In an interview, Preity Zinta revealed that she got extortion calls from underworld gangsters. This was during the shooting for the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke in 2001. The threat calls asked for Rs.50 lakhs.
She also revealed that along with her, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Mahesh Manjrekar and Rakesh Roshan also received such calls. The retracted their statements before appearing in court.
Preity remembers this incident as ‘scary’. Jn an interview, she said, “For the record, if I knew that everyone was going to back out, I also would have. It was a scary time in my life. I should have been protected. Whatever I said in court was on TV ten minutes later.”
Preity revealed that once the situation got abusive, she decided to handle it in her own way. The fame helped her get through it. She said, “I was fine till they were scaring me, but once they started abusing, I lost it. I can take stress, but not people abusing me. I learnt that if you get a call from +92, don’t pick up! Luckily I was famous. Had I not been, it would’ve been tough.”
It was easy for her to testify in the court while others backed out because, “I didn’t have a family, I didn’t have children,” she mentioned.