Preity Zinta in Heaven On Earth

It is known that when Preity Zinta signed Heaven On Earth, which is a Deepa Mehta Film that was to be shot entirely in Punjabi, she didn’t know even a word of Punjabi. But it seems that she has successfully completed the whole film. All she knew was that she had to play a distressed worn out wife. The problem of the language hit her later when she was told about the long monologues that she was expected to deliver in Punjabi. As she is a Rajput girl from Himachal Pradesh, Punjabi was totally alien to her.
But Preity managed to learn the language in a short span of 50 days. But she just mastered the dialogues that she was required to mouth in the film. Heaven On Earth wasn’t a film about faking emotions. She had to deliver her dialogues and feel the emotions.
Language wasn’t the only research area for Preity for Heaven On Earth. She read a lot of material and sat through documentaries on domestic violence. She said that she read a really bulky book called This is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like and The Woman Who Walked into Doors.
The latter is a novel by Roddy Doyle. She also watched a lot of footage on battered wives including Deepa Mehta’s documentary where the children of battered wives speak on the experience of growing up in violent households. Being seriously involved in a subject of such a violent nature took its toll on Preity. She was severely in shock by the experience of playing a battered wife. In the film, she is repeatedly smacked by her on-screen husband (Vansh Bhardwaj).
Many times, Preity ended up raising her fist to strike back, much to the annoyance and amusement of the director and her co-star. Recalling the experience, Preity also said that it was extremely difficult for her to take on the violence. She is the kind of girl who would immediately hit back. If anyone slaps her once, she’ll slap him twice. Preity was allowed no make-up in the film. No wigs either. Deepa made her wear hair extensions that were naturally woven into her hair to give her the perfect Punjabi look. If she arrived to the sets after a good night’s sleep, they applied black make-up around her eyes to give her a troubled look.
Released in Toronto, Heaven On Earth will soon be dubbed in Hindi and distributed in India. Preity is currently preparing to leave for a world tour with the Bachchans.