Actress Preeti Jhangiani, best remembered for her role in Mohabbatein, is a mother of two now, and raring to go in showbiz. She says it is easy for her to work compared to other mothers as she has strong family support.
Preeti, who has been doing ads, shows and regional films in the past few years, is returning to Bollywood with upcoming film Wajood.
“I do wish to appear in more (Bollywood) films now. I have a lot of support from my family. There are people to look after my children (Jaiveer and Dev) in my absence. In fact, my mother and sister live in the same building. It’s much easier for me to work in comparison to other mothers,” Preeti said.
“Now, I am looking forward to doing more work that will have good scripts. In terms of (Bollywood) films, you can call this my second innings in the industry since I am coming after such a long time. But calling it a second inning will make me feel as if my first one was done and dusted.
“It’s not like that. Maybe not in films, but I have been continuously working in shows and ads. I was actually working during my pregnancies also,” she added.
Preeti, who got her Bollywood break with Mohabbatein in 2000 and has done movies in languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali and Rajasthani, feels happy with the wave of reality-based cinema.
“I don’t think the audience wants to see the same old romance drama and those type of stories. They want to see films like ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’, which have real characters,” Preeti said.
“In today’s times, even if it’s a commercial film, it has to be real. I believe cinema is moving away from the old format of filmmaking. The audience laughs at a film in which the characters don’t look real,” she added.
Unlike her happy-go-lucky image that she has portrayed through her characters in Bollywood so far, Preeti will be seen playing an emotional role in Wajood.
“I am playing the mother of the child who gets abducted in the film. The story is also about her life and her relationship with two men — one is the father and the other is the one who brought up the child,” Preeti said.
“I connected 100 per cent with this character. All the emotions were natural for me. Only a parent can understand what another person goes though when he or she loses a child. The trauma makes you feel like killing the person, who has abducted your child.
“That anger and frustration about not being able to do anything — there were a lot of emotions I had to bring to the character,” she added.
On preparing for the role, Preeti, who is married to actor Parvin Dabas, said: “Mentally, I had to distance myself from everything else and get back into the acting mode. But otherwise I didn’t have to do any research work. The film starts off in London and ends here (in India).
“‘Wajood’ is an offbeat film. But I would also love to do more of mainstream work as well because that gets seen by a larger audience.”
Wajood will release next year.