The Preity Sweatshirt

Preity Zinta, known for her forthright characters, was born in Shimla. Her foray into acting was an accident. She had accompanied a friend to an audition, where director Shekhar Kapur noticed her and asked if she would audition as well. Kapur recommended her for her debut “Dil Se…” (1998) to director Mani Ratnam, and the rest is history. “Dil Se…” was the first Hindi film to break the U.K. box office top ten. Though Zinta had only 20 minutes of screen time, her character left an indelible mark. Who can forget Preeti Nair asking Shah Rukh Khan’s character if he’s a virgin? Zinta won a Filmfare for Best Female Debut in part for the role, and she and Shah Rukh Khan would go on to collaborate on several more hits. The 2000s shot Zinta to stardom with roles that broke taboos, starting with “Kya Kehna” (2000), in which she played a single teen mom, and “Chori Chori Chupke Chupke” (2001), where she plays a sex worker and surrogate mother. “Salaam Namaste” (2005) also broke barriers; in the