Katrina Kaif

Katrina Kaif is having a tough time dubbing for "Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani", especially with director Raj Kumar Santoshi known to be very particular about his actor's diction.

The actress, who has a pronounced British accent, has been practising her Hindi constantly with friends as well as in her dubbing, so much so that she almost lost her voice.

For Katrina dubbing is the most difficult part of the acting process. After all, she was initially dubbed by professional artists. She finally won the right to speak on screen in her own voice.

Co-star Ranbir Kapoor has a lot of colloquial Hindi to speak in "Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani" and Santoshi has personally been supervising the dubbing.

But Ranbir is a very skilled dialogue deliverer. And getting the rustic colloquialism right is a cakewalk for him.

Not so for Katrina. She finds the dubbing the most challenging thing she has ever done.

"I don't have any colloquial lines like Ranbir. I play this Catholic Bandra girl who's very dramatic. She's funny to others. But not to herself. So when I cry I have to cry real tears but make sure they come across as funny.

First of all the lines are not comic in the dubbing theatre. So I've to recreate the laughter on the sets in a studio without knowing if I am being funny enough," Katrina told IANS.

For Katrina it's excruciating. "I don't know whether I'm getting it right or not. I'm doing the dubbing under supervision. But this is the most difficult film I've dubbed for."

Now that she's almost finished dubbing she plans to re-do the portions Santoshi isn't satisfied with.

A bigger challenge now awaits Katrina.

In Prakash Jha's "Rajneeti", where she plays a politician, she must Recreate all the rhetorics that she mouthed on stage in front of thousands of spectators.

"The speeches I made have been taped. Now I have to listen to them, get the accent, tone and voice quality right, and dub in a studio."

Easier said than done.