After an eight-year break from the big screen, Preity Zinta is all set to return to films with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Batwara 1947. While the actress was once among Bollywood’s highest-paid stars in the 2000s, she stepped away from the spotlight after marriage and motherhood, choosing to focus on her personal life rather than pursuing films regularly.
Speaking to HT ahead of the film’s release, Preity reflected on returning to acting after such a long gap. She admitted that stepping in front of the camera again was not as effortless as she had hoped and confessed that she felt nervous during the initial days of filming.
“There were nerves,” she said, recalling how director Rajkumar Santoshi assigned one of the film’s most demanding scenes on her very first day of shooting. Feeling overwhelmed, she turned to her co-star Sunny Deol for reassurance. Sharing the experience, she said, “He (director Santoshi) tortured me on day one by putting the most difficult scene of the film on the first day. So I was just looking at him (Sunny Deol), and I was shaking ki abhi main kya karoon? He is a wonderful, big-hearted, kind, decent, good human being to work with because he really was like, ‘Don’t worry, he loves retakes. Kuch khaayegi’?”
The actress revealed that once she completed the challenging sequence, the rest of the shoot became much easier. “We shot the whole night. We did the look test, and the next day we did one or two readings, and then we were shooting. After that, it kind of felt easier,” she shared.
Preity’s last film release was Bhaiaji Superhit in 2018, which also featured Sunny Deol. Despite spending several years away from the industry, the actress said she never felt the absence of acting because her priorities had changed after becoming a mother.
“I didn’t miss it, to be honest. I was enjoying having a family; it was new to me, having kids, focusing on my personal life. And however big my career milestones might be, my greatest milestone was to have children,” she said.
The actress also explained how motherhood helped her connect with her role in Batwara 1947. She plays a Muslim woman whose husband, portrayed by Sunny Deol, shelters a Hindu woman in their Lahore home during the Partition of India. According to Preity, her own experience of putting family first made it easier to understand the emotional choices her character makes.
“That’s why I could identify with this film that even though it’s 2026, my number one priority is family. So imagine, in 1947, how it must have been. It’s a very different worldview from the different lens in those times,” she said.
Along with Preity Zinta and Sunny Deol, Batwara 1947 features Shabana Azmi, Karan Deol, Ali Fazal, Abhimanyu Singh, Khushi Hajare, and Kanikka Kapur. The film’s music has been composed by AR Rahman, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. The period drama has also received clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification without any cuts and is scheduled to release in theatres on August 14.
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