UK returned actress, Preeti Desai, is taking it slow and easy

Model-turned-actress Preeti Desai may have spent a chunk of her life in the UK but when she came to India to explore a career in Bollywood, she felt like she had come home. “It felt like I belonged here,” asserts Preeti.

The first thing that struck Desai when she came to India was the traffic and “lots of people around. But after a while, you kind of get used to it and you wouldn’t have it any other way,” she smiles. Preeti will soon be seen in her first film that also stars Tusshar Kapoor and Sendhil Ramamurthy and she essays the role of a model in it. And one of the most important reasons for her to take up the role was that since she was already a model, she didn’t really have to ‘act’. “I intentionally started out with modelling here because I didn’t want to rush into anything. It was only when I felt comfortable with the ramp that I started to look at films. And this one caught my attention because I was already familiar with the ramp. So I didn’t have to do any extra research as such,” she smiles.

Not many know this, but Preeti says that she actually grew up watching Hindi films in the UK. “As a British Indian, it’s your only connection to India, in more ways than you can imagine. I remember watching Maine Pyaar Kiya at least a 100 times! Hum was another favourite,” she reveals. Though a film buff, Preeti doesn’t believe in having favourites. At the same time she is a little partial towards actor Aamir Khan. “I admire him for his choices in films. He’s very daring and makes intelligent choices, breaking away from popular notions,” she says dreamily adding that someday she surely wishes to share screen space with the actor.

Talking about future plans, Preeti, who is currently dating Bollywood actor Abhay Deol says that she’d rather take one step at a time and not make big plans in advance. “I want to wait for the audience’s reaction before taking on any more assignments,” she concludes.