"I didn’t come between them."
Suchitra Pillai has hit back at claims that she is a “boyfriend snatcher”.
The actress married Lars Kjeldsen in 2005, who had briefly dated Preity Zinta before he married Suchitra.
This turn of events led people to accuse Suchitra of taking Lars away from Preity.
Addressing these claims, Suchitra Pillai said:
“No, that’s another story from somebody else.
“Preity and I were never friends, we were acquaintances because we had a common friend.
“But, yes, Lars Kjeldsen did date Preity Zinta for some time, but that was the breakup he had before he met me and only this part is true.
“I didn’t come between them – they split up for a totally different reason.
“The big news that happened, which was a big misunderstanding, it was not because of me.
“It happened at the time I came back from England, I was called a ‘boyfriend snatcher’ on the cover of several magazines.
“The headline read, ‘Suchitra Pillai is a boyfriend snatcher’.
“It was because I started dating Andrew Coyne, who had started Star Television in India.
“This was the relationship in question, but it was not because of me that Andrew and his partner and model Achala Sachdev fell apart.
“It is water under the bridge after many years and Achala and I have a laugh about it.”
Preity Zinta and Suchitra Pillai both starred in Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai (2001), but their characters did not interact in the film.
Suchitra played Priya – one of Sameer Mulchandani’s (Saif Ali Khan) girlfriends.
Meanwhile, Preity starred as Shalini, who was the love interest of Akash Malhotra (Aamir Khan).
Suchitra’s latest film appearance was in the Malayalam film Cold Case (2021), in which she starred as Zara Zacchai.
The film was directed by Tanu Balak.
Speaking about her role, Suchitra revealed: “I don’t speak pure Malayalam.
“But when it came to the dubbing of the film, I told Tanu, ‘Please don’t lose Zaara with somebody else. Can I please do my own dubbing?’
“I am so happy he agreed.”
“They recorded my dialogues and I would listen to them before going for the shoot.”
On the work front, Preity Zinta will next star in Lahore, 1947.
The film is directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, stars Sunny Deol, and is produced by Aamir Khan.
Meanwhile, Suchitra Pillai was last seen in the web series Big Girls Don’t Cry (2024).