Preity Zinta has been signed by Deepa Mehta for her next venture Heaven on Earth. Insiders reveal that Preity has been signed to play the role of a battered housewife who is stuck in an abusive marriage. It is inspired by a real life incident that took place in Canada a few years ago. In the film, Preity’s character will be called Chand, and the film will focus not just on the domestic violence the lady faced, but will also explore the fantasies of a battered woman. Shooting for this film starts from November 5 with shooting schedules planned both in India and Canada.

A Toronto-based filmmaker had even made a documentary on the incident, Let’s Talk About It. In fact, Preity is pretty ecstatic with the response her first English film, The Last Lear generated at the Toronto Film Festival recently. Hollywood critics have praised her performance highly in this Rituparno Ghosh film, also starring Amitabh Bachchan and Arjun Rampal.

Insiders now insist that the dimpled actress has not been signing any regular Bollywood fare for a long time and has made a decision to look towards meaningful cinema in the West. She has now decided to follow the path of off-beat cinema. The actress is currently cutting down her ad assignments as well. When her ad contract with a shampoo brand was to be renewed recently, she decided not to continue with it. Now, Kareena Kapoor has been signed in her place.

"Speaking of her Bollywood ventures, Preity is making sure that she follows the trend of signing meaningful cinema. Her next film is National Award winning filmmaker Jahnu Barua’s Har Pall. She will also be seen in Shaji Karun’s Suryamukhi, a non-commercial feature based on the life of famous 19th century painter Raja Ravi Varma. Many filmmakers are trying to rope her in for their films but she has not accepted any of their offers," says an industry insider.