Lauren Gottlieb has had a colourful innings in entertainment in USA (her home country) and India. She played a leading role in ABCD: Any Body Can Dance in 2013 and became runner-up in the sixth season of the popular dance show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. She then went on to judge the eighth season.

‘Sajri’ girl Lauren Gottlieb feels India is home: “When I stepped foot in India, I went, ‘I’m home!’, I just connect with the people in India”

Lauren has performed with Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Shakira, Enrique Iglesias and others and has worked with Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and the likes. She has done dance in television shows and in movies abroad. Her acting career began with the TV show Ghost Whisperer 20 years ago.

Her latest is her music video ‘Sajri’ with Gurdeep Mehndi, but she is hunting for more work in India, which feels like home, she says. Excerpts from an interview:

What drew you to ‘Sajri’?

I think that this tornado that happens around me sometimes that pushes me into a certain direction. I was in London and I woke up to a message from one of my dear friends from music label SaReGaMa that he had a track with my name all over it. And it got me into such a trance and zone listening to it. This is something a bit different from whatever is happening, more of a classical sound, yet a very contemporary mix with a lot of dance beats as well. I just needed to know what the lyrics were talking about, and it was like that first ray of light that comes in in the morning. The word ‘Sajri’ means something new or fresh and that is what the song and video are.

Your roots are in USA, but you have made India your home

Earlier this year, I did a US tour, and when I came back to India, I felt so much at home. Like I went to my hometown of Arizona on that tour and it didn’t feel like home and then I went to California where I lived for many years and that also didn’t feel like home. In London, my husband feels like home, but London doesn’t feel like home to me and when I stepped foot in India, I went, “I’m home!”. I just connect with the people here in India. When you’re abroad, people really stick to themselves. But here, everyone’s saying ‘Hi!’. Everyone is connected.

All of my friends are here, all my business relationships, all my work. So I want to do really good work in India. I’ve just been manifesting and creating and building this world for myself and getting very clear that I want to do some banger dance numbers.

Back in the day here, I feel it was more film songs happening, these independent music videos were not a thing. In the early 2000s in the States, we had all the boy bands and Britney Spears, and all these big budget music videos. All of a sudden, India is in that space and artistes going on big tours. It is such an exciting time to be here and into work.

You wed in June. What does your husband think of your decision to make India your home?

So, Tobias (Jones) and I are gonna play both sides. We can both come back and forth and he does some fabulous work in London. He’s a creative director and he’s doing content for all the high fashion brands like Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. I need to bring him in to India very soon.

How did you meet him?

It was during the pandemic. I was back in the States. Reels and TikTok had just started, so I was making digital content, and I wanted to do something a bit different and maybe collaborate with visual effects artistes. And that same day, I saw a video that he had made for another dance influencer, and it was exactly what I was thinking. And so I just messaged him and we became long- distance friends for two years. I would book a social media campaign, shoot it in Los Angeles or in India, and would send it to him in London, and he would help edit it. We were working partners for a while, and then I met him in London and I was like, ‘Oh, you’re it!’

A lot of what I do is very, very quick. You shoot something and it comes out a couple weeks later, but there’s something so beautiful about building a character and working hard on a script and all the table reads and just the whole process of filmmaking, getting on sets and working. I’m starting to take meetings again with producers and directors. But besides ABCD and Welcome 2 Karachi, I have done Ambarsariya, a Punjabi film with Diljit Dosanjh.

How good or bad is your Hindi?

My Hindi’s not great. I’m working on it. I’m a hard worker so I don’t know how to fail.

What attracts you to Indian music and dance? Are you training in any Indian form of dance?

It’s just so beautiful to try so many different styles. I’m not specifically training in an Indian style. I sometimes get shows where I get the opportunity to do, let’s say, Laavani or Bharatanatyam. My forte dance is being able to pick up really quick. So, if you show me a new style and I see it once or twice, I can form it on my body. It is like training.

So, do you think that you are reincarnated and were an Indian in your last birth?

I don’t know! My blood type is B-Positive, which is very much my motto: Be positive.

Also Read: Gurdeep Mehndi brings Punjabi folk with a global twist featuring Lauren Gottlieb in ‘Sajri’

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