After an impressive debut with Shor In The City, Preeti Desai took a break to hone her acting skills. She chats with Karan Bhardwaj on her career, real life partner and her latest film One By Two
There are some actors who debut with big banner films and then go on a movie-signing spree. On the other hand, there are rest who recognise their limitations and choose to hone their skills before joining the jamboree. Preeti Desai falls into the latter category. As a model, she came to India in 2008, and subsequently featured on the Kingfisher Calendar, which was also her first assignment here. Gradually, her modelling career and personal life both got stable. In 2011, she debuted with Shor In The City, which floored the critics if not the audience, and she also fell in love with Bollywood’s ‘unusual’ star Abhay Deol (for his choices). However, she became invisible after the film. “When I came to India, I started working immediately. I was working non-stop as I had no support here. I modelled religiously before Shor In The City happened. After I was exposed to acting, I wanted to pursue it seriously. I didn’t know anything about the film industry. I wanted to figure out how Bollywood and movies function. It’s good to have a gap to discover the territory before you start working,” she says.
Being a former Miss Great Britain, she made history in 2007 by becoming the first woman of Indian origin to ever win the title. But does Mumbai discount you on your past laurels. “Certainly not! It was very tough initially. From the language to diction to work, nothing was easy going. I took up Hindi lessons and worked on my personality. Coming from a non-filmy space, I had clue about nothing. But in this process, I learnt that you have to be extremely patient. Just go with the flow and keep learning,” says the actor who is upbeat about her forthcoming film One By Two opposite beau Abhay Deol. The movie recently got attention after Deol protested against T-Series for not launching its music. But away from the controversies, Desai is overwhelmed to romance his real life partner on screen. “It was fabulous working with him. We had lots of fun. Since we are a couple, we were quite comfortable. It didn’t feel like I was going to work. What I like about him (Abhay) is that he is super intelligent. He knows precisely what he is doing,” she says.
She looks up to Abhay as a performer and not just her boyfriend. “I am still learning, and he is a great source of inspiration. As far as understanding the character goes, director Devika Bhagat helped me a lot. I had discussions, rehearsals with her. So before coming to the set, I would know what we were going to do,” she tells us.