Priety Zinta - in Red

Preity Zinta’s impish looks in the Cadbury’s Perk commercial and her forthright character in her debut Dil Se, on par with her off screen persona stole the show and had her fans begging for more.

Pretty Power

Preity Zinta, born on the 31st January 1975 in Shimla comes from a non-filmi family. Her father Durganand Zinta was in the Indian Army and her mother is Nilprabha. Her older brother Deepankar is with the Indian Army and a younger brother Manish lives in California. Zinta’s parents were in a car accident that killed her father while her mother made it with severe injuries.

Zinta spent her early years at the Jesus and Mary boarding school in Shimla. She is a graduate in English from St.Bede’s College in Shimla after which she did a degree in Criminal Psychology.

Her break into show business was a matter of chance, when she was featured in the Cadbury Perk’s commercial. She went on to be the Liril girl and part of other ads. She made a move into movies in 1997. Her debut Shekhar Kapoor’s Tara Rum Pum Pum with Hrithik Roshan was cancelled after which she landed a role in Mani Rathnam’s Dil Se.

Zinta was dating Marc Robinson. She is currently dating Ness Wadia, a businessman who comes from the family that runs Bombay Dyeing.

IPL

Zinta’s life has been more than just show business. She wrote for the BBC News Online about women’s issues. She is actively involved in various social causes like AIDS awareness, clean up drives in Mumbai, human trafficking etc. Her prize money from Kaun Banega Crorepathi was donated to the Red Cross Society in Shimla. She was one of the celebrities, who as part of NDTV’s Jai Jawan, visited the army men based in Hisar, Haryana.

In 2008, she became the youngest and only woman to own a franchise of the Mohali based Twenty20 cricket team of the Indian Premier League. She was in the news for her rapport with the team’s players and support that she extended towards them during the matches.

Skating on thin ice

Zinta was awarded the Godfrey’s Mind of Steel Award and the Red and White Bravery Award for testifying against the underworld who had threatened her during the Bharat Shah case. She was one of the few witnesses who stood her ground.

More recently, Zinta was accused by singer Suchitra Krishnamurthy for being the reason behind her divorce from director Shekhar Kapoor, which Zinta denied.