Director Jahnu Barua tells Prithwish Ganguly that the actor should have worked in more art house films
Actress Preity Zinta might have had a very successful stint in Bollywood but her current film Har Pall director, national award winning Jahnu Barua feels she has been underutilised by the industry.
“Preity is an amazingly mature actress and I’m afraid I think Bollywood has under-utilised her for years,” said Baruah. According to Barua, despite the fact that women are as talented as heroes in Bollywood, the scripts are still written keeping the male as the protagonist. Barua goes to the extent of saying that Bollywood’s leading ladies are almost “sidelined” due to this inherent flaw of scriptwriters
“I have seen sparks of her brilliance in whatever opportunities she has got and she brings a zing on the screen. But the fact is that Bollywood still writes stories keeping the heroes in mind and unfortunately the actresses are sidelines with petty roles without any scope of displaying what they can deliver. There are so many talented actresses who become second fiddle to heroes for most of the film and when they get a good role, they deliver so well,” the director said.
Jahnu’s Har Pall is an urban romance that deals with two neighbours falling in love. The film has Shiney Ahuja playing the lead. According to the director, Preity should have simultaneously worked for art house as well as commercial masala movies.
“I think her decision to work in parallel cinema came in a little late,” he said. Preity is now showing inclination to work in off beat cinema as she signed Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear and Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth in quick succession. But was the critically acclaimed art house film director apprehensive to choose Preity, an out-and-out popcorn film star?
“Not at all!” he said. “I loved her performances in many films and I was specially moved by her performance in Kya Kehna. I think she was really brilliant in the film; the soul of the movie. I was convinced that she could carry off intense scripts with ease and she has done that in my film,” the director said with confidence.
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