Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor says that people associated with NBA (National Basketball Association) from the US helped him fine-tune his basketball skills for the film Half Girlfriend.
“In the book, basketball is a crucial element at the beginning of their relationship. It’s because of basketball that he gets the confidence to talk to the girl. We wanted the basketball to look real, not just [us] bouncing around the ball for the sake of it. That is the reason, people from America and NBA came to train us and spent two and a half months with me,” the actor said at an event in Mumbai to promote the film “Ice Age: Collision Course”, for which he has lent his voice.
Kapoor said he started training for the character after the release of Ki&Ka. His scenes playing basketball — which have reportedly been shot at Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce — have been released in the film’s first promo. His Twitter profile picture also sees him with a ball.
“There is that Bihar style of talking of the character and I didn’t want it to look caricaturish. His English is not up to the mark and though he knows it, he hesitates to speak it because he is told [he will not be able to do anything in life],” Kapoor said about his character. “Just because he can’t speak English doesn’t mean he is not intelligent. It’s a big issue in India that people judge you on the basis of your [language]. So I wanted to play the character as genuinely as possible.”
He shoots he scores, I love this game !! #HalfGirlfriend @ShraddhaKapoor @mohit11481 @chetan_bhagat @balajimotionpic pic.twitter.com/WVPPRwF1t4
— arjunk26 (@arjunk26) June 8, 2016
Half Girlfriend also stars Shraddha Kapoor and is expected to release next year.
