Preity Zinta says being a mother helped her decide to come back in the movie 'Batwara 1947'.

An Indian actor says becoming a wife and mother helped her understand the deep sadness of Partition for her return to acting.

Indian actor Preity Zinta said that using her own experience as a wife and mother helped her act with true feelings in the movie Batwara 1947, which is her return to Bollywood after 8 years. 

She told Variety India that her personal life helped her connect with the movie's core, which is about the terrible human cost of the 1947 Partition and the sadness of leaving behind family, homes, and everything familiar.

"For me, this was about the love of my family. The beauty of the script for me was that, no matter how dark life could be, one ray of hope is enough to keep you going. This story is a story of hope," she said. 

In a separate interview with Gulf News, Zinta said she never felt the need to rush back to acting and instead waited for a story that really connected with her.

"To be honest, I didn't miss it. I don't want to lie and say I did. I was busy with my family. It was new to me. I was focusing on my personal life," she said. "Even though my career had big milestones, my biggest milestone was having children and a family." 

The actor said that becoming a mother helped her understand better the women who suffered through the horrors of Partition.

She remembered director Rajkumar Santoshi telling her to focus only on her character's family, not the big historical events around them.

 He said, 'Think only of what happens in the family, nothing else.' If she wasn't a mother or married, she wouldn't have understood. She knew what he meant because she has her own family, even during the train scene, she told Variety.

While her co-star Sunny Deol had already acted in a movie about Partition time named Gadar, Zinta said that for her, it was a completely new experience. She said, 'But for me, it was painful when I did the scene. You won't feel it if you are not into it.' 

Remembering one very emotional scene, she said she thought about being in her character's place with her own children.

Rajkumar Santoshi told them to move around. I thought to myself, I have little kids. When I run out of diapers, I panic. So what were the mothers doing at that time? Women and children suffer the most. So my character's whole view of the world was her family," she said.

Zinta also said she had wanted for a long time to act in a period film and was excited to finally explore a different time on screen. "I really wanted to do a period film. I always imagined what that time would have been like—the clothes, the food. You are always curious."

The movie 'Batwara 1947', with actors Deol, Zinta, and Aamir Khan, tells the story of the Partition of India. It will come out in theaters on August 14.

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