Katrina Kaif was DEVASTATED when she was told that Merry Christmas would also be shot in Tamil: “I thought Sriram Raghavan would forget about it; I went home and cried. I came to the sets next day and cried again”

By Fenil Seta -

December 27, 2023 - 8:30 PM IST

Katrina Kaif, in her early days, worked down South in the Telugu films Malliswari (2004) and Allari Pidugu (2005) and the Malayalam film Balram vs. Tharadas (2006). Reportedly, in all these films, her voice was dubbed. Merry Christmas, her upcoming film, opposite Vijay Sethupati, will be her first Tamil film. The Sriram Raghavan thriller is bi-lingual and has been shot in Hindi as well as Tamil. During an interaction held by Pinkvilla, Katrina Kaif was asked by a fan about her experience of doing a thriller and the challenges she faced.

Katrina Kaif was DEVASTATED when she was told that Merry Christmas would also be shot in Tamil: “I thought Sriram Raghavan would forget about it; I went home and cried. I came to the sets next day and cried again”

Katrina Kaif replied, “I had done a thriller before. It was a film called Race (2008). It was an Abbas-Mustan film which was a thriller. But Merry Christmas is a thriller of a completely different kind. The nuances and the characters are much more defined. I can easily say that this is the toughest role of my entire career for various reasons. Firstly, the character is really difficult (to essay), in terms of what she’s going through and her journey. To be able to get those nuances right was a challenge.”

Katrina Kaif continued, “The second reason is that this is actually a bi-lingual film. We shot this film in Hindi and then we shot it again in Tamil. It’s not like the makers have gone for a dubbed version. As you might know, I don’t speak Tamil! It was very, very, very tough. I kept on thinking that Sriram sir is going to let me off the hook. I don’t know. He always told me (about the film being a bi-lingual) since day one and that he’s casting Vijay Sethupathi sir. I kept on thinking ‘No, no. It’s okay. He’s going to forget about it’. And then when we finished the schedule, he told me, ‘Kal se Tamil’. I went home crying! I came on the set the next day in the morning where again I cried. I was like, ‘No sir, I can’t do this’. But in the end, we did it.”

Katrina Kaif further said, “It was a challenge. It was tricky. I had the services of Geeta Venkat, who’s a very talented artist and who helped me with the lines. I am really hoping that the Tamil version connects with the audience.”

At this point, Sriram Raghavan said, “It was not easy at all. Hats off to her,” and it led to applause.

Also Read: Katrina Kaif describes Merry Christmas as the most ‘difficult’ film of her career; calls Vijay Sethupathi a ‘phenomenal’ actor