Bollywood is the Hindi film industry, and because the various actors have to deliver their dialogues in Hindi (India’s national language), one would expect all of them to be familiar with the Hindi language. Surprisingly, that’s not the case, despite the known fact that being able to communicate in Hindi is a must if you want to connect with the audiences.
Most foreign actors in India, and even those from South India, struggle with the language. Its not that they don’t understand even a bit. Many actresses and actors go the extra length to take tuition to get their diction right, especially the foreign beauties who have to work harder than anyone else to learn the language. They do take lessons in Hindi before coming to Bollywood, but most are still not fluent to converse in the language. But most of them still have managed to survive in the industry despite their poor Hindi skills.
Amy Jackson Starts Learning Hindi For Better Bollywood Offers
UK born Amy Jackson’s career in the Indian entertainment industry is on the up-move. She has worked with big names down South as well as in Bollywood.
Now Amy is is working on her Hindi language skills to land better Bollywood offers. Amy has formally started learning Hindi under the guidance of Lucknow-based Vikram Rai, who is training the actor via live calling apps to help her perfect her pronunciation of the language.
“It’s a new language for me, so, I will take time to perfect it. But, I am looking forward to learning it. It’s difficult because I am working on a few international projects, and have been shuttling between countries. But, technology has made it easy for me to train with Vikram via Skype,” says Jackson.
Amy Jackson feels her limited knowledge of Hindi has prevented her from bagging “better projects”, but she is hopeful that after improving her Hindi, big filmmakers will consider her for their projects.
More Actors with Poor Hindi Language Skills
Actresses like Katrina Kaif are often targeted for their poor Hindi (probably that’s because she’s the most successful actor from this list), there are also other top actresses who have forayed into mainstream cinema but have trouble with the Indian national language.
- Katrina Kaif, real name Katrina Turquotte, is half British and Half Indian. She has always been criticized for her poor Hindi but the actress has taken it in her stride and is working hard to get better with the language.
- Sunny Leone, an Indo Canadian and former adult-film star. I’m sure many would comment that she doesn’t need to speak…but now that she has started working in mainstream cinema she definitely needs to improve on her Hindi skills. The actress says, “I am improving. I took Hindi classes for 2-3 hours daily. But I still feel that my American accent will probably never go”. We hope Sunny continues with the hard work even though.
- Nargis Fakhri, American model born to a Pakistani father and a Czech mother, the actress has poor hindi skills. But she maintains, “There is no less offers because of my language problem. If I get a script, I understand it when I read it. You get time to sit with your co-actors and prepare, but to improvise in Hindi is tough. (Initially) I had to stick to my lines, but now I can understand and that’s a great progress.” Hope she makes better progress over the coming months!
- Elli Avram, a Swedish born artist, she may not have done lot of hindi films yet, but seems to be here for the long run. Elli has done good progress with the language though. We are sure with her passions, that day won’t be far before she speaks Hindi like a pro!
- Lisa Haydon, born as Elisabeth Marie Haydon to a Malayali father and an Australian mother, she has done a few hindi films, but still hasn’t made it to the A-list. Lisa is also unable to get rid of her accent which is prominent in her films. The actress says, “I know one can’t learn Hindi in a day. But shooting for so many days and speaking it every day has surely bettered it”. We hope the actress works harder on her Hindi diction and makes it as good as her looks and talent.
- Sophie Choudry, born and brought up in England, and has worked in the hindi film industry for long now, yet she’s unable to get rid of the foreign accent while speaking Hindi.
In the past, lot of South Indian actresses, who have worked in Bollywood, have also struggled with their hindi accent. Even the dream girl of Bollywood ‘Hema Malini’ spoke hindi with a slight south indian accent.
Perhaps, the only South-Indian actress, who got her hindi diction absolutely right was none other than Rekha. Just checkout her performances in movies like Umrao Jaan and Muqaddar ka Sikandar, and you won’t believe that at one time she used to struggle with the hindi language.
