I don't have to be a bimbo: Preity

Mumbai: Bollywood star Preity Zinta says she has always used her fame as an actress to talk about crucial health and civic issues.

Preity who has been part of AIDS awareness drives and ‘clean Mumbai campaign’ says she is socially aware. ''I don't have to be a bimbo. I can be a heroine and I can be socially aware,'' she told a news daily in an interview on Tuesday. ''Even if two people listen to Preity Zinta, my job is done,'' she added.

Preity joined campaigns to clear garbage off Mumbai's streets and repair potholed roads. She rounded up fellow actors to help clear overflowing garbage dumps in suburban Mumbai last year.

''As an actor, I have a certain platform,'' she said. ''I don't want to use it only to ask the audience to go and see my film,'' she said.

Preity has starred in several blockbusters in the nine years since her Bollywood debut. She played an ambitious magazine editor in a troubled marriage in her last movie, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.