Despite her transition to art-house cinema, Preity Zinta says she remains quintessentially a Bollywood heroine.
Preity, whose latest starrer Heaven On Earth has premiered at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival, is presently at the receiving end of adulations she is getting for her brilliant performance as a battered housewife in the film. Directed by Deepa Mehta , the movie has Preity playing Chand, a vivacious Punjabi girl who becomes a victim of domestic violence after she marries a man in Canada.
Apart from ‘Heaven On Earth’, Preity has recently also acted in two other slice-of-life films - The Last Lear and Har Pall - both of which are non-commercial movies from acclaimed art-house directors.
However, Preity expels the notion that she is moving away from Bollywood.
"Popular Hindi cinema is my bread and butter…The only thing that has changed is that today there is space for all kinds of cinema in the multiplexes in India. The demographics are no longer the same and I can now afford to do films of all hues," said Preity, who’s in Toronto for the premiere of ‘Heaven On Earth’.
The actress added that she loves doing full-on Bollywood potboilers.
"I am first and foremost a commercial Bollywood star and I absolutely love doing fluffy entertainers where I need to do five costume changes in the course of one song…But if I can add weight to an issue-based film like ‘Heaven on Earth’ and help it reach more people, I am all for it."
Spoken like a true-blue Bollywoodian, Preity.
