Preity Zinta

At 49 years old, Preity Zinta has this physical status:

Preity G Zinta (born 31 January 1975) is an Indian film actress and entrepreneur who was one of the most well-paid Hindi film actresses of the 2000s.

Zinta made her acting debut in Dil Se after graduating with degrees in English honours and criminal psychology.

In 1998, he was born in 1998 and then went back to serve as a soldier in the same year.

These performances earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, and she was later acknowledged for her work as a young single mother in Kya Kehna (2000).

She continued to work in a variety of roles; her film appearances, as well as her screen presence, have been lauded for a change in the definition of a Hindi film heroine; and she has received numerous accolades.

She went on to appear in two consecutive top-grossing films in India, including science fiction film Koi... Mil Gaya (2003) and star-crossed romance Veer-Zaara (2004).

In Salaam Namaste (2005) and Kabhi Alvida (2006), top-grossing exports in international markets, she was later recognized for her portrayal of young, modern Indian women.

These achievements have made her a leading actress in Hindi cinema.

She appeared in Heaven on Earth, her first international film appearance, for which she was given the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival.

She came back from acting for many years, with the exception of her self-produced comeback film, Ishkq in Paris (2013), which failed to leave a mark. Zinta has written a series of columns for BBC News Online South Asia, as well as a regular stage performer.

She is the founder of PZNZ Media, a co-owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Kings XI Punjab since 2008, and the owner of the South African T20 World League cricket team Stellenbosch Kings since 2017.

Zinta is well-known in Indian media for openly discussing her thoughts, and as a result, she has caused occasional controversies.

Among these allegations are her first witness not to retract in court her earlier statements against the Indian mafia during the 2003 Bharat Shah trial, for which she was given the Godfrey Phillips National Bravery Award.

Early life and background

Preity Zinta was born in 1975 into a Hindu Rajput family from Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh. Durganand Zinta, her father, was an officer in the Indian Army. He died in a car accident when she was 13 years old; her mother, Nilprabha, was critically wounded and subsequently remained bedridden for two years. Zinta called the tragic crash and her father's death a turning point in her life, which led her to aging quickly. Deepankar and Manish, both a year older and a year younger, respectively, have two brothers. Deepankar is a serving officer in the Indian Army, while Manish lives in California.

Zinta, who claims to have been a tomboy as a child, has emphasized her father's military service as a child, giving her a lasting impression of how family life was supposed to be carried out. He emphasized the importance of discipline and punctuality to the children. She attended the Convent of Jesus and Mary boarding school in Shimla. Although she admitted to being lonesome in the boarding school, she said she was compensated for her "... perfect group of friends" there. She discovered a passion for literature as a student, particularly William Shakespeare and poetry. Zinta said she loved schoolwork and received high marks; in her spare time, she played basketball, especially basketball;

Zinta enrolled at St. Bede's College in Shimla after her elementary education at Convent of Jesus and Mary, Shimla. She earned an English honours degree and then began a postgraduate program in psychology. She earned a postgraduate diploma in criminal psychology but then moved to modeling. Zinta's first television commercial was for Perk chocolates, the result of a chance meeting with a producer at a friend's birthday party in 1996. Zinta was chosen for the position after the director persuaded him to audition for the role. She appeared in other catalogues and advertisements, including one for the soap Liril.

Personal life

When she was not busy shooting, Zinta was able to visit Shimla. In 2006, she moved to Mumbai, India, where she had lived in a co-elective home. She does not identify with any particular faith. "I believe in good deeds, and in karma, I don't believe in going to temples," she says in a interview with The Times of India. Religion is very personal for me. It's all about having faith... We've heard and read that all faiths are similar. Now I am increasingly convinced in this." She barely survived death twice in late 2004: first after an explosion at a Temptation concert in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and second during the Indian Ocean earthquake.

Zinta has been the subject of several scandals. She testified against the Indian mafia in 2003 as a witness in the Bharat Shah case. In 2000, Bharat Shah, the financer of Chori Chupke Chupke Chupke, was arrested for being involved with Chhota Shakeel, a Mumbai underworld boss. Zinta reaffirmed in court that she had been threatened by the mafia during the film's shooting, unlike several of her coworkers. Following her appearance, she was given witness protection and was told not to go back to the public eye for two months. Thirteen other witnesses before her, including celebrities Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan, were present, but later retracted their testimony. Zinta was the only witness not to testify against the trial; the nation responded favorably to her behavior. As a result of this, she became the first recipient of the Godfrey's Mind of Steel Award, which was given to her for her "courageous act" of opposing the Mumbai Underworld. "To be brave is not to be afraid," she said on receiving the award. If you are afraid and you get over it, you will be branded brave. I am human. It's not that I am afraid of nothing. However, getting over a fear is a continuing process, and I've been happy so far." Zinta has been the brand ambassador for the Godfrey Bravery Awards since 2006.

Zinta has been attributed romantically with other Bollywood celebrities by tabloids, but she has denied any such allegations. Zinta introduced Marc Robinson, a dating model, in 2000. They broke apart the following year, but Zinta said they were on good terms. Ness Wadia, the Bombay Dyeing heir, lived from February 2005 to May 2009. Their friendship was often reported on by the media, with frequent rumors of an engagement or a break-up. Zinta lodged a lawsuit against Ness Wadia, alleging he had molested, assaulted, and assaulted her at an IPL match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 30th. Wadia denied the charges. The Bombay High Court dismissed this complaint in 2018 after the matter was amicably resolved.

Zinta married American Gene Goodenough at a private party in Los Angeles on February 29, 2016. Goodenough, the Senior Vice President for Finance at NLine Energy, a US-based hydroelectric power company, is Vice President. Following her divorce, Zinta moved to Los Angeles; she visits India on a regular basis. She and her husband became parents to twins, a boy and a girl, in 2021, via survivacy.

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Acting career

When she accompanied a friend to an audition in Mumbai in 1997, Zinta was asked if she would audition as well as Shekhar Kapur. After attending her audition, Kapur maintained that she should be a comedian. She had intended to debut in Kapur's Tara Rum Pum Pum Pum opposite Hrithik Roshan, but the shooting was postponed. "I began to believe the power of destiny," she recalled. I had no intention of being an actress.' Kapur referred her to Dil Se, Mani Ratnam's romantic thriller set in New Delhi. Zinta often recalls that her coworkers told her that she would usually "wear white saris and dance in the rain," thereby compelled her to play different roles.

Zinta fired for Kundan Shah's Kya Kehna, but his release was postponed until 2000. Soldier (1998), the postponement of another film, meant she would have been released as Dil Se, opposite Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala. Preeti Nair, a middle-class Delhi girl and Khan's fiancée, was introduced as she was named after the fiancée. Because her role called for only 20 minutes of screen time, the film was considered a rare debut for a newcomer. However, she was eventually recognized for her work, particularly for the forthright character she portrayed. "Are you a virgin?" Khan asks her in a scene where she confronted him. "," she became well-known, and her role as Best Supporting Actress earned her a nomination. Khalid Mohamed of Bombay Talks said that even though she was given only scraps of footage, she "radiates hope and spunk." The film did not have a large audience in India, but it was the first Hindi film to crack the top ten box-office charts in the United Kingdom. Abbas–Mustan-directed action-drama Soldier, Zinta's second release of the year, was one of the year's biggest commercial hits. She received the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her role in both Dil Se.. and Soldier.

Premante Idera (1998) and Raja Kumarudu (1999), Zinta's next film role. She stayed on the leading role in Sangharsh, a 1999 thriller directed by Tanuja Chandra and written by Mahesh Bhatt. Reet Oberoi, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer who falls in love with a captured killer portrayed by Akshay Kumar, was portrayed by Zinta. Chandra auditioned Zinta's work in Dil Se because she was impressed with the role, but several leading actresses turned down the opportunity, which Zinta saw as a way to broaden her reach. Sangharsh's debut was not a box-office success, though critics applauded Zinta's achievements. "She wowed the audiences with her appearance in Dil Se" in an "intense film," according to an article published by the Tribune, "She zapped the viewers with her sensuality in Soldier, and now Preity Zinta is likely to enthrall" with her dramatic debut [in Sangharsh]. In 2013, Subhash K. Jha reflected that Sangharsh was a rare occurrence in Hindi cinema at a time when a leading male actor played a secondary role to the leading lady.

Zinta's first role in 2000 was in the drama Kya Kehna, which defied hopes for a major box office triumph. Zinta received greater attention from the public as well as film critics as the film dealt with themes of single parenthood and teenage pregnancy. Priya Bakshi, a teenage single mother who fights societal mistrust, has received several accolade nominations, including her first nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards. Zinta belonged to a new breed of Hindi film actors that break away from stereotypes, according to Anupama Chopra of India Today. Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega's supporting role in the romantic comedy Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega received more positive feedback this year. In Vidhu Vinod Chopra's drama Mission Kashmir (2000), she appeared alongside Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan. The film, set in the valley of Kashmir during the Indo-Pakistani wars, was a commercial triumph; it was the year's third-highest-grossing release in India. Sufiya Parvez, a TV reporter and Roshan's childhood love, was instrumental in Zinta's role. A review in The Hindu praised her for lending color to an otherwise serious subject matter, as well as sharing similar emotions about the character, citing its positive presence in the film as fueling her interest.

She appeared alongside Sunny Deol in the action film Farz in 2001. Critics dismissed her role, and the film failed commercially. Chori Chori Chupke Chupke Chupke Chupke was released later this year after a one-year delay due to producer Bharat Shah's trial and a large audience. Zinta, a golden-hearted prostitute hired as a surrogate mother in one of the first Hindi films to explore the controversial topic of surrogate childbirth, was portrayed in Madhubala, a controversial topic in Hindi cinema. She was initially reluctant to participate in the role but afterward, she finally accepted it at the directors' invitation and, to prepare for it, visited several bars and nightclubs in Mumbai's red-light districts to study the jargon and mannerisms of sex-workers. The film's critiques were split, but critics praised Zinta for praise. Her second Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Filmfare Awards for her role, which included journalist Sukanya Verma's observation: "Preity Zinta, without doubt the best part of it," she wrote. Her transformation from cocky and unashamed prostitute to a sensitive and warm person is remarkable."

Zinta, Dil Chahta Hai, and Yeh Raaste Hai Ke were among the latest 2001 launches. Farhan Akhtar's coming-of-age Dil Chahta Hai depicts an important period of transition in three young friends' lives (Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Akshaye Khanna). Shalini, Aamir Khan's love interest, who is conflicted about her impending marriage to a man she does not love, was played by Zinta. Dil Chahta Hai was a hit among critics, some of whom believed it brought new life by presenting a realistic representation of Indian youth. At the National Film Awards, it was named the Best Feature Film in Hindi and was named Best Feature Film in Hindi, as well as the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film. The film, which was directed by trade analysts to the city-oriented lifestyle, was a moderate success in India; it did well in the major cities but not so well in the rural areas. Dinesh Raheja paid attention to Zinta's "casual and appealing performance" and Sita Menon described her as "beautiful and vibrant, a wavering between endearingly naive and confused." Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke, a romantic drama co-starring Ajay Devgn and Madhuri Dixit, was both technically and financially ineffective.

Zinta worked with director Kundan Shah as the protagonist in the family drama Dil Hai Tumhaara in 2002, alongside Rekha, Mahima Chaudhry, and Arjun Rampal. She played Shalu, an adopted daughter of the deceased, who was in need of love due to its rebellious appearance. Billed as a lead role in Zinta, Dil Hai Tumhaara's financial success did not fail financially, but critics praised her role, with those critical of the film mentioning her presence as the film's main draw. "Preity Zinta, in an author-backed capacity, steals the show with a sterling display," Taran Adarsh of entertainment portal Bollywood Hungama said. Here's a rundown of a performance that is sure to receive accolades from the junta and critics alike."

Zinta was the lead in India's three top-grossing films of 2003: The Hero, Koi, Mil Gaya, and Kal Ho Naa Ho. Sunny Deol and Priyanka Chopra co-starring Sunny Deol and Priyanka Chopra, an action drama about a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) cover agent on a trip to collect intelligence about terrorist activity from across the border of Kashmir. Zinta played Reshma, a Kashmiri villager who falls in love with the agent and becomes a member of the scheme. The film, which included stunts never seen before in Bollywood's cinematic history, became the most expensive Hindi film ever produced at the time. It was dubbed a dissatisfaction with the film's high production costs. She appeared in Honey Irani's debut in Armaan; the drama unfolds in a hospital and its chief, Dr. Akash, who fights arduously to maintain the institution financially. Zinta played Akash's schizophrenic wife Sonia Kapoor, a role written specifically for her and which she considered her best to that time. The film received mainly positive feedback, and Zinta was lauded. Khalid Mohamed described her as a "peppy scene-stealer" who performed her male mood swings dexterously, and Vinayak Chakravorty added, "As Sonia, Preity takes over the script and, eventually, the film, a brilliant performance as the deceptively bubbly but manipulative wife." At various award ceremonies, including Filmfare, she was nominated for Best Performance in a Negative Role.

Koi Mil Gaya, Rakesh Roshan's science-fiction film about a physically impaired young man (Hrithik Roshan) coming into contact with an alien, was followed by a woman. Zinta played Nisha, a young woman who Roshan befriends and later falls in love with. She was given another Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare for her role, her appearance of which was described as "new and inspired" by The Times of India. The film was a commercial and critical success, and it became Zinta's most well-known film of the year, as well as Zinta's highest-grossing film, with a domestic total of 680 million (roughly equivalent to 2.1 billion or US$27 million in 2020). The most "most novel Bollywood movie of the year" was praised by Empire magazine in the year's best novel Bollywood film of the year. Among others, it received the Filmfare Award for Best Film, and it went on to produce two superhero films as sequels, Krrish and Krrish 3, making it the first in the Krrish film series to which Zinta did not go.

Kal Ho Naa Ho, Nikhil Advani's final release of 2003, was Zinta's last film of the year, a romantic drama set in New York City. After Koi... Mil Gaya, the film was received warmly by critics and became India's second-biggest hit of the year. It also did well internationally and became India's top-grossing film of the year in 2020, grossing over 750 million (roughly equate to 2.3 billion or US$29 million) worldwide. Zinta plays Naina Catherine Kapur, an unsecure and outraged young Indian-American who falls for a man with a fatal heart disease (Shah Rukh Khan). She has received numerous accolades for her work, including the Best Actress Award from the IIFA, and the Female Stardust Award for Actor of the Year. Ram Kamal Mukherjee, a writer for Stardust, said the film was based "completely and solely" on Zinta's "awesome performance," blaming her for having "skillfully captured the complex hues. "Zinta, who has been crafting a growing following for three years, has never been more popular, transforming from juve roles to a charismatic young woman with her sexy, "with certainty."

Zinta appeared on television journalist Romila Dutta in Farhan Akhtar's war drama Lakshya, alongside Hrithik Roshan. Zinta's character is based on the 1999 Kargil War's historical events, and the film's only female reporter to cover the conflict, Barkha Dutt. She referred to it as the most difficult film she had seen and that it made her respect journalists. She watched a number of Dutt's television shows and read books on the conflict in order to give an accurate representation. Despite a good role, the film was a critical success; nevertheless, Namrata Joshi of Outlook likened her to "a teenage girl doing a TV newsreading skit for her college fete"; and Rediff.com's Rajeev Pai noted that despite a good job, she still does a fair job of it without ever being spectacular." Lakshya's budget fell short of attracting a large audience, earning 235.6 million (US$3.0 million) against its 330 million (US$4.1 million) budget.

Yash Chopra, the lead actor in his cross-border romance Veer-Zaara (2004), was on the lookout for an actress whose "look and personality could be changed." Having discovered this opportunity in Zinta, who was mainly known for playing Westernized characters, he brought her in to the role of Zaara Haayat Khan, a young Pakistani woman whose love story with Indian officer Veer Pratap Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) spans three decades in trials and tribulations. The film, which included a screening at the Berlin International Film Festival, and was voted Best Film at major Indian award ceremonies, and was highly awaited pre-release. It was the year's top-grossing Hindi film, both in India and abroad, with revenues of over 940 million (equivalent to 2.8 billion or US$35 million in 2020). Zinta's job required her to learn the Urdu language's fine nuances. Though she was excited at first, Chopra assured her that she would later "get knots in her stomach" worried about her appearance. Among other things, her work earned her her fourth Filmfare Best Actress nomination. Jitesh Pillai wrote of her "tremendous restraint," while Avijit Ghosh of The Telegraph said she had produced her most nuanced appearance. "The most interesting young actress of her time," Variety named her as "the most fascinating young actress of her generation." Veer-Zaara was Zinta's second highest-grossing film and third in two years.

Zinta appeared opposite Governor In the 2005 folk comedy Khullam Khullam Khullam Khulla Pyaar Karen, a performance that had been postponed since 2002. Subhash K. Jha found Zinta's work to be incompatible with her screen image and acting style, earning critical praise and poor box office returns. Critics and moviegoers alike applauded Siddharth Anand's comedy-drama Salaam Namaste, which featured Zinta and Saif Ali Khan as a modern Australian couple struggling with an unexpected pregnancy. It was the first Indian film shot entirely in Australia and the year's highest-grossing Hindi film, earning 572 million (roughly equivalent to 1.7 billion or US$21 million in 2020). Zinta received a number of accolades for her role as Ambar Malhotra, a single young woman who left India to make her own life in Melbourne and works as a radio host while studying medicine. Devyani Srivastava of Mid-Day considered Ambar's free-minded spirit to be a rare Hindi film heroine, and Taran Adarsh said that Zinta had delivered "her most convincing performance to date." Ambar's negative hues were noted in the New York Times, but the New York Times celebrated Zinta's positive demeanor, which makes her likable despite the fact that her characters have uncharitable traits.

Zinta scored even more in 2006, appearing in Karan Johar's drama Kabhi Alvida Kehna alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Abhishek Bachchan, and Amitabh Bachchan. The film was one of India's biggest box office hits, earning 635 million (equivalent to 1.2 billion or US$17 million in 2020) overseas, the highest Bollywood success since the time, and the highest in the foreign market up to date. It was Zinta's fourth top-earner in four years. Zinta Saran, an aspiring fashion magazine editor, who begins an adulterous affair with a family friend, revolving around two unhappy married couples in New York. She characterized the role as an effort to shed her vivacious public image. Zinta's effort was condemned by Kabhi Alvida, a polarized critic, but The Indian Express supported him, noting her for having "walked with poise, smiled with composure, and spoken with calmness." According to other studies, her job was short. In later years, Filmfare and Verve praised the actress for defying stereotypes of married women in Hindi films.

Zinta returned to Shirish Kunder's romantic musical Jaan-E-Mann (2006). (Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar) she played Piya, the cynosure of two men in the United States. Critics and investor feedback were mixed about the film's potential box office earnings, which was disappointing. Despite being mostly chastised for playing a minor role, she was praised for her work and appearance. As Jaan-E-Mann's was "easy, happy, and much more straightforward," she said after the more emotional Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. Even more successful was her third project with Yash Raj Films, the British Pakistani woman Alvira Khan in her third film with Yash Raj Films, the comedy Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007), co-starring Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, and Lara Dutta. "Preity is plain and insignificant in this film," the film's producer snubbed her performance; critics sluggish; "too plastic" in India; The Times of India condemned her appearance; Rediff.com's "Too plastic."

Zinta decided to venture into art films, a movement of neo-realistic films in India known as parallel cinema. Rituparno Ghosh's film-within-a-film drama "The Last Lear (2007), she appeared alongside Amitabh Bachchan in her debut English-language film, Rituparno Ghosh's film-within-a-film drama The Last Lear (2007). In the midst of a turbulent marriage with her controlling husband, Zinta played Shabnam, a struggling film actress, on a new project opposite Shakespearean actor Harish Mishra (Bachchan). The film premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and was well-received. Later reviews in India were encouraging, with Rajeev Masand saying she "gets through her scenes safely, never allowing her cute-as-a-button image to take away from the impact she makes here as a conflicted, mature woman." Zinta was "palpably fragile," Sukanya Verma said, but she sluggishly spoke about the English dialogue, accusing it of disconnecting "from the seriousness of the situation." At the 55th National Film Awards, The Last Lear was named the Best English Film at the 55th National Film Awards. Zinta, who was initially dismissive of art films, later expressed joy about her discovery with the subject, saying, "I did worry with art films that they don't pay you, but they don't feed you."

Zinta appeared in Heroes (2008), a three-chapter road movie about two film students who were on a trip to give three unopposted letters written by army service personnel who died during the 1999 Kargil war to their families. In the first chapter, Salman Khan's war widow, Kuljeet Kaur, becomes Salman Khan's sole breadwinner and single-handedly raises her son. Zinta went to "Actor Prepares" in Anupam Kher's acting school to learn the dialect and mannerisms of a Punjabi woman. The film received mixed critical reception, but Anand Singh of Hindustan Times wrote: "Karnik is simply interested in wringing tears the old-fashioned way, not in starting a discussion." Preity Zinta contributes to a role of passion and dignity on ordinary women's faces—this could be her coming of age as an actor."

Chand, the leading role of a young Indian woman in Deepa Mehta's Canadian film Heaven on Earth, a Punjabi-language mystical drama based on the true story of a young Indian woman who, after an arranged marriage to a non-resident Indian man from Canada, migrated to Toronto and became a victim of serious domestic violence. Mehta was described by Zinta as one director with whom she was longing to work to satisfy her need for "a new kind of acting challenge." She researched extensively about domestic abuse and took a crash course in Punjabi, a language that was completely foreign to her. "I never knew a character would affect me so deeply," she confessed to not being able to emotionally disconnect from the role during filming: "I never knew a character would affect me so deeply." I've been completely shut down and introspective... I can't snap out of the story." She eventually referred to it as her most frustrating endeavor because it helped her "shed everything that Preity Zinta was worried about." Heaven on Earth premiered at several film festivals and gained career-best reviews for Zinta. Peter Debruge of Variety described her "stunning psychological change" in the role, and Will Sloan characterized it as "a revelation." "Her appearance and subtle presentation as a woman struggling to keep her dreams amid difficult circumstances" earned her the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival. She was also nominated for the Genie Award for Best Actress.

Zinta went on a two-year absence from films, later explaining that she had chosen to concentrate on her cricket team rather than Heaven on Earth. PZNZ Media, she's adventurer of production, started in 2011 in 2011. She starred in her first film under Prem Raj-directed romantic comedy Ishq in Paris, which she also co-wrote two years later, despite numerous delays. Zinta appeared in the film as a half-Indian half-French Parisian woman alongside Rhehan Malliek and Isabelle Adjani. Zinta's job required her to learn French and follow a strict diet and fitness regimen for which she employed the services of celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson. Although the film bombed at the box office and garnered mostly critical feedback, Zinta's role attracted a mixed critical reception. Sonia Chopra of Sify described her as "hugely likeable" and that she is a "good actor, astute producer, and a writer." Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Deccan Herald, a film critic and Zinta's work, concluded a scathing review by calling it "a mediocre film" that was supposed to spotlight one of our favorite leading ladies, but instead it revealed a shadow of her past.

Zinta appeared in Neeraj Pathak's action comedy Bhaiaji Superhit (2018) as a brash Varanasi-based wife following a five-year absence. The film, according to Ajit Duara of Open magazine, is a "rude, sexist, and utter mixed-up farce" and has "completely disinterested in her surroundings and in her co-actors." Zinta appeared alongside Vir Das in an episode of the American sitcom Fresh Off the Boat called "The Magic Motor Inn" in 2020; she was expected to reprise her role in a spin-off series based on her characters' family; but ABC announced in June 2020 that it would not proceed with the spin-off.

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