, she is looking forward to a better run next season. “There were too many injuries in our team,” she answers, rattling off names. She follows it up with a chuckle reminiscing how each time her team players play well in the ongoing matches, she jokingly reminds them of their IPL performance.
Her breakup with beau Ness Wadia also kept her in the news, but all she is willing to disclose is “Ness and I are still friends and business partners. I am single but we will work together.” Among the bizarre reports about her personal life post the break-up, was one linking her with restaurateur-actor Vikram Chatwal.
On the work front, after her deglam outings with Heroes and Deepa Mehta’s Heaven And Earth, which won her honours at the Toronto Film Festival, Zinta says that she missed the gloss and shine of staple Bollywood films that were a mainstay not too long ago. “I wanted to do roles I had never done before and am glad I did because at that time glamorous, song and dance films had become routine. I won the Best Actress Award at Chicago Film Festival and was nominated for Canada’s Genie Award– the likes of Susan Sarandon have been honoured. It was a very proud phase. Now, after the break I am excited about getting back to those movies.”
Zinta is not losing sleep over the arrival of GenerationNext–Asin, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif and Sonam Kapoor. “I think Asin was great in Ghajini. I told her I enjoyed her performance. I like Katrina, she was very good in Race,” avers Preity. “Things are more professional today. It took me five years to groom myself–these girls come fully groomed!”
This year she has Jahnu Barua’s Har Pall with Shiney Ahuja coming up as also an”item” song in Main Aur Mrs Khanna starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor.The actress, who has her own rules for sexy appearances cut down to 49 kilos to sport a slinky number by Manish Malhotra for the song!
“I can wear the shortest of skirts and not feel awkward but I feel very weird when showing cleavage,” she dimples, though she admits she may have made an exception for Manish.
“Call me old-fashioned, but these days everyone is wearing revealing clothes and doing intimate scenes. Even when I was not such a big star, I would articulate my reservations about scenes I was uncomfortable about and they would always change it. The fact is that being sexy does not take you very far – it has to be a combination of substance and sexy,” signs off Zinta.
Worldly-wise, indeed!
