New Delhi: Actress Preity Zinta turned 47 on Monday. She lives in the United States with her husband Jean Goodenough and their twins.
The co-owner of the IPL team Kings XI Punjab is known to be a bubbly person who is like most of the characters she plays on screen.
A while back, she had opened up about her encounter with the underworld and how it had affected her. She had described the experience when she testified against gangsters in court. Speaking about the incident at India Today Conclave East 2018, Preeti revealed that during the shooting of her 2001 film ‘Chori Chori Chupke Chupke’, she received calls asking for Rs 50 lakh and reported it to the court.
Talking about the incident, Preeti called it ‘scary’. Other Bollywood celebrities including Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rakesh Roshan, Mahesh Manjrekar and others also received similar extortion calls. However, according to a report in Hindustan Times, he withdrew his statements before appearing in the court.
Also, financier Bharat Shah along with Nazim Rizvi, producer of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, was accused of making the film with money from underworld gangster Chhota Shakeel.
The film starred Preity Zinta alongside Salman Khan and Rani Mukerji and was directed by Abbas-Mustan. The release was delayed by several months as the CBI investigation was going on.
Preeti said, “For the record, if I had known that everyone was going to back down, I would have too. It was a scary time in my life. I should have been protected. Whatever I said in court He was on TV ten minutes later.” She even said how everyone on the sets of her film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke was ‘crazy’ about the threat call and revealed that she dealt with it in her own way.
She was among those to stand up and testify against the gangster. She said that when the gangster started abusing her, she could not bear it any longer. “I was fine as long as they were scaring me, but once they started abusing, I lost it. I can take tension, but not the people who abuse me. I learned that if you get a call from +92, don’t pick up! Luckily I was famous. If it weren’t for me, it would have been tough.”
Preeti also gave her reason as to why she decided to testify in court when others backed down. Preeti said, “I had no family, I had no children.”
The actress is now living in the United States with husband Jean Goodenough and welcomed twins via surrogacy in November last year.
Preity Zinda made her Bollywood debut in 1998 in a supporting role with Mani Ratnam’s ‘Dil Se’ but was able to attract attention for her looks and scintillating dance moves in the song ‘Jiya Jale’. Later that year she starred opposite Bobby Deol in the commercially successful film ‘Soldier’.
The actress has several successful hits to her name including ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’, ‘Veer-Zaara’ and ‘Jaaneman’.
Read also: Amrita Arora Rings In Birthday With Sister Malaika And BFFs Kareena, Karisma
,