Preity forever grateful to Kapur

MUMBAI: Controversies aside, actress-cum-business woman Preity Zinta says she has the deepest respect for internationally acclaimed director Shekhar Kapur and that she will be always there for him. “Shekhar is very special to me because he is the one who brought me into this industry. Though that film did not take off, I will always be grateful to him for bringing me to the film industry. I have great respect for him and I will always be there for him,” Preity said.

Kapur, whose ex-wife Suchitra Krishnamurthy blamed Preity for her divorce, had signed the actress for Ta Ra Rum Pum that was to be directed by Vishal Bharadwaj.

“But the film never took off due to some problems. We sat for a few meetings and worked on the scripts but things did not fall in place so we just let it go,” Preity said.

Is she doing any film with him now? “No, he did not approach me again.”

What are the films that Preity is working on now? “I have a lot of films which I have completed shooting for.” Preity said she has completed Jahnu Barua’s Har Pal, Rituparno Ghosh’s English film The Last Lear, Samir Karnik’s Heroes and Deepa Mehta’s Punjabi film Heaven On Earth.

Out of these, Preity considers Heaven On Earth as the most intense film of her career.

“It is the best film I have ever done. If I am 80-years-old and if someone asks me which film do you want to show people, I would say Heaven On Earth.

The actress thanks Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh for introducing her to meaningful cinema.

“He opened the doors to working in meaningful films. I want that when I look back after 10 or 20 years, I don’t have only masala films to my credit. I want to see myself as part of meaningful films as well. It is because of him that I got Heaven On Earth and I want to thank him for that.”