American Dancer-Actress Lauren Gottlieb Learnt Punjabi For Diljit Dosanjh
Lauren who was last seen on the large screen opposite Varun Dhawan in Remo d’Souza’s ABCD 2 is kicked by the mass acceptance she has found among Punjabi audiences for her role as foreign photographer in the latest Diljit Dosanjh starrer Ambarsariya.
“Diljit is a full-on rock star. If he is a good actor, he is an even better singer. I had a lot of fun doing Ambarsariya . It was new language and a new challenge.. The actors and technicians of the Punjabi film industry are really sorted I was really impressed. It reminded me of the discipline in Hollywood.I gave my 500 percent to the film. That’s the only way I know how to work,” says Lauren , rightly proud that she dubbed all her Punjabi dialogues. “All my lengthy dialogue scenes wre done in one shot. Not ‘cut cut’ to feed me lines.”
The script came to Lauren during her last week as judge for Jhalak Dikhla Jaa. “I didn’t even take a day off afterJhalak ended . I went right into Punjabi language lessons. I worked with two different coaches to get two different perspectives, as it’s a language and culture I haven’t seen quite as much as I have of Hindi.”
She was given a script in Punjabi. “Yeah,my script was written in punjabi so I first had to translate it in English. I wasn’t connecting to the words or remembering them at all. I felt like I went back to square one 3 years ago withABCD. But I started asking for the Hindi translations to words and finally it was making sense.”
She has realized she had a good command over Hindi. “I realised I knew more Hindi than I thought actually. I ended up writing the Hindi translation as well. So I had three columns on my script, Hindi, punjabi, English. Diljitand my director Mandeep Kumar were shocked that I came to set completely prepared and off book.”
Lauren’s day was made when the director complimented her on her Punjabi. “Mandeep gave me a ton of confidence because he was saying my Punjabi was better then the Punjabi girls. He called me up one day to say he had to change around his screenplay because my performance was so strong. That’s why my scene came just before the interval.I think I couldn’t have hoped for more.”
