Preity Zinta

Preity Zinta means business. The actress has taken her new role as a co-owner (with beau Ness Wadia) of the IPL cricket team ‘Kings XI Punjab’ pretty seriously. Last year, cricket fans and the nation watched fascinated as the dimpled diva rolled up her sleeves and did a good job promoting and cheering her cricket team. Preity was not just the pretty face of her IPL team; she added muscle to it.

Preity now asserts that she is looking forward to the next season of IPL. “The IPL last year was a great and enriching experience, but I have a long way to go,” says the excited actress. “I just didn’t learn about cricket, I learnt about organising, bureaucracy, red-tapism… everything possible. Business wise, it was ok. It was a huge investment and it’s very difficult to start something like this. It’s a hundred million dollar plus project. But it’s only going to get better. I hope we do really well business-wise in the second season.”

For the second season, Preity reveals: “We are going to have a lot of revised rules and other new stuff. The second season will happen a little earlier than last year, maybe February or March, because it was too hot last time. It’s going to be bigger, better and stronger than ever, hopefully.”

On the composition of her team, Preity says: “I think most of the team will be the same. At the most, there will be a couple of changes. It depends on what the coach wants, it’s really not my call. We try to keep the game pure. In cinema terms, we are trying to be the producer and letting Tom Moody be the director because he is one of the best coaches in the world. They have been playing cricket for 35 years, we have just come in.”

Preity, who urges women to come forward and support her, says she had to erase her glamour for IPL. “I don’t care which state you are from, every Indian woman should support my team. More than the state divisions, there should be the gender division. I am the only chick who is in this game. I am only one girl in the middle of it.”

She adds: “I felt being a heroine was working against me. Everyone thinks: ‘Who is this chick? What is she doing here? What does she know? So I chopped off my hair in the middle of the last season. When the IPL began, my hair was really long but one day I took a scissor and just cut it. I also removed all the make up, I took off all the glamour and wore only jeans and shirts. And I worked hard because I wanted to win that respect.

“Now I really want the woman to support me. First of all, I have worked so hard; and secondly, because I am a woman. It’s different to be a heroine in a man’s world. Everyone appreciates you and says: ‘Oh you are so beautiful.’ But when you are standing and competing there, it’s very different.”

She is a little hurt by the controversies that happened during the last IPL. “Everyone got excited or depressed when their team won or lost but when I got excited they said: ‘Oh is she having an affair with him?’ That’s not fair! Just because I am a woman. If I were a mustachioed guy, nobody would have the guts to write that.”

So she turns to women. “I have a disadvantage being a woman — so I want all women to support me.”

Mauli Singh

(Bollywood News Service)