Ali zafar New Film Tere Bin Na Laden

Posted by heena

Ali Zafar Pakistan’s prince of pop, but the treatment meted to him once at an US airport was by no definition royal.

Zafar’s memory of his first visit to America, immediately after 9/11, includes extraordinarily intense scrutiny, elaborate scanning and suspicious glances.

Though he obliged at that time, the singer-turned-actor clearly remembers the episode and also made an oath that he would one day make a socio-political comment from a Pakistani’s perspective.

Cut to 2010 and Zafar has kept his word with the already controversial satire Tere Bin Laden (Without You Laden), also his foray into Bollywood.

“The first time I went to the States, I felt some very negative vibes towards us. I think most Pakistanis or South Asians, Muslims in particular, were being targeted. Everything from their attitude, the way they spoke to us, made us feel as if we were not wanted. In fact, there was even a separate section that dealt with Pakistanis and Muslims. It was inconvenient, uncomfortable and I didn’t like it,” Zafar tells tabloid!

Scheduled to be released in India on July 16, the singer is quick to add that his Bollywood launch vehicle will not be reduced to a US-bashing, jingoistic diatribe. The film is touted as a cheeky comedy about an ambitious news reporter who employs an Osama Bin Laden look-alike to grab attention. The US government intervenes and things take a nasty, dubious turn.

“The concept of this film is very funny and I’m sure people will have a lot of fun. When I first heard the script I had some apprehensions, but there is nothing in the script that will hurt anybody’s sentiments. It has a quirky title — bin, means without in Hindi — but it goes with the satirical film.”

Ali Zafar, one of Pakistan’s most famous music exports and hitmaker, has sung four songs for Tere Bin Laden. He collaborated with Indian singer/musician Shankar Mahadevan for one of the songs, Ullu Da Pattha. “I enjoy singing and initially I was supposed to sing two songs, but then I ended up singing four.

“It was superb to work with a talent like Shankar,” he says.