Preity Zinta says 'she didn't miss films' as priorities changed after kids: 'My greatest milestone was to have children
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
In the 2000s, Preity Zinta was one of the highest-paid and most successful female stars in Bollywood. The star chose to step away from the limelight after her marriage and having kids, only doing films sporadically after 2008. Even that stopped after 2018 as she devoted herself to raising her kids. Now, eight years after her last rollout, Preity is returning to the big screen with Batwara 1947 , a Rajkumar Santoshi movie. Ahead of the rollout, the star spoke to the media on Tuesday about her ‘comeback’ and the time in between.
Adding to this, Preity Zinta in a still from Batwara 1947. Preity Zinta's nerves on returning to acting When HT asked Preity if facing the camera after a long break was like riding a bike, the star laughed. She admitted that it took her some time to get used to it, and there were a lot of nerves initially. “There were nerves,” she says. The star says Sunny Deol acted as her compass on the set as director Santoshi decided to ‘torture’ her by giving her a tough scene on her first day back. “ He (director Santoshi) tortured me on day one by putting the most difficult scene of the movie on the first day. So I was just looking at him (Sunny Deol), and I was shaking ki abhi main kya karoon (what do I do know)? He is a wonderful, big-hearted, kind, decent, good human being to work with because he really was like, ‘Don’t worry, he loves retakes. Kuch khaayegi’ (Will you eat something)?”
Meanwhile, Preity admits that her nerves eased after she got through one of the movie's most challenging early scenes. “We shot the whole night. We did the look test, and the next day we did one or two readings, and then we were shooting. After that, it kind of felt easier.”
Notably, Preity’s last rollout was the 2018 movie Bhaiaji Superhit, also starring Sunny Deol. It has been a long gap for her, away from Bollywood. But the star says she didn’t miss facing the camera in the interim. “I didn’t miss it, to be honest. I was enjoying having a family; it was new to me, having kids, focusing on my personal life. And however big my career milestones might be, my greatest milestone was to have children.”
As per the latest buzz, Preity says that being a mother helped her identify with her character in Batwara 1947. In the movie, Preity plays a Muslim woman whose husband (Sunny) decides to harbour a Hindu woman hiding in their Lahore home right in the aftermath of the Partition. “That’s why I could identify with this movie that even though it’s 2026, my number one priority is family. So imagine, in 1947, how it must have been. It’s a very different worldview from the different lens in those times.”
In further updates, Apart from Sunny and Preity, the movie also stars Shabana Azmi, Karan Deol, Ali Fazal, Abhimanyu Singh, Khushi Hajare, and Kanikka Kapur. The movie's music has been composed by AR Rahman, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. It has also been cleared by the Central Board of Movie Certification (CBFC) without any cuts. Batwara 1947 will rollout in theatres on August 14.
On top of that, Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Movie Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world. Read More
Source: Hindustan Times