Happy birthday Preity Zinta: Did you know her decision to enter Bollywood was based on a coin flip?
Preity Zinta, who was supposed to make her Bollywood debut with Shekhar Kapur's Tara Rum Pum Pum, said that she left the decision to enter films to a coin toss.
Preity Zinta, one of the most popular Bollywood actors of the 2000s, would not have taken up a career in films if a coin toss had gone differently. She was offered Shekhar Kapur’s Tara Rum Pum Pum and left the decision to fate.
As Preity turns 46, here is the story of how she might not have taken up the offer, ‘just for style’, if the tails side of the coin would have come up.
On Rendezvous With Simi Garewal, Preity said, “It sounds like the perfect story, but no. I think when I met Shekhar, when he wanted to sign me up for Tara Rum Pum Pum, I was just like this little kid looking at Shekhar Kapur. And I just wanted to be cool, so I said, ‘Okay, if it's destiny then I’ll just flip this coin. I said, ‘Heads, I will take film as a career and tails, I won’t’.”
When Simi asked Preity what she would have done if she got tails, she replied, “I wouldn’t have signed that film. I promise you.” Simi looked disbelieving and asked Preity if she really took a film offer so lightly, to which she smiled, “Just for style, anything for style at that point.”
Tara Rum Pum Pum got shelved and Preity eventually made her Bollywood debut with Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se. Years later, Ta Ra Rum Pum was made by a different director, Siddharth Anand, and with a different cast - Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji.
In an old interview with Hindustan Times, Preity said that it was ‘destiny’ that she was not a part of Tara Rum Pum Pum. On being asked if she was hurt about not being approached for the film, she said, “For once I was quiet. The only thing that came out from my mouth was, ‘Oh’. Years ago, I went around telling everyone that I’m doing a film titled Tara Rum Pum Pum. Now I can’t.”
