Preity Zinta opens up about facing harassment in Mumbai

Mumbai: Actor-entrepreneur Preity Zinta opened up about facing harassment on two separate occasions during her recent visit to the city and said the incidents have left her a ‘bit shaken’.

In a lengthy post on ‘Instagram’, Zinta revealed that a woman tried to take a photograph with her toddler Gia, but when the actor ‘politely’ said no, the lady ‘suddenly scooped my daughter in her arms, planted a big wet kiss next to her mouth and ran off saying what a cute baby’.

“This woman lives in an elite building and happened to be in the garden where my kids were playing. If I wasn’t a celebrity, I probably would have reacted badly but kept my cool as I didn’t want to make a scene,” the actor, who shares twins Gia and Jai with husband Gene Goodenough, wrote.

Detailing the second incident, the ‘Kings XI Punjab’ team co-owner said she was rushing to the airport when a disabled man started getting ‘aggressive’ as she couldn’t offer him money due to a lack of cash at the time.

“I had a plane to catch and this disabled man kept trying to stop me. Over the years he has harassed me for money and I have given it to him when I could. This time, when he asked for money, I said sorry, today I have no cash, just a credit card. The lady with me gave him some money from her purse. He threw it back at her because it wasn’t enough and started getting aggressive,” she wrote alongside a video of the disabled man following her car.

The 48-year-old actor is currently in India to attend the ongoing IPL 2023 tournament with her team, ‘Kings XI Punjab’.

Zinta, known for starring in movies such as ‘Dil Se’, ‘Soldier’, ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’, ‘Koi... Mil Gaya’, ‘Veer-Zaara’ and ‘Lakshya’, said it’s high time people realised that celebrities are ‘human beings’ first.

"I’m a human being first, then a mom and then a celebrity. I also don’t need to apologise for my success constantly and be bullied for it because I’ve worked very hard to get where I am. I have an equal right to anyone else in this country to live the way I want, so please think before you judge and please stop blaming celebrities for everything. There are always two sides to a story,” she wrote, adding that her children are ‘not part of a package deal and are not meant to be preyed on’.

“They are infants and need to be treated like infants, not celebrities.”