Indian cinema is becoming more real: Preity Zinta

New Delhi, March 8 (IANS) Actor Preity Zinta believes Indian cinema has changed for the better with Bollywood dream merchants becoming more experimental and films offering a higher quotient of reality to ring in box office collections.

'The demographics of Indian cinema have changed. Youngsters in the industry have loads of potential and they want to experiment. Even the audience is ready to take a chance. Human beings are great and then there is variety,' Preity told IANS.

'When there is Kiran Bedi in real life then why not in reel life? Apart from just looking glamorous in the film, heroines are doing unconventional roles. Even heroes are playing characters with grey shades contrary to enacting the cliched good-boy role,' she added.

The actor, who is brand ambassador of Godfrey Philips Bravery Awards, was here Saturday, to launch the globally renowned Golden Ovary Awards.

The award has been brought in the country by the corporate social responsibility initiative of leading tobacco company Godfrey Philips India in association with the Guild Of Women Achievers, an international network of women committed to helping women maximise their potential.

So what is bravery for Preity?

'Courage is contagious. It spreads from one person to the other and engulfs society and humanity. When we salute one woman from a remote village in India, an entire village of women stands up and holds its head high.

'Bravery is not just physical... showing compassion, supporting others and contributing towards bettering the world where we live in is also an act of courage.

'And Indian women are extremely strong and resilient... even physically. I have met a 17-year old girl who saved nine healthy men from drowning, a mother who fought with a leopard to save her child, to name a few.'

Preity herself won the Godfrey Philips Bravery Award in 2002 for being the only witness in court who did not retract earlier statements in a case against film producer Bharat Shah.