New York City welcomed Preity Zinta Saturday night by hosting a gathering for reporters at Bombay Palace and Desi Hits!  was of course there! Preity is this year’s “Grand Marshal” at  New York City’s 30th India Day Parade, which is put on every year to mark India’s Independence Day on August 15.

The Federation of Indian Associations expects a crowd of thousands to come together to see Preity and unite under the tri-color flag in what will likely be a day of national pride as people follow Preity and over forty other floats walk down Madison Avenue.

When asked by the press what prompted her to accept this invite, Preity said that she wanted to break new boundaries and that coming to the parade is a proud moment. According to her, “you can take the girl out of India, but you can never take India out of the girl.”

Preity serves as an Ambassador for UNAID and helps with related issues in India. As she has spent the last two years taking a break from movies and working on her business -she is the owner of a major cricket team – she is really eager to get back into making movies.

“I would love to do an action role, or films that are issue based since they really have an impact on people,” Preity said. And as a big fan of Obama’s, Preity really hopes that in the future both America and India will have better and stronger ties between nations.