The Randeep Hooda-starrer web series CAT finally arrived on Netflix on December 9. While the audience and the critics are praising the story and performance of the cast, actress Hasleen Kaur, who plays a cop in the web show, discussed how she prepared for her character while sharing her mind on the series being compared to Udta Punjab in an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Hungama.

When asked how she prepared for her role given that she will be acting alongside Randeep Hooda, Hasleen said, “Before we started shooting, I'd met him only once, after that I met him directly on the sets. Now, while we were shooting, I had an idea who I'll be filming with, but to work with them in person is a completely different ball game altogether. You can see them in action. And Randeep Hooda, for example, I'm a big fan of his. I admire him. But when I saw him in action, the way he invests himself completely not just as an actor, but in the overall filming process. He has an eye on everything.”

As she refreshed her memories, she added that Randeep used to “keep correcting” her cap and he used to ask her to correct her uniform. She recalled, “He was there to help me through every shot. However, sometimes he was a little bland. He used to scold me like, ‘What have you learned? What did you do in your homework?”

While speaking of her experience of working with senior actors, Kaur asserted, “To work with these actors, I had to learn very quickly, I had to learn on my feet. I've seen this side of acting for the first time.”

As she continued, Kaur also spoke about her co-star Suvinder Vicky and explained that he used to “maintain a register” in which he often re-wrote his scenes and dialogues. While giving a shout-out to the director of the series, Balwinder Singh Janjua, Hasleen concluded by saying, “I feel like now after CAT, I have become an actor.”

Later we asked the actress to elaborate on CAT being compared to Shahid Kapoor-starrer Udta Punjab. She said, “His vision was not to remake Udta Punjab. I want to be very clear on this and this is something that even Balwinder sir has always been very candid about. He was not making another Udta Punjab. It is a nice film but CAT is a different story altogether.”

Concluding her take, she added, “It's my request not to relate the two. Like how we have RAW, there is an organisation called as CAT. This is a form of intel. Punjab was the first state in India to use this technique in order to counter the insurgency that existed in Punjab. CAT's full form is Counter Against Terrorism.”

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