Actress Preity Zinta's decision to work in films of substance like The Last Lear, Heaven On Earth and Heroes. After the abysmal display of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom at the box office, the actress was not seen in anything substantial on the screen.

Preity, unlike Rani Mukherjee, decided not to just stick to the Yash Chopra and Karan Johar kind of films. She decided to shift her focus and went ahead and grabbed roles of substance with filmmakers like Rituparno Ghosh and Deepa Mehta. She won accolades at the Toronto Film Festival for her role in Mehta's Heaven On Earth, where she plays an abused housewife. The latest is that the actress has now won the award for the Best actress at the Chicago International Film Festival. The actress worked hard for the role and even enrolled in Anupam Kher's acting school to get the nuances of Punjabi right for her role. And this does not seem to be the end for the actress. She has another film lined up. It is Har Pal, where she is cast opposite Shiney Ahuja. Preity's move seems to have paid off. If nothing else, it has at least increased her shelf life as an actress. It's time Rani took a hint or two from her cotemporaries and looked at life and films beyond Yash Raj.