Katrina Kaif’s hunger to excel and eradicate the reputation of being a firangi memsahib has reached an all-time obsessive level now, specially with Raajneeti where she wants to polish up her act to a glistening perfection.
Director Prakash Jha got the shock of his life when on Saturday morning, Katrina who was supposed to be in London for her grand-father’s 90th birthday called him to say she wanted to re-dub her lines in Raajneeti.
Says Prakash, “I thought she was calling from London. I laughed and told her to relax and enjoy her family gathering and stop thinking about work. But then she told me couldn’t go home to London because all the flights to Europe was cancelled. Instead of wasting her time crying over missing the function Katrina chose to re-dub her lines for my film.”
Perfectionist that he is, Prakash had made Katrina work as hard as possible on the lines. “There was nothing more to do with the lines, as far as I could see. But Katrina was convinced she could still improve her dialogues. Her logic was, if she suddenly had extra time why should she waste it sleeping or partying ? She’d rather work.”
Katrina reached the dubbing studio on Saturday went through her lines and re-dubbed the lines that she thought still needed improvement.
On Sunday evening she was practising her dance steps for a show and said she had not stopped sulking about her inability to be in London for a family function.
Says Katrrina, “I was very very angry and upset about missing the function. I tried and tried to find a way to reach London. But when everything failed I had two choices.
I could either mope and sulk. Or use that time to do something that would finally make me feel less bad about not being with my family. So yeah, I chose to improve my lines.”
Adds Jha, “I’ve worked with a lot of very focussed actors. But I’ve never seen such an obsession to prove a point. Katrina has been working on her lines like crazy. I though she had already got it perfect in pitch and tone. Katrina thought otherwise. She decided she wanted to get it even better.”
Now for Tees Maar Khan where Katrina plays an item girl Katrina is working on getting the Maumbaiyya slang and drawl into place.
But only in private. In public Katrina doesn’t like to experiment with her language. She feels too selfconscious and thinks her friends would find her effort show-offy.
Jumping off a 90-ft cliff into water is no kid’s job. You need professional stuntman to take the plunge. Abhishek Bachchan himself might have given the stunt for Raavan a miss until he saw local kids in Hogenakkal do it for money. That’s when Abhishek decided to shoot the stunt himself, despite opposition from the film’s director Mani Ratnam.
