Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia: Rewind
Manjusha Radhakrishnan
tabloid! takes a look at the highs and lows of the Zinta-Wadia love story
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Their break-up in 2009 was shorn of any drama. Five years later, however, and things have taken a nasty turn with Bollywood actress Preity Zinta lodging a complaint against her business partner and former boyfriend Ness Wadia, alleging that he abused and threatened her at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium during an IPL match on May 30. tabloid! takes a look at who they are, their relationship, their break-up and more:

Who’s Ness Wadia?

He’s the son of India’s top Parsi businessman, Nusli Wadia, and his wife Maureen, a former flight attendant who now runs a grooming school. Born into old money, he stands to inherit a business empire that includes Bombay Dyeing textiles, real estate and aviation. His maternal great grandfather is the late Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. He’s got lineage and wealth on his side.

Who’s Preity Zinta?

She’s a self-made star who made her debut in 1998 with Shah Rukh Khan’s ill-fated romance Dil Se. Zinta may have played second fiddle to the then-reigning star Manisha Koirala, but she managed to hold her ground (her endearing question to her on-screen beau Khan about his virginity got her instant fans). She went on to act in more than 30 films, several of which were blockbusters, and was hailed as Bollywood’s go-to girl for spirited roles. From playing an unwed mother who dumps her irresponsible boyfriend in Kyaa Kehna, to playing the nerdy Naina in blockbuster Kal Ho Naa Ho or a prostitute who takes on surrogacy to earn a quick buck in Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Zinta has experimented with a variety of roles. Her career peaked in the mid-2000s; in 2013, she co-produced and starred in the romantic drama Ishkq In Paris, which failed to do brisk business at the box office. Its debacle reportedly put Zinta under financial pressure. When news emerged that she had put one of her homes up for rent, many wrote her off as bankrupt.

“These reports are completely false and there are no facts to support such baseless claims. As an actor and entrepreneur, these reports are damaging not only towards my reputation but also harm my business interests. I have been a resident of Quantum Park, Union Park, Khar in Mumbai for almost a decade and have no plans of moving out of this apartment. I am currently busy planning the upcoming season with my IPL [Indian Premier League] team and looking forward to several other ventures which will be announced soon,” said Zinta in a statement issued last February.

She lost her father, an army official, when she was 13 to a car accident and admitted to having a tough childhood in Shimla. Her mother was severely injured in the same accident.

“Those were terrible times. My life changed that week… but my dad always treated me and his two sons as equal. If I was asked to learn cooking then they were taught to cook too. If my brothers carried bags, then I had to do the same too,” said Zinta in an earlier interview. She was also taught to speak her mind. She was the first recipient of Godfrey’s Mind of Steel Award at the annual Red and White Bravery Awards, given to her for being courageous enough to testify against the Mumbai mafia. In 2003, Zinta appeared as a witness before a special court in Mumbai to repeat her claim that she received threats from a gangster named Chhota Shakeel. She’s the only one who stuck to her claim, while thirteen other witnesses from the industry, including Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, retracted similar claims.

How did Wadia and Zinta meet?

While little is known about how the two met, Zinta admitted to dating the industrialist in February 2005. Unlike other actresses, this couple did not shy away from making public appearances together during their five-year courtship. When they walked hand in hand at Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai’s wedding in 2007, rumours swirled that they were next in line to tie the knot.

“We don’t hide our relationship from the media. We go for parties together, we go to have coffee in Barista, we go for pizzas together… But I don’t talk about him or talk about how I feel. What do I say? Those are feelings I cherish,” Zinta told Simi Garewal on a chat show in 2007. While they seemed blissful in each other’s company, her boyfriend’s mother was not a fan. Things turned frosty when Maureen Wadia reportedly remarked that she didn’t care if her son dated a zebra or a Zinta and appeared deliberately flippant when asked about their courtship.

While Zinta refused to be drawn into a debate about the remarks, their relationship was hit by a scandal in March 2007. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur’s now ex-wife Suchitra Krishnamoorthi accused her of being a home-wrecker (In the early days of her career, Zinta was slated to make an appearance in Kapur’s Ta Ra Rum Pum with Hrithik Roshan, but the project got shelved.) Zinta retaliated by calling Krishnamoorthi “unstable”. The extent to which such a scandal affected the relationship remains unknown, but two years later the couple broke up — after they decided to become business partners as co-owners of IPL team Kings XI Punjab. Just before calling it quits, rumours that Zinta was slapped by Wadia after he allegedly got drunk at a private party also did the rounds.

Their life after breaking up?

As far as break-ups go, this one was a peaceful affair. Both maintained a drama-free front as they went about business as usual. Prior to Thursday’s molestation charges, Zinta showed no signs of distress and went as far as saying in a April 2012 interview: “When you date someone for that long how can you not be friends? But we are not best friends. We don’t talk to each other every day because that’s weird! I’m sure if something ever went wrong he would stand by me and vice versa but there’s nothing more than that.” They both seemed to have moved on — Wadia was linked with Rockstar actress Nargis Fakhri and models; Zinta was linked to Australian cricketer Brett Lee and Indian sportsman Yuvraj Singh. In a recent interview this year, when asked if she was dating anybody since Wadia, Zinta said:

“That was over in 2009. You think I’d remain single all these years? Whatever is happening with me is good. People say I am looking happy. That’s because I am. But if I frown for two seconds that gets pasted on the internet. I am still the same person that I was five or ten years ago. It’s the people around me who have changed. Equations change, perspectives change. That’s life.”