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 Heroes Status: Post Production Co-starring: Salman Khan, Bobby Deol, Sunny Deol & Etc. Director: Samir Karnik |
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 Har Pall Status: Post Production Co-starring: Shiney Ahuja, Dharmendra & Isha Koppikar Director: Jahnu Barua |
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 The Last Lear Status: Released Co-starring: Amitabh Bachchan & Arjun Rampal Director: Rituparno Ghosh |
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2008 May: Cannes Film Festival |
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Preity-Forever.com is in no way affiliated with Preity Zinta or any other respresentation. This is simply a fan-site. Media and Photos are copyrighted by their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged. |
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The darkness that all actors fear Preity Zinta - June 22nd, 2004 Being a Bollywood star is a roller-coaster ride. One moment you are on cloud nine, and the next, the spotlight may have shifted from you. In her latest column for BBC News Online, Preity Zinta writes on how important it is to be level-headed about stardom. Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the masses. But in India, movies are religion. And only in India do gods have competition from actors and, yes, cricketers. I had a glimpse of the power of the moving image and actors very early in my life. There was a mythological television serial on the Hindu epic Ramayana which was a huge hit in the 1980s. People from neighbouring villages would descend on our farm home to catch the soap religiously. Every Sunday morning had a set time table. At 0830 sharp, people would arrive, greet my grandparents, take off their shoes, step towards the television set and bow in front of it as they would to a deity. At 0900 all eyes would be glued to the telly as they sat in pin drop silence and experienced God. Blasphemous One day I overheard some family friends tell my grandparents how the actress who played Sita, the pious wife of Lord Rama in the serial, upset north Indian sentiments by buying beer at a local wine shop. For them, Sita could do no wrong. How could a venerated 'figure' go to buy alcohol? It was blasphemous! After six years and 17 films in the business, I am getting a taste of what being a film star in India is all about. It's a high that is higher than cloud nine. It is the toughest job in the world, it's crazy and at times it is also scary. Fans come in various shapes and sizes and people will do anything to come close to their favourite star. Temples are built in our names. Fan letters flood our mailboxes and the love is unconditional. Sometimes the love and the adulation can make you feel so humble and close to God. Recently I met a little girl who was dying of leukaemia and had expressed a desire to meet me. I must confess I felt very nervous and anxious when I entered the hospital. What should I say? What should I do to make her feel better? I was still juggling all these thoughts when I saw her pale face come alive with the most precious smile. Two weeks later she passed away but the memory of her smile is alive in my heart. Dear God, thank you for making me feel so close to you. Thank you for giving me the gift of bringing a smile to someone's face. If there are emotional encounters then there are funny ones also. Once a couple came up to me and said their child was my "biggest fan" and was dying to take a photo with me. I soon found out that my "biggest fan" was their 11-month-old baby, who had possibly not even learnt to recognise his parents. I had an ear to ear grin in that family photograph. The flip side The actor's hold over popular imagination in India is immense. They can draw in the crowds at the drop of a hat. That is why you see our political parties wooing actors to join their ranks or campaign for them during elections. Recently we had a couple of actors who decided to contest the elections. It came as no surprise that they all won - what was surprising though was that the crowd was only interested in hearing the actors recite dialogues from their blockbuster films! This is the power actors have in India. But there is a flip side also - behind the scenes! It's about wake up calls at two in the morning, filming in harsh weather conditions, and the blood, sweat and tears that go into your work. There's the annoying feeling of insecurity and the frustration of failure. There's also the satisfaction of achievement shadowed by the embrace of loneliness. It is all part and parcel of showbiz. And, of course, there is the larger than life image that one has to compete with all the time. I remember shooting with superstar Shah Rukh Khan in New York right after his back surgery for Kal Ho Na Ho. One day a plump woman came up to him and exclaimed "Oh my God, Shah Rukh you are so skinny!" Before I could blink he replied "Oh my God, lady you are so fat!" It was so funny I almost fell off the chair. I knew the pain he was going through at that time, yet he was as sharp and witty as ever. I used to joke with my director of photography on sets and say "If the world is a stage, I need better lighting". But later I realised that when the lights go off there is only darkness around an actor and it is that darkness all actors fear. Dear God please give me the strength to find my way out of the darkness when the lights are no more on me. Heavy is the head that wears the crown; that's why it is important to keep a balanced head on one's shoulders. Today I take the good with the bad and the ugly and keep telling myself, "Films are a part of my life; I do them, they don't do me." As of today all I can say is, Dear God thank you for giving me everything that I did not ever dream of! |
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PREITY