Alia Bhatt reveals Pankaj Tripathi prepped her for Udta Punjab; Says she convinced the director to cast her
Pankaj, she said, taught her how to sit and speak like a native. He also made her go to a lot of acting classes to learn how to loosen up the body and make a certain expression with dead eyes and an open mouth.
Alia Bhatt received widespread acclaim for her outstanding performance in the 2016 film Udta Punjab, both from critics and audiences. Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Diljit Dosanjh also played lead roles in the film. Abhishek Chaubey directed the film, and Alia played Bauria, aka Mary Jane, a migrant Bihari girl working in Punjab who is also an ex-hockey player. Alia revealed in an interview with Mid-Day that Pankaj Tripathi helped her in preparing for the role in Udta Punjab.
Alia stated that Pankaj and Abhishek Chaubey would sit down every day to work on the dialogues. Her character doesn’t say much in Udta Punjab, but when she does, it’s in pure Jhat dialect. Pankaj, she said, taught her how to sit and speak like a native. He also made her go to a lot of acting classes to learn how to loosen up the body and make a certain expression with dead eyes and an open mouth. She stated that Udta Punjab was the first film she approached methodically. Alia also admitted that she had to persuade Abhishek to cast her in the movie.
Recalling the time, she said the script came across when she was shooting with Shahid for Shaandaar and that is when he told her about the script. “I read the script and I was like ‘Wow, what a part’. I was like, ‘listen I want to do this part’. He was like, ‘Okay, I also think it will be quite cool and you should meet Chaubey’. So then I met Chaubey and I had to convince him that I will do it. She said that the director was not sure even after they did a look test. Alia revealed that she really wanted to play the part and to prove to herself and the world that she is a chameleon.
