Katrina Kaif on how she polished her Hindi: ‘Jackie Shroff told me learn to read Devanagari’

Katrina Kaif

Katrina Kaif worked hard on her skills when she joined the Hindi film industry about twenty years ago. On the latest episode of Mid-day's Sit With Hitlist, the actress recalls the hard work she had to put in to learn Hindi as well as acquire dancing skills in order to become a Bollywood heroine.

The actress insists she always spoke her own lines in her films and never used a dubbing artist. "It's just hard work. It was Jackie Shroff who first told me learn to read Devanagari. And that was very important for me because in the first few films at that time the directors would write the lines on the set and give it to you. A lot of them would write in Devanagari and I never wanted to be in that position where I didn't know what to do.

"So, first thing I did was learn to read in Devanagari and that was the base which saved me. There is really nothing more complex to it than that. And having amazing people to work with and just putting your head down and doing what was necessary. And loving what you do. If you love what you do, then you will put in the work whatever it was. Whether it was learning the language or whether it was in dance," she explains.

Katrina, who has delivered many hit dance numbers, from Sheila Ki Jawani to Chikni Chameli, had joined a dance academy to hone her skills. Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta too went to the same dance school.

"They were seniors. Priyanka was the star pupil in the class. The same time I was really kind of investing myself into learning Hindi was the same time when I put myself into Kathak training with my Guruji Veeru Krishna. That is where I spent all my time - wake up by 6 in the morning, class would be till 12 and you would tie your ghungroos and come and knock on the door, a small room with no AC. It was fun. It was fun."