Call me Miss Charity

Mumbai: Preity Zinta has embarked on two ambitious ventures -- one with Cherie Blair, the wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair, and the other one with Amitabh Bachchan.

Preity will be working with Cherie to provide support to widows in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Africa as part of her association with Loomba Trust, an organisation that works for the welfare of widows and their children. Cherie is the president of the trust.

Preity said, "I attended the charity dinner of the Loomba Trust in England. It provides support to widows and my association with Cherie will be for a longer run as this is a cause that is very close to my heart."

She added, "My father died when I was 13. So, I can imagine the plight of women and children who've lost their husbands and fathers, respectively. We want to educate the children from such families, provide scholarships to them and prevent them from falling prey to the flesh trade."

For her second charity project, she will team up with Amitabh Bachchan, film-maker Firoz Nadiadwala and the United Nations as part of a campaign against human trafficking across the globe.

"Amitabh Bachchan, the UN ambassador, and I will be the faces of this project. We will take up the cause of victims of human trafficking and campaign against it. Flesh trade is a huge industry worldwide and we are looking to put a check on it," she said.

Getting away a bit from her philanthropic work, we veer towards her relationship status.

Is she dating anyone post her break-up with Ness Wadia? She said, "I'm single. It is after many years that I'm single and I am doing all the things that I want to. I know there have been reports saying I was dating someone (Vikram Chatwal) but it was not true. People thought I was in hiding post my break-up, but I'm too strong a person to do that. I agree that things become a bit different when you come out of a relationship, but I'm hungry to work and see my cricket team do well."

Preity has debuted on the virtual space with Twitter due to Karan Johar. "I got to know that I was impersonated by someone who was taking information from my interviews and posting them. But the bad grammar gave me heart attacks. Now, thanks to Karan, I'm on Twitter as the real Preity Zinta. For the first time I'm interacting with my fans," she said.