Somashukla Sinha Walunjkar (HT)

<img src="http://202.131.142.25/Web/Photographs/2004/12/08/105/08_12_2004_105_004_015.jpg" align="right"><b>Veer-Zara is an experience that I'm going to cherish all my life. Yashji has presented me so beautifully.</b>

It's been a year of mixed fortunes for her. Bollywood's sunshine girl Preity Zinta, 30, can finally heave a sigh of relief: after dishing out two duds (Lakshya and Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha) she can safely take some credit for her first hit this year: Yash Chopra's Veer-Zara, co-starring her lucky mascot, Shah Rukh Khan. Zinta insists that "hits always make a differ ence to my life. Anybody who says that they don't care about hits and flops needs to get an award for being above such materi al things. I feel on top of the world after a hit." Looking back in time, has 2004 been satisfying for her, pro fessionally? Two flops haven't dampened her spirit. Zinta ad mits that she's an "instinctive person who likes a role. If a film crashes at the ticket-window, I feel responsible, but I don't start brooding. Sometimes when you do a good film like Lakshya, put in a lot of effort and it still doesn't work, then you feel hurt." Zinta, however, confesses that the greatest professional high this year will definitely be VeerZara, an "experience that I'm go ing to cherish all my life. Yashji (Chopra) is someone I've looked up to for years and when he gave me Zara's role I couldn't have asked for a better compliment. He's presented me so beautifully, I've never looked better. For all those who think flaunting your hour-glass figure is all that makes an actress, then this film is for them. Throughout the film I don't even wear a western outfit and still look credible. Finally, I think even critics will agree that there's more to me than my bubbly on screen image." Does that bubbly, giggly image typecast her a lot? Zinta says that there are times when she relates a lot to the characters she plays, like Kal Ho Naa Ho's Naina, but she's aching to do "something more intense. Veer-Zara should ideally be the first of those films.

Another nagging rumour that irks her no end is when a certain section of the media links her with every co-actor of hers, married and single. "Earlier I'd be hopping mad. I still get offended by baseless rumours but I've learnt not to react to them at all. That's why when I don't have a film to talk about I just stay away from the usual round of interviews."