“When I entered the industry ten years ago, I said that there will always be someone younger and hungrier standing behind you to take your place. At that time, I was the younger and hungrier person. Today, I want different things. What I wanted ten years ago, I don’t want that now. There are bigger mountains for me to climb. If I start comparing myself to the younger, newer heroines, or compare what I am now to what I was ten years ago, it would be a very sad situation for me. Competition is healthy but if it depresses and worries you, you must be a very insecure person with low self esteem. I am a very secure person from within”, asserts the vivacious Miss Zinta.
Preity explains she wants different things in life now. “I want a lot of growth in other areas of my life. Even film wise, the films I want to do now are not the ones the younger girls are doing. I don’t want to sound presumptuous but I turned down a lot of these roles and other people went ahead and did them. I don’t talk about it because I don’t think it is cool. So I think as an individual who is secure within oneself, every day is a new day and once you achieve what you have aspired to achieve, you go for a higher goal, you go for a different dream. The dream and success that you have realised isn’t that sweet if you keep sticking onto it. You have to go for higher ground, to a newer dream and ambition. I am in a very happy and content space today. The films that I am doing today are very different from what I did earlier because even the actor within me has grown up. Two years ago, I was frustrated because I didn’t feel I was growing as an actor. Five years from now, I will want to achieve something else and totally different from what I want now.”
And Preity has already garnered praise for her stellar performance in the independent film Videsh: Heaven on Earth. “The film has made a lot of money abroad. Foreigners have understood the message of the film completely. I was even nominated for the Genie Awards, which is the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars, alongside Susan Sarandon, so that felt amazing. I remember at the first screening in Toronto, a famous American actress from the 70s grabbed my arm and said, “Where have you been hiding? You are such a talent!” It feels great that I have done something different and I am being appreciated for that. Now I just want people in India to like the film,” signs off the actress.
Videsh: Heaven on Earth hits Indian theatres on March 27.
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