“I pleaded my director to get someone else” - Jacqueline Fernandez

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April 2, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): By now it’s a known fact that Jacqueline Fernandez a.k.a Jackie, who is of Sri Lankan origin and is still learning Hindi, has dubbed her own lines in ‘Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai’. However, what is not known to many is that she wasn’t too comfortable with the idea and was getting jitters in the dubbing studio. Further surprise came from the fact that right through the shooting of the film; she was told that her voice would be dubbed by a professional once the film reaches the editing stage.

"Exactly, that was the plan", recollects Jackie, "I had shot all of my scenes while being very comfortable all this while that there would anyways be dubbing happening at a later stage. I just concentrated on getting my act right without really worrying much about pronunciation, spacing etc. because that was far from being perfect."

However, to her surprise, it was this imperfection that her director fell in love with. Due to her character of an alien, Jackie wasn’t supposed to be Miss ‘Know-How’ of Hindi and hence Milap felt that this would only add value to the film’s treatment. He suggested that Jackie’s voice is retained and since the film wasn’t shot in synch sound, he wanted Jackie to dub for her dialogues.

"Being shocked would be an understatement", laughs Jackie in mock horror, "I pleaded Milap to get someone else on board in the dubbing studio. This is just my second film and I felt that I would ruin it all if audience hears me speaking Hindi in my own sweet accent. All this while I also had this faint belief that perhaps he may just have been kidding and pulling my leg. However, as it turned out eventually, he formalized it all, blocked my date diary and literally dragged me into the dubbing room."

This was the point where all hell broke loose. Jackie was aghast with all that she had mouthed during the shooting of scenes.

"I wanted to kill myself. Period", adds Jackie in an animated tone, "I felt that this was the end of it. I wanted to go back to the shoot and re-do everything that I had done as far as mouthing dialogues was concerned. Come on, I have no qualms in admitting that Hindi is not something that comes naturally to me. But then what can one say when your director feels that it is this ‘not so natural’ trait that he wanted in his ‘alien’ character."

Starring Riteish Deshmukh in lead along with Ruslaan Mumtaz, Sonal Sehgal and Vishal Malhotra in principal roles, ‘Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai’ boasts of a plethora of guest appearances in the form of Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Karan Johar, Farah Khan, Sajid Khan, Boman Irani and Amrita Rao. With music by Sajid Wajid and lyrics by Sameer, ‘Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai’ is presented by Warner Bros and is a co-production of Nikhil Advani and Mukesh Talreja. The film releases all over on 9th April.

- Rudhur Burman / Sampurn Wire