Imran Khan Katrina Kaif and Ali Zafar to perform live gigs

His absence at the music release of Mere Brother Ki Dulhan has fuelled speculations of a rift with co-stars Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif. Ali Zafar laughs off the rumours, “I couldn’t be in Mumbai because I’m shooting a film here that’s partly set in London. But I will be in India on August 26 and

have a ‘live’ promotional concert scheduled for the next day with my co-stars. The plan is for Katrina, Imran and me to do a series of promotional concerts across the country.”

Ali, who has been missing from the promos so far will break in with a song, Madhubala… that goes on air today and has him tossing off glasses of bhaang and doing a rock Bhangra with ‘bro’ Imran and dulhan Katrina: “It’s a fun track that we shot over four days in Mumbai in sweltering June. Since I don’t drink, I didn’t touch the ‘bhaang’ but downed glasses of cold coffee. I lost four
pounds in four days.”

The song is sung by Ali himself who remembers it being mailed to him by music director Sohail Sen in Australia when he was there for a film festival . “It had been recorded by another singer. I sang it in my scale, half asleep, and sent it back,” he recalls, adding that initially they were going with a slower track. “But, after pack-up, when Imran, Katrina and I would sit together with Ali (director Ali Abbas Zafar) to discuss the film, both Katrina and I thought that we needed to go wilder on this song. So then, Ali opted for the fast-paced ‘Madhubala….’”

Ali admits to being a huge Dilip Kumar and Madhubala fan. You see a poster of their epic, Mughal-e-Azam in the song. “Madhubala was an iconic beauty who breathed romance on screen,” he eulogises. Is Katrina like her? “No way!” he exclaims. “She has her beauty and style!”

Ali would take his guitar on the sets and play and write songs between shots. Katrina confided that she too wanted to learn how to strum the guitar. “I taught her a few chords. She was a diligent student during the shoot but I don’t think she’s practiced much after that,” he says.

But the lessons came in handy when Katrina was filming her rock number. “I was the one who urged her to go in for a more grunge look as opposed to her usual squeaky clean appearance… Dark under eye make-up, leather and boots. It’s gone down well,” muses Ali.

There’s also talk that Ali wants to shoot the video of a song from his album Jhoom in the near future.in February. And wants to shoot some new music videos for it and is auditioning with that in mind. How about getting Katrina on board? Says Ali, “She’s promised to appear in my video if our film does the business I’ve predicted. It’s an achievable estimate and I was bang on with Tees Maar Khan earlier!”