If you thought Preity Zinta’s absence from the silver screen meant that she’d given up Bollywood, you couldn’t be any more wrong. Preity is very much here and how! If you are a true blue Preity fan, you would definitely know that the last film she did was The Last Lear. So Madam Deepa Mehta saw the film at IIFA and just loved Preity’s performance. And this particular performance opened many new doors for Preity.

Preity, the bubbly and vivacious actress, who nobody can imagine as being non-glamorous, is all set to carve out a new image for herself. This talented actress is now trying to prove her mettle by taking up more and more challenging roles. You’ll be seeing two of her new movies release in the first half of 2008.

Preity plays an NRI Punjabi housewife in Deepa Mehta’s Heaven On Earth. We all know how convincingly Preity can play a Punjabi and we will find out how she essays the character of a mentally tortured and abused woman. So people of Punjab and Chandigarh have been lucky enough to spot Preity shooting there quite a bit. The producers have been looking for a little girl to play the character’s childhood part. It’s not very easy because among other things, they need a girl with very prominent dimples!!!

Another movie that Preity has been busy with is Assamese director Jahnu Baruah’s Har Pal. This is the same director who won huge critical acclaim with Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara. His Har Pal has been largely shot in the North East India and will showcase big names like Dharmendra and Shiney Ahuja, besides Preity.

So our dear Preity has been pretty busy all these days when you thought she’d gone underground. She recently celebrated her 33rd birthday on Jan 31st. This Aquarian girl shares her birthday with Amrita Arora and this year they also celebrated it together. Ain’t that a load full of girl power? Way to go girls…