Cannes Diary: Talking Preity

Cannes (France): What's Cannes without pretty faces? Preity Zinta is in Cannes with filmmaker Karan Johar for the promotion of their film Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. Apart from showcasing her film, Preity said she was also looking forward to watching some of the finest international films.

Rajeev Masand: Preity, welcome to Cannes.

Preity Zinta: Thank you.

Rajeev Masand: How does it feel to be in Cannes? What's the mood like?

Preity Zinta: The mood is great, the sun is out and the weather is good. It's nice to know that there's a very big and strong Indian presence here.

Rajeev Masand: You are going to be at the screening of the film, The Da Vinci Code, are you excited about the film?

Preity Zinta: Oh yes, I am. I am really looking forward to the film because I loved reading the book and Tom Hanks is one of my favourite actors. He is a very talented actor. So I really want to see what they have done with the film. Usually you like the book more than the film, so let's see. And having Karan here is the biggest bonus, because he is 100 per cent pure entertainment. Plus he has a stall here for Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and we are going to be promoting the film, so this is excellent.

Rajeev Masand: That's the film you are acting in, so how's the experience of making that picture?

Preity Zinta: Well, I think that's a film, which will have a lot of debates on it when people see it. It is different from any of the candyfloss kind of cinema, which Karan has done. It's not ‘soft’, it's a very different kind of film.

When I joined this industry seven years ago, there wasn't such a strong Hindi film presence worldwide. Today if you go and see, you see people from all over the world watching Hindi films. Just three or four weeks ago we went to Paris for the French premiere of Veer Zaara and I was surprised to see more than 15,000 people out there. There were more people to see us than to see Tom Cruise. So it was wonderful.

Rajeev Masand: You’ll have a super time in Cannes, any party lined up?

Preity Zinta: Well, I don't know, a few. How can Cannes be without parties?