Not too long ago, she was tagged as another one of India’s “foreign imports”. Roughly a year after her arrival on desi shores, however, Lauren Gottlieb seems to have found herself turning surprisingly desi too! All set to head to Vegas to begin shooting for ABCD 2, she talks about following her heart, living with an insatiable thirst to learn things new and unfamiliar and finding in India, a second home.
“I’ve always lived my life just going wherever the journey takes me. When I received the offer for ABCD, I knew right away that I was meant to come to India. I had no idea if this would be for just the one film after which I would return to my daily routine back home, but I knew I was supposed to come. And ever since I have, things have just been happening on their own. I’ve gone from one stage to the next and am already doing my second film. Growing up as a little girl, I had never imagined that I would one day be living on the other side of the world!” she shares.
Having become a household name after her stint as a contestant in last year’s edition of Jhalak Dikkhla Jaa, rejoining the reality series’ seventh season as a challenger, a concept created specially around her and Salman Yusuff Khan whom she also tags as her first friend in India, has given her an all new high.
She goes on enthusiastically, “I don’t think one film can actually give you that much exposure and there is really something about the power of television and it’s taking me to everyone’s screens two nights a week for four months straight, that really put me out there.”
With work having come to her with heartening consistency throughout her stay in India so far, she reveals that she had always been clear that if her instinct told her to pack up and leave for the US, she would have done that a year ago. “But everything told me to stay here, and today I have my house here, my friends here… I have my life here,” she says.
Of her family’s take on this new life, she reveals, “They have always believed in everything I’ve done and stood by every choice I’ve made. I do understand that they’re a little hurt that I’m not at home so much and because I can only speak to them early in the morning or late at night. It’s hard, but they know the kind of person I am and understand that I follow my heart. ”
Having worked in the entertainment industry in the US before, does she feel that she has adapted well to the entertainment industry here? “When you get comfortable with where you are in life, your pace tends to become very redundant. I’m always looking for things to pull me out of my comfort zone. I think I’ve adapted a lot more to India over the last year. I had a few friends who visited me from abroad as well and I have more than often found myself teaching them about India and telling them what you should and shouldn’t do here. I almost feel like an Indian girl now!” she says.
