Is the Rani, Preity era over?

TWO OF Bollywood’s top actresses are finding themselves out of job as producers and even advertisers are shying away from them.
And the reason? They haven’t had any hits in the last two-years and seem to be a tad too involved in their personal lives.
The ladies in question are Rani Mukherji and Preity Zinta.
Love Versus Career The downfall of these two women begun when they started dating their respective boyfriends, Aditya Chopra and Ness Wadia.
Preity started focusing more on impressing prospective mother-in-law Maureen Wadia who didn’t warm up to having a filmy bahu. Rani restricted her self to signing only boyfriend Aditya’s, YashRaj Film projects. Unfortunately for her, YashRaj despite being a production house, fell like a pack of cards and so did Rani’s career.
Though, Aditya fought with his family and divorced wife Payal, and is reportedly getting ready to tie the knot with Rani, he is yet to acknowledge her publicly.
Rani too has denied her link-up with Adi as she doesn’t want to displease him, but she feels that their affair has affected her career badly as other filmmakers don’t want to cast her and upset Adi.
“Aditya doesn’t want Rani to speak about his relationship because he’s an extremely private person and moreover his parents don’t approve of the relationship. However, he’s madly in love with her and plans to marry her after he finishes directing his film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.” Recently Rani received yet another major blow.
Nestle Munch has sacked her as their brandambassador and buzz is that newcomer Asin will replace her.
A source from Nestle reveals, “Our brand is looking for someone who’s younger and popular and Rani doesn’t fit in either category.” Selective acting Rani’s best friend turned sworn enemy Preity is also sailing in the same boat. A favourite with YashRaj and Karan Johar, Preity is out of work because Kajol has agreed to work with Karan and Adi prefers Rani over her.
Preity hasn’t had any major release since the debacle of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
However, she claims that she’s getting selective.
“I’ve reached a stage in my career where I can experiment with different kind of roles. I’ve worked hard and am now in a position to reject certain offers and do small yet meaningful films.” But all in the industry know that she has not been offered any plum roles.
A source from the industry reveals, “Preity was busy travelling around with Ness and hasn’t been able to concentrate on films. Her film The Last Lear with Amitabh is stuck and the only other film she has is Jahnu Barua’s Bas Ek Pal opposite Shiney Ahuja which she kept postponing as she got busy with the cricket team she bought along with Ness Wadia. Some say that she has lost interest in the film.” Even on the cricket front luck didn’t favour Preity as her team Punjab XI, couldn’t make it to the IPL finals.
But Preity’s increasing camaraderie with cricketer Yuvraj Singh, her team’s captain made much more news. Photographs of Preity hugging Yuvraj after matches made the rounds.
This definitely didn’t go down well with long standing boyfriend Ness.
The constantly stuck-atthe-hip couple is no longer seen together in public and rumour has it that they are having relationship issues thanks to Preity’s closeness to Yuvraj.
A source close to Preity reports, “Preity and Ness were driving in Punjab to promote their team and they had a huge fight because of Preity’s friendship with Yuvraj. Following which, Ness stopped the car and dumped Preity on a deserted road.” Preity even recently came up with a quote saying, “Which couple doesn’t have ups and downs.” End of an era? Apart from dealing with their personal issues, Preity and Rani are also facing competition from the younger brigade of actresses such as Kareena, Katrina and Deepika who are slowly making a mark in Bollywood.
With age on their side these girls can work with a variety of actors whilst Preity and Rani don’t seem to have too much of an option.
Even the Khans; Aamir, Salman, Shah Rukh and Saif are opting to star with the newer and younger breed of girls.
Could this signal the end of yet another era in Bollywood?