MISS CONGENIALITY: Establishing a rapport comes easy

It's a press meet like any other, the filmstar surrounded by TV cameras and mediapersons, talking about her coming movie. In the next instant, a pleading wail streams through the hall, impaling the crowd with its sincere urgency, "Please let me go ... My friends are partying and I am stuck here giving interviews. I want to go and have a good time."

The urgency is endearing, the spontaneity, enslaving, the genuineness, shocking. More so in an industry that exhibits a remorseless proclivity for bandying the term "different" while churning out flogged formula films and insipid assembly-line stars. It takes a twinkling pair of eyes, an impudent set of dimples and an ungainly quantum of bubbling energy to melt that cynicism away. Spinning a singular charm among audiences and in Bollywood alike is Preity Zinta.

"What you see is what you get: talkative and mischievous, blunt and non-manipulative," says Suzanne Khan, wife of Hrithik Roshan, who has known Preity for six years. A tribute to a friend? More like an endorsement of popular sentiment. Says Karan Johar, who has signed on Preity for his next film Kal Ho Na Ho: "She evokes good vibes. You either love her or think she is fun, you can't hate her. She has the star power that makes you want to keep looking at her. She has done 10 films but looks as fresh as ever."

Hits and Misses

KYA KEHNA (2000) It took courage to play an unwed mother. The audience loved it.

DIL SE (1998) The only one who walked away smiling from this debacle with her cheeky dialogue and cheekier dimples.

DIL CHAHTA HAI (2001) Easy to associate with, Shalini was today's woman.

YEH RAASTE HAIN PYAR KE (2001) Forgettable film where she plays a car thief with Ajay Devgan and Madhuri Dixit.

DIL HAI TUMHAARA (2002) Despite the flop, her zest was appreciated.

Preity is like champagne, all bubble and fizz, but with a relentless intensity that was evident in her latest film Dil Hai Tumhaara. The film may not have made the box office jingle, but audiences and critics are raving about her performance.

From Dil Se (1998)-she was the only one who walked away triumphant from the debacle starring Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala, with her cheeky dialogue, "Are you a virgin?", and cheekier dimples-to Dil Hai Tumhaara has been a circuitous journey. It began with an incidental brush with director Shekhar Kapur when she went to pick up a friend at the audition of Kapur's Ta Ra Rum Pum. She was a student of criminal psychology, dabbling in modelling-the Liril ad a pointer to her unleashed vivacity-with every intention of pursuing a degree in business management. A dare from Kapur and she signed his film. The film didn't take off but Preity took on a slew of films and a new career. Her box-office standing has only improved over the years. Says trade analyst Taran Adarsh: "She has carved a niche as the girl next door and hasn't shed clothes or shown her cleavage to get to the top. People find her on-screen presence comfortable, unlike bratty Kareena's or the sexy Bipasha's."

Dil Se was followed by the successes of Soldier (1998), Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega (1998), Kya Kehna (2000) and Dil Chahta Hai (2001), with a smattering of duds like Farz, where she played wife to an ageing Sunny Deol and Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke in which she featured as a car thief. But Johar finds the choice of her films a fine balance between art and commerce, a strategy adopted by Aamir Khan. "She looks at the film as a whole, and beyond her own footage. So even if the film sinks, she is appreciated. She has also worked with smaller directors like Aamir did, with great success."

For now, it's the big directors who are vying to cast her. Rakesh Roshan admits to only "having considered Preity" opposite Hrithik in his next home production Koi Mil Gaya, while Honey Irani calls her the surprise packet of her film Armaan, in a role scripted with Preity in mind. "There is a genuine air about her," says director Vidhu Vinod Chopra. "She can make the viewer believe even in the most convoluted situations."

For Preity, the script and what she can do with her characters spur her on. "I wouldn't act if it wasn't fun. I spend hours discussing my costumes, delving into the mind of the character and working on it. I want the audience to see Shalu, not Preity Zinta." Which they did whether it was Reet Oberoi, a vulnerable CBI cop in Sangharsh, or Priya, an unwed mother in Kya Kehna.

These were also characters that made the industry take notice of her as an actor. "I met her when I heard that she walked around with a pillow tied to her tummy to feel pregnant," says director Kundan Shah. "To play an unwed mother required guts, doing her homework showed her seriousness, and I admired her commitment to the film." Although Shah finds her mercurial temperament and outspoken nature grating, Johar thinks she is bindaas, like Kajol. "She is a new-wave actress and luckily today's films portray a woman who knows her mind."

It's also a mind instinctively tuned in to the film crew who appreciate her ability to hang out "without being a star". Establishing a rapport comes easy to Preity. Vouches Tanuja Chandra who worked with her in Sangharsh: "By the time she had to kiss Akshay Kumar she shared such a good equation with him that it seemed only a job." The felicity with which she handles relationships goes well with her ability to execute marathon talk sessions. She once chatted up Amitabh Bachchan for half an hour on the sets of Armaan so that hairstylist Avan Contractor could chop his hair without being nervous. "She did it without even letting me on that I was intimidated. She spoke so much that when she left, Mr Bachchan teasingly quizzed, 'So how much did you pay her for this?'"

Hidden behind the casual looks and easy smile is ambition. Nonchalantly, Preity says, "I've worked long and hard to get where I am. I don't want to be just a number or be in the rat race for the top spot. If I start believing I am the best, I would be restricting myself." Which, perhaps, is one thing that doesn't come easy to the effervescent woman.