Katrina learns to play cello for Subhash Ghai

Jan 10, 2008 Subhash K. Jha

Mumbai, Jan 10 (IANS) Actress Katrina Kaif has been entering the laughter zone once too often in her career. Currently, she is shooting for Vipul Shah's comedy "Singh Is King".

But one non-comedy role that Katrina is shooting is for Subhash Ghai's "Main Yuvraaj". She teams up with Salman Khan and Arjun Rampal in the movie.

"And I get to play the cello in Subhash Ghai's film. The thing with the cello is, you can't completely learn to play it all at once, like the piano or the 'sitar'. It's an instrument that takes years to master."

Katrina sat with an orchestra player in Mumbai to get the body posture of the cello player right.

"Luckily for me, Subhash Ghai's film has a thematic continuity, which runs through the soundtrack. That's the one with which I have familiarised myself with on the cello. I learnt the chords for that piece of choreography. When people see me doing that piece, they wouldn't find me faking it.

"We were shooting in a castle in Austria with a German orchestra conductor guiding my movements. When I got it right, I ran screaming to Salman, Arjun and everyone on the sets. Subhash Ghai had to calm me."

Is she wary of comedies?

"I wouldn't say that. But it's true that in our comedies the heroines have very little to do except smile vacuously and watch the boys have a good time. However, Vipul is very special to me. It so happened that the people who were comfortable working with me initially were dabbling in comedy," Katrina told IANS.

"My debut, 'Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya', 'Partner' and now 'Welcome' are all comedies. The territory is becoming a bit too familiar. Initially, it was important for me to get those commercial hits to my credit. Now that it has happened, I'm consciously doing other kinds of films."

She describes "Singh Is King" as a complete comedy.

"It'll be my funniest comedy so far, and for a change not slapstick. I've been doing quite a lot of comedies. This is my second comedy in a row with director Anees Bazmi after 'Welcome', and with Akshay Kumar again."

She admits Akshay's comic timing has been a learning experience.

"You do learn from everyone you work with. He's the master of his genre. He knows what works best for him. And that is a big USP for any actor."

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