Preity Zinta, a beauty from Himachal Pardesh, first made waves with her Liril ad on Indian TV. She made her entry into Bollywood through no less than Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.

An Aquarian, born on January 31st, she is 5' 5" tall and in her early thirties. Preity Zinta's family lives in Delhi. She lost her father when she was 13. He was an army officer and he died in a car accident. She studied in Shimla in boarding school and graduated in Psychology from Mumbai.

When she was studying in Mumbai, Shekhar Kapoor saw her in Liril ad and liked her so much that he offered her a role in his film, 'Tara Rum Pum' but the film never got made. But Preity soon got an offer from Kundan Shah for 'Kya Kehna'. But she started shooting for Mani Ratnam's 'Dil Se' before 'Kya Kehna'. Even though Kya Kehna was Preity's first movie, it was released in 2000 and it was a big hit.

She is known to be outspoken. She takes a lot of care in choosing her roles when she gets an offer.

Her 1000 watt smile wins hearts over. Preity says, "You know what's the worst part about being an actress? It's the pressure to look gorgeous all the time and to behave perfectly. But I'm not perfect, nobody is."

Though Zinta refuses to speak about her personal life to the media but there were reports that she dated Marc Robinson, one of the hottest models in India but they broke up in 2001. Marc gave the reason of Preity being too busy doing films.

The latest buzz is that top actor Preity Zinta is seeing Ness Wadia, heir to the Bombay Dyeing fortune.

• Sajid Nadiadwala’s 'Jaan-e-man'. Directed by Shirish Kunder. Starring Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta.
• Krrish. Directed by Rakesh Roshan. Preity Zinta has special appearance in the movie.
• Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna . Directed by Karan Johar. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Urmila Matondkar, Abhishek Bachchan and Preity Zinta.

Preity won the IIFA Style Diva Award (2005).

Salaam Namaste debuted at the national British film charts at number 14

Preity Zinta won the award for Best Actress for her performance in the movie Kal Ho Na Ho from Sansui Movie Awards held on February 1 in Mumbai. She is going to contribute a monthly column to BBC on the subjects of life and cinema.

• Sep 9, 2005 Salaam Namaste Yashraj product, directed by the screenplay writer of Hum Tum- 26-year-old Siddharth Raj Anand. Her co-star in this comedy/romance film is Saif Ali Khan. This is Saif and Preity's fourth film together, after Kya Kehna, Dil Chahta Hai and Kal Ho Na Ho. The film was shot in Australia for three months.
• 12 Nov 2004 Khullam Khulla Pyaar Karen (Govinda, Prem Chopra, Preity Zinta, Kader Khan, Mohnish Bahl)
• 12 Nov 2004 Veer Zaara (Sharukh Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Rani Mukherji, Amitabh Bachchan)
• Sep 2004 Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha (Salman Khan, Preity Zinta, Bhumika Chawla)
• 2004 Lakshya (Preity Zinta, Hritik Roshan, Amitabh Bachchan)
• 2004 Koi Mil Gaya (Preity Zinta, Hritik Roshan, Rekha)
• 2003 Armaan (Preity Zinta, Amitabh Bachchan and anil Kapoor)
• 2003 The Hero (Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Amrish Puri, Kabir Bedi)
• 2003 Kal Ho Naa Ho (Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta )
• 2001 Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (Salman Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta)
• 2001 Dil Chahta Hai (Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Khanna and Preity Zinta)
• 2000 Har Di Jo Pyar Karega (Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee, Salman Khan )
• 2000 Mission Kashmir (Preity Zinta, Hiritk Roshan)
• 2000 Kya Kehna (Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta)
• 1998 Soldier (Bobby Deol, Preity Zinta, Rakhee, Suresh Oberoi)
• 1998 Dil Se (Preity Zinta, Shahrukh Khan, Manisha Koirala)

Preity Zinta won Best Actress at Stardust Awards for Veer Zaara.

Lakshya - She is shown as a young college girl active in college rallies. And then goes on to play the role of a TV reporter on the frontline of conflict in Kargil.

She has won over 4 awards for Kya Kehna and 7 Awards for Kal HO Na ho. Kal Ho Na Ho got her the Filmfare Best Actress Award.

Best newcomer performance for Dil Se (1998) in Filmfare Awards and best Debut Award for Soldier.