"Feels wonderful to be Amrita's sister!" Preeta Rao

Preeta Rao, sister of Bollywood actress Amrita Rao, has chosen to make her own road. Both the sisters started as models, but Amrita went on to become an actress whereas Preeta pursued journalism and is now a very active Celebrity Columnist. She syndicates her column to a number of known newspapers and magazines and is happy to be dishing out first hand bolly goss!

Q – How is it being Amrita Rao's younger sibling? Any pressure to join Bollywood?
Ans: It feels wonderful and privileged to be Amrita Rao's sister. I am very proud to have a sister like her. We share a very close bonding, infact we are closer to each other than to our parents! (Winks with a smile). There has been no pressure to join Bollywood…only encouragement from relatives and friends.

Q- Which one of Amrita's movies do you like the best?
Ans: Ishq Vishk is my all time favorite and now it's Welcome to Sajjanpur for which she won the Stardust Searchlight Best Actress award along with Amitabh Bachchan ji who won the best actor that year.


Q – We saw you in several famous ad-campaigns, Have you discontinued modeling after turning to Journalism?
Ans: No I have not given up modeling! It's my first love! But I enjoy writing as much… At present I am writing for Mirror, I have freelanced with Deccan Chronicle and Asian Age in the past, and I also have my Bollywood Columns in some movie magazines.

Q- We hear you are a movie-critic too?
Ans: Yes I do review Hindi movies for a magazine based in South.
 
Q – One myth about you that you would want to clarify?
Ans: That Amrita does not want me to enter Bollywood! It's the crappiest rumor I have heard among the other funny rumors on the internet. Ask me instead if I want to join the bandwagon! (Laughs)


Q- How do you take comparisons between you and Amrita?
Ans: It's human nature to compare and comparisons are bound to occur between any two siblings who are a part of the glamour industry… so it doesn't bother. Lata Mangeshkar and Asha ji were compared all along their singing career, but it didn't affect their personal life. Similarly among actresses- Riya-Raima or Shilpa-Shamita were also compared. I often hear people tell me, "After Karishma we saw Kareena….so after Amrita it's going to be your turn!"  I just find it funny because long back when Kareena was not known…I remember seeing her with Karishma at a party and thinking that she was prettier and she should join Bollywood ASAP…! So I understand how fans feel.


Q- Its not often that we see a Model turn a Media Personality …How does it feel to write about Bollywood stars especially when your sister is one of them? Do you also write Gossips?
Ans: Yes, most people do raise an eyebrow when they get to know that I'm a journalist–perhaps they expect me to join Bollywood instead! But I feel that at the end of the day… both the media's – film media and journalism are interdependent and it's fun to be a columnist and to write first hand film news and interviews. One cannot escape writing gossips being a film journalist… but being from a film baground, I take extra care so as to not hurt someone's sentiments when I write about them…considering the fact that today's trend in media-reporting is to sound more catty than nice.