Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the masses. But in India, movies are religion. And only in India do gods have competition from actors and, yes, cricketers.
I had a glimpse of the power of the moving image and actors very early in my life.
There was a mythological television serial on the Hindu epic Ramayana which was a huge hit in the 1980s.
People from neighbouring villages would descend on our farm home to catch the soap religiously. Every Sunday morning had a set time table.
At 0830 sharp, people would arrive, greet my grandparents, take off their shoes, step towards the television set and bow in front of it as they would to a deity.
At 0900 all eyes would be glued to the telly as they sat in pin drop silence and experienced God.
Blasphemous
One day I overheard some family friends tell my grandparents how the actress who played Sita, the pious wife of Lord Rama in the serial, upset north Indian sentiments by buying beer at a local wine shop. For them, Sita could do no wrong.
When the lights go off there is only darkness around an actor and it is that darkness all actors fear

Your comments on Preity Zinta's article
How could a venerated 'figure' go to buy alcohol? It was blasphemous!
After six years and 17 films in the business, I am getting a taste of what being a film star in India is all about.
It's a high that is higher than cloud nine. It is the toughest job in the world, it's crazy and at times it is also scary.
Fans come in various shapes and sizes and people will do anything to come close to their favourite star. Temples are built in our names. Fan letters flood our mailboxes and the love is unconditional.
Sometimes the love and the adulation can make you feel so humble and close to God.
Recently I met a little girl who was dying of leukaemia and had expressed a desire to meet me.
I must confess I felt very nervous and anxious when I entered the hospital.
What should I say? What should I do to make her feel better? I was still juggling all these thoughts when I saw her pale face come alive with the most precious smile.

Shah Rukh Khan - feeling the adulation
Two weeks later she passed away but the memory of her smile is alive in my heart. Dear God, thank you for making me feel so close to you. Thank you for giving me the gift of bringing a smile to someone's face.
If there are emotional encounters then there are funny ones also.
Once a couple came up to me and said their child was my "biggest fan" and was dying to take a photo with me.
I soon found out that my "biggest fan" was their 11-month-old baby, who had possibly not even learnt to recognise his parents. I had an ear to ear grin in that family photograph.
The flip side
The actor's hold over popular imagination in India is immense. They can draw in the crowds at the drop of a hat. That is why you see our political parties wooing actors to join their ranks or campaign for them during elections.
Recently we had a couple of actors who decided to contest the elections. It came as no surprise that they all won - what was surprising though was that the crowd was only interested in hearing the actors recite dialogues from their blockbuster films! This is the power actors have in India.

Preity Zinta in the spotlight - you need to keep balanced, she says
But there is a flip side also - behind the scenes! It's about wake up calls at two in the morning, filming in harsh weather conditions, and the blood, sweat and tears that go into your work.
There's the annoying feeling of insecurity and the frustration of failure. There's also the satisfaction of achievement shadowed by the embrace of loneliness. It is all part and parcel of showbiz.
And, of course, there is the larger than life image that one has to compete with all the time.
I remember shooting with superstar Shah Rukh Khan in New York right after his back surgery for Kal Ho Na Ho.
One day a plump woman came up to him and exclaimed "Oh my God, Shah Rukh you are so skinny!" Before I could blink he replied "Oh my God, lady you are so fat!" It was so funny I almost fell off the chair. I knew the pain he was going through at that time, yet he was as sharp and witty as ever.
I used to joke with my director of photography on sets and say "If the world is a stage, I need better lighting".
But later I realised that when the lights go off there is only darkness around an actor and it is that darkness all actors fear. Dear God please give me the strength to find my way out of the darkness when the lights are no more on me.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown; that's why it is important to keep a balanced head on one's shoulders. Today I take the good with the bad and the ugly and keep telling myself, "Films are a part of my life; I do them, they don't do me."
As of today all I can say is, Dear God thank you for giving me everything that I did not ever dream of!
A Hindu youth group has slammed Bollywood actress Preity Zinta after she was seen wearing a pair of jeans to a temple in Durban this week. Members of the Hindu Students’ Association, based at the Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, told the Sunday Times Extra that the co-owner of the Indian Premier League Punjab Kings XI cricket team was “totally wrong” to have prayed in jeans at the Durban Hindu Temple in Somtseu Road. A spokesman for the body, Kreesan Frank, said: “She should get her priorities straight — whether she wants to look fashionable for her cricket team or pay homage to God. But Durban Hindu Temple committee chairman Moheni Lillkant defended the actress this week, saying it was known she was on the way to a match and had arrived unannounced to conduct her own private prayer without the use of a temple priest.She was appropriately clad. It was her private prayer, not a public function, ” she said, adding that the temple had not received any complaints. SA Hindu Maha Sabha president Ashwin Trikamjee explained that the Hindu watchdog body could not dictate to people what to wear, but that they should respect a place of worship. He said in the US jeans were considered formal wear.This is a petty reaction. There is nothing wrong with it.Trikamjee said it was the right of individual temples to set their own rules. “The fact that dress codes vary among temples tell us something. Zinta and her management could not be reached for comment.
Preity had called on Thursday evening for a request her IPL team was hugely depressed and she was wondering if I could do a small TV bite to cheer them up. I did that and I hope it makes them happy,Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan cheered up Preity Zinta's Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kings XI Punjab by giving a short TV bite on her behest.The second season of the IPL is starting April 18 in South AfricPreity ZintaCommenting on the upcoming Twenty20 series, Amitabh wrote: "Cricket has become so big and important. And the T20 series, now shifted to South Africa due to security concerns and concerns of its reflection on the elections, is a sheer delightActress Preity Zinta is in South Africa now a days and everyone wants to get closer to the bubbly babe. The sizzling actress says, “I am fine with people The sizzling actress says, “I am fine with people posing with me for pictures, but what I don’t like is when some put their hand around my waist or shoulders! When you don’t know someone too well, it gets awkward and this is something I just don’t likePreity ZintaIt’s really awkward to be like this with someone, you even don’t know. That’s why the most charming Bollywood actress Zinta likes to keep a wee bit of distance.Though, she is sweet and often genteel with fans.Preity is up in arms and has clarified that she never said anything like that to anyone. Talking to a television channel the upset actress said,Preity Zinta“I decided not to react to what people write about me and my relationship. I don’t care at all. I am not going to live my life the way people want. I am quite happy with my life.Apparently, Preity Zinta was doing a promotional event for the media with her team on the beaches of South Africa; and was so heavily into doing the drillPreity Zinta may now be garnering rave reviews for her role in “Heroes”, but she says that a lot of people discouraged her from doing the film.Preity ZintaShe, however, held her ground as she identified with the role as it reminded her of her mother Neelu Zinta.Actor Preity Zinta has has won the Silver Hugo Award for best actress at the 44th edition of Chicago International Film Festival. Her performance in Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth, had received warm reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival in September this year.n Videsh (Heaven On Earth) , Deepa Mehta uses folklore to explore several socially relevant issues, from the sanctity of marriage to domestic violence and even exploring the meaning of true happiness. It is a simple yet complex film that compels you to be a part of its intense drama.The film is based on Girish Karnad's stage play called Nagamandala which tells the story about a newly married young woman who becomes a victim of domestic abuse. Neglected by her husband and desperate to make the marriage work, she decides to win his love by using a magic love root given to her by another woman. If consumed by her husband, the magic love root would make him fall hopelessly in love with her. But unknowingly she feeds it to a snake (king cobra). The snake then takes the form of her husband which leads to surreal confrontations and some bittersweet consequences.Deepa Mehta uses the working-class immigrants' Canada as the backdrop where the characters of husband and wife are essayed by Vansh Bhardwaj (as Rocky) and Preity Zinta (as Chand) respectively. Here, Chand is a bubbly Punjabi girl who migrates to Canada for an arranged marriage with a man she has never met. Little did she know that this marriage would prove to be an exposè about the harsh realities of life. Vansh on the other hand is an expatriate who is struggling to support his large family through his small job as a cab driver.Deepa Mehta has always been honest towards her film's demands. She could have made this film in Hindi or atleast partially in Punjabi to achieve a wider audience but she uses unadulterated Punjabi throughout for a much more effective result. There is no room for unnecessary flamboyance in her films and in Videsh, she keeps the treatment simple and provides a realistic look at the lives of the first generation of immigrants wherein their loneliness, frustration, desires and struggles have been depicted very well. The supernatural element has been convincingly integrated into the narrative and the overall effect is surprisingly believable. Giles Nuttgen's photography also deserves brownie points for capturing the grim backdrop to the story with finesse.Videsh has standout performances by its leading cast. Preity Zinta shines in a very challenging role and she truly makes Chand's suffering and angst come alive on screen. This is undoubtedly one of her best performances till date. Vansh Bhardwaj makes a superb film debut and as he has been saying in the interviews, this indeed is a dream debut for him. He essays both the characters of Rocky and Sheshnaag (human form of king cobra) flawlessly. While Rocky requires him to be a frustrated, angry man, Sheshnaag has him in a romantic avatar. Performances of the supporting cast are very believable.Videsh might look like a simple film about domestic abuse on the surface, but it has much more to offer than that. The magical surrealism (a genre which has not been exploited much in Indian cinema) acts like a mirror to depict the frailties and complexities of human relationships. Watch it with an open mind and you'll see how beautifully the film delivers what it intends to at the outset.

Bollywood actress Preity Zinta today lashed media and blog writers for spreading rumors regarding her so called break up with her long time boy friend Ness Wadia. Preity Zinta slams media for spreading rumors about her relationshipPreity writes at her blog post “It’s ridiculous how media sits and writes anything they feel like without even the decency and the journalistic norm of contacting all parties - well in advance - for their side of the story.”The actress has bluntly denied the rumor, saying the journalist who wrote the story for Mumbai Mirror tried to call her up, but after the story was already published. Preity asks “At .12.00 o’ clock, midnight (08th april 2009), I got a text message from this journo, saying ‘There’s a story about your new link-up’, and we need your comment on this.’ But when I called him back, I was told that the story was already printed and that they couldn’t do anything at that point. I was livid. So then, what was that call? And exercise in futility?”Preity writes further at her blog post “Apparently, now they’re saying that this story came about because I was cheering for Vikram Chatwal at the Fashion Week. How ridiculous is that? When I cheered for Shah Rukh Khan, then no one questioned me as to why I cheered him the most? At the LFW there were also Arjun and Mehr Rampal, Rahul Bose, Ujjwala Raut - all famous celebrities and my friends; and I cheered all of them. I cheered for all of them because the show was for Mumbai.”“I don’t like discussing this so publicly, but the point here is, I want to clarify what is right and wrong. People cannot write anything wrong about someone and get away with it. Especially about me, because I will take strong action against any false rumours or stories. I will fight against what is wrong,” the actress writes.Not only this, Preity slammed the Bollywood media, saying the paparazzi culture of Hollywood is catching up here in Bollywood. She says, “In fact, in Hollywood the paparazzi system is really strong, but whenever there is false news, the Courts abroad are fast and quick to punish the offenders. Any false news is severely and immediately dealt with by the Courts.”Tags:Preity Zinta,split ville, ness wadia,preity's boyfreind,rumours

But when people whom she barely even knows get familiar with her, she finds it hard to take. Though she’s most charming, sweet and often genteel with fans, Zinta likes to keep a wee bit of distance. She tells us, “I am fine with people posing with me for pictures, but what I don’t like is when some put their hand around my waist or shoulders! When you don’t know someone too well, it gets awkward and this is something I just don’t like.” So next time you try to put your arm around this lady, remember touching is touché.