Updated on Friday, February 09, 2007, 00:00 IST

Mumbai, Feb 09: Bollywood actress Preity Zinta has asked young Indians who dream of making it big in the movies to complete their education first. Zinta said that young people should have a back-up plan in case their plans of a movie career don't work out.

''I never thought I would become such a big star,'' she told Mumbai-based DNA newspaper in an interview published Friday.

A postgraduate in criminal psychology, Zinta, 32, never planned to be an actress. She struck fame when she was selected for a soap advertisement and later spotted by a well-known Bollywood filmmaker.

''Don't give up your education to become an actress,'' is her advice to youth hoping to be movie stars. ''If you are destined to become an actress you will. But you will always have a plan B to fall back on.''

Zinta, has starred in several blockbusters in the past nine years since her Bollywood debut. In her last movie she played an ambitious magazine editor in the hit ''Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'' or ''Never Say Goodbye'' about troubled marriages.

Bureau Report