Mumbai, Jul 15 (IANS): Actor Arjun Kapoor says that people associated with the popular NBA from America 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 we 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.

"After 'Ki & Ka' released, I had begun my preparation," Arjun said, during an interview for the promotion of the film "Ice Age: Collision Course" for which he has lent his voice.

Arjun's scenes playing basketball have been the first to have been released in the film's promo. His Twitter profile picture also sees him with the ball. The basketball scenes have reportedly been shot at Delhi's Shri Ram College of Commerce.

"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 from Bihar. He is told that you are from Bihar and your English is poor what will you be able to do in life. Just because he can't speak in English doesn't mean he is not intelligent," Arjun added.

"It's a big issue in India that people judge you on the basis of your English. So I wanted to play the character as genuinely as possible."

"Half Girlfriend", also starring Shraddha Kapoor, is slated to release next year.