Preeti Jhangiani says she was typecast as 'bechari bahu', fans didn't accept her in 'kissing scenes'

Actor Preeti Jhangiani, who broke onto the scene with the music video Chhuimui Si Tum Lagti Ho and the film Mohabbatein, has said that she was typecast as a 'bechari bahu (helpless daughter-in-law) and that she found it difficult to distance herself from this image.

Preeti Jhangiani said, in a new interview, that audiences were unwilling to accept her in edgy roles and that she has die-hard fans who want to see her only in sarees to this day.

She told a leading daily that she consciously tried to branch out, but audiences weren't having it. "Some people did try to change it. I did Victoria No 203 where I played a negative character; I absolutely loved it. I still use photos from that photoshoot, I am in so much love with them. I really did try to get away from the typecast but the audience didn’t accept it. Even if I wanted to do a kissing scene, they wouldn’t accept it, though I did have a kissing scene in a Rajshri video too. In films, I feel, people just refused to accept it. I still have diehard fans who tell me not to wear anything but just saree kind of things," she said.

She added, "People still call me the ‘Chhuimui girl’ or the ‘Mohabbatein girl’. I am stuck with these two tags and I am fine with it. Midway into my career, I was like, ‘Can you please offer me something else?’ I didn’t want to play the bechari bahu (helpless daughter-in-law) anymore. I was not denied roles but I was completely typecast."

Preeti, who is married to actor Parvin Dabas, is now a mother to two boys, said that in real life, she was not at all like the characters she played on screen. She said that her parents were 'quite forward-thinking' and that she didn't even own a 'salwar-kurta'.