Preity Zinta is on a high having won the Best Actress award at the 44th edition of Chicago International Film Festival.

In extreme joy she quips-“I am walking on sunshine. I can’t believe where I am!”

She had earlier received warm reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival in September for the same movie.

The jury in Chicago praised her ‘for her strong yet subtle performance as a woman struggling to keep her dreams despite brutal realities.’

The film, which will inaugurate the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival in New York on November 5, is the first film in which Mehta has explored the struggle of an immigrant bride in Canada.

The movie explores the choices she has to make to empower herself away from the abusive relationship in her new home. Married to an Indian resident in Canada, she has to use her imagination, wit and soul strength to keep her sanity and self-esteem.

Preity should feel proud for what she has attained. She is only the second Indian actress to have been bestowed such a prestigious award at the Chicago International Film Festival. Noted actress and social worker Shabana Azmi was the first to receive this award.

Preity Zinta had said at Toronto that when she is old, she would remember Heaven on Earth as her most accomplished film and the one that is closest to her heart. Though she shies away from darker films, she confessed, she took up Heaven on Earth because of the strength her character is endowed in the script. Besides, she had wanted to act in a Mehta film for a long time, she added.

For now, Preity is proving her worth in whatever venture she is trying her hands. On business front, she was recently declared by a foreign magazine to be one of the most influential female business personalities of the world- being the owner of IPL, Mohali team. Now, she has proved her credentials in acting on world stage. Kudos to Preity Zinta!