Preity Zinta flies high with Bachchan

Ever since she travelled with Amitabh Bachchan on his private plane, Preity Zinta has been on cloud nine. She was shooting with the Bollywood icon for Rituparno Ghosh's English language film "The Last Lear" in Mussoorie and after finishing the shoot the Big B offered the perky actress a ride back to Mumbai in his private aircraft.

"Mr.Bachchan was kind enough to give me a ride back. He has been the most wonderful co-star I've ever worked with. And his command over the craft...wow," Preity told IANS.

She says she spent the most divine four days shooting with the Big B in Mussoorie.

"The last time I was in Mussoorie, it was for another shoot. And guess what? It was again with Mr.Bachchan for 'Armaan'. Believe me, if I ever direct a film I'll cast him only."

While the Big B plays a veteran Shakespearean actor, Preity plays a bad actor in "The Last Lear".

"Playing a bad actor against him was a pleasure specially when I had a director like Rituparno Ghosh to guide me to be bad on camera, ha ha. Ghosh is a magician and so calm. He kept trying these various wigs on his shaved head and we had a ball just watching Ghosh experiment with his looks.

"As for my looks, you've to see what Ghosh has done with me. I've never looked like this before. It was all so much fun, and didn't seem like we were making a very serious film."

Praising the Big B's command over the Queen's language, Preity said: "I thought I spoke good English until I heard Amitabh recite his dialogues in that Shakespearean baritone and I died. I had some of my foreigner friends visit us on the sets. They were completely bowled over by Amitabh. I had to tell them to relax, that they're foreigners and they don't have to be so star-struck."

Back in Mumbai, Preity is busy looking at several scripts. She has green-lighted Samir Karnik's "Mera Bharat Mahaan".

"I just fell in love with Karnik's script. It's an episodic film with a very strong social message." Preity will be paired with Salman Khan in this multi-starrer.

Tell her she needs to do a full-on comedy and she pipes in, "Oh, but Amitabh, Abhishek and I have some really funny interludes together in Shaad Ali's 'Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom'. You've to watch us bring the roof down together."

Indo-Asian News Service