For an actress who could barely speak Hindi when she first joined the Hindi film industry, Sridevi has come a long way. In her comeback film English Vinglish, the actress is set to push the bar even further. She will talk in Japanese, Mexican, Swahili, Korean and French.
While not much is being revealed about the extent to which she has spoken the languages, according to sources, the film has characters from France, Japan, Mexico, Africa and Korea and Sridevi is required to communicate with them in their languages.
Ironically, in the film, the actress plays a housewife in the US who speaks English with great difficulty. As reported earlier, Mehdi Nebbou who previously starred in Steven Speilberg's Munich will play the French character.
According to sources, Sridevi spent months perfecting her lines in different languages. Before shooting commenced in New York, the actress would reportedly spend time in the kitchen of her Mumbai house muttering the lines, taking the help of a voice recorder.
Director Gauri Shinde, whose husband R Balki made the hit Paa, had reportedly made it clear that the actress would have to learn the lines and make the scenes look authentic.
The source said, "It wasn't easy for someone whose mother tongue is Tamil and couldn't speak a word of Hindi to do Solva Savan (Sridevi's first Hindi film). Sri mastered the language only after her first 8-9 films. To learn 5 languages for a film, takes some doing."
When contacted, Balki, who is also the producer of the film, said, "It's too early to specify the nationality and language of all the characters. But yes, Sri had to interact with people from various parts of the world. And she managed beautifully."
The shooting of the film has been completed, it has been revealed that Amitabh Bachchan also makes a special appearance in the film.