Ali Zafar – “Don’t Expect Any Channo or Masty out of Jhoom” (Exclusive Interview)

If you have been following us on our official Facebook fanpage, there’s a great possibility you heard about our one of it’s kind social interviews where you get the chance to ask questions to celebrities from around the country. We just concluded the first one from the series where we caught up with the prince of pop, Ali Zafar. He was kind enough to spare out some time from his busy shooting routine.

Ali in an exclusive interview with KoolMuzone talked about his upcoming album “Jhoom” which is up for release soon along with the first music video in next couple of months. Ali also shared his experiences of working under one of the biggest banners of Indian cinema.

“Jhoom” is a Sufi album and comprises of live orchestration but is very simple. The album includes songs which are composed, mixed, arranged and written by Ali himself but he has also used old Sufi poetry for the songs of his album. The album will also feature reworked studio versions of the songs he performed in his Coke Studio Sessions. “Yaar Daddi & Dastaan-e-Ishq are there in the album, versions sung in studio. The songs are more Sufist and talks about the real aspect of life.”, says Ali. Ali has not collaborated with any Sufi singer for the album.

The album comprises of softer and spiritually inclined songs but its “primarily a Sufi album with a couple of love songs. Don’t expect any channo or masty out of it.”, says Ali.

Jhoom’s music video which will be released in a couple of months and will have a completely different feel as compared to what he has done in the past as Ali thinks that “the worst an artist can do to himself is remain in awe of his own self forever” and “one must break out of it.” “Jhoom” represents his journey as an artist and makes a distinction between what’s real and what’s fake, what’s permanent and what’s temporary. He once said that Jhoom will take his music to another level and that today’s music survives only for a month and he believes that music should be timeless. So, when we asked him that does he think that “Jhoom” will be timeless? He kindly replied, “I have tried that. Let’s see how much I have succeeded in that. Only time can tell.”

When asked about his plans to do a Pakistan tour before the release of his album, Ali said, “I would love to but it depends on the security situation.” Talking about his personal associations with the album, Ali replied, “Of course! It is all personal but at the same time for people. It was the beautiful message of Sufism that drove me into it.”

The album will be released by the year-end under Ali’s record company “Alif Records” and the proceeds from it (album sales and ring tones) will go into the rehabilitation of flood victims.

“I started my own record label because I didn’t want to sell my rights to any company for money.”, says Ali when we asked him the reason why he choose to start his own record company.

Jhoom will not see a world wide release at the same time and will be released in “Pakistan Pehlay :)”, says Ali. He will later decide to release the album in other countries. But “Inshallah the album will be available on iTunes simultaneously for the people to buy online.”, says Ali.

Ali recently achieved a new level of stardom as his bollywood debut film “Tere Bin Laden” was an overnight hit and which made Rs 45 million. “I think it couldn’t have been better”, says Ali when we asked him about the kind of start he was looking for his acting debut.

Since the day he bagged a film with India’s biggest film banner ‘Yash Raj Films‘ opposite the bollywood diva Katrina Kaif, the two are working together in YRF’s ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan‘ and are bonding big-time with each other. While he is teaching Katrina how to play the guitar during the breaks between the shooting schedule she has offered him to star in one of his music videos of his upcoming album.

Since the day Ali signed the film and started shooting, a lot of funny stories have come to the media. The first one being the meeting of Katrina and Ali which was not as cordial because Ali failed to recognize Katrina when she approached him in a party and there was another story that during the shooting of the film, when a struggling musician who liked Ali’s music would come on the sets everyday. Ali after noticing it went upto him and gifted the guy his lucky guitar to wish him luck. Ali also won over Indian hearts when he rescued Katrina Kaif on the set of MBKD where she met with an accident. Ali’s heroic act prevented Katrina from losing her hair when her hair got stuck in a pedestal fan and the lady was so impressed and overwhelmed that she rewarded the popstar befittingly. She instantly gave a warm hug to him for daringly saving her and expressed her gratitude.

Ali’s second feature film “Mere Brother Ki Dulhan”, a romantic comedy set around a love triangle is a “topsy-turvy story” set amongst upper middle class families in northern India, and that Imran Khan plays a character who falls in love with his brother’s (Ali Zafar) fiancé (Katrina Kaif). “My character in the movie is supposed to be suave (sophisticated charming gentleman) but funny suave, a bit confused about something in life.”, says Ali.

So far Ali describes his experience of working with Katrina and the MBKD team “Good” and says that “Katrina is fun and jolly to work with and so is the entire crew and cast.” Ali further says that “she is an extremely nice person and is better looking in real life.”

When asked about his experience of shooting in a beautiful city like Chandigarh and any special incident happened during the shooting that he would like to share. Ali said, “Well, my most amazing time was when I was sitting in the fields surrounded by serenity in the sound of small streams flowing through the crops. I wrote a song at that moment. Will share someday with you all.”

Ali says that he will not follow the footsteps of Adnan Sami and will not permanently move to India. “I believe in creating my own footsteps. An artiste knows no bounds and boundaries. My first home is Lahore. But I’d like to make Mumbai my second home”, says Ali optimistically.

According to Ali, “Budgets don’t make experiences. People and ideas do.” So, working with the biggest banner or the smallest banner does not matter to him.

When asked if acting on the big screen has changed anything in him, any complexes. He said, “Just one. What a bad actor!”

Right now Ali is only “concentrating on the shoot” and have not planned to release MBKD in Pakistan under his own Production House. When asked about the films he has signed, he said, “will share with time.”

Lastly when we asked Ali his opinion on what he thinks Indian films lack from creativity and innovative ideas and that the Indian film-makers focus on hero’s image rather than the importance of the scripts? He gave a very diplomatic answer, “I think Indian cinema has evolved tremendously in the last few years and there is a huge room for experimentation and ideas that are out of the box now. Requirement of someone to lead the story is kind of international. Heroes do sell on another level, but then same goes for Hollywood.”

Questions courtesy: Nazeeha Khokhar, Hiba Manzoor, Lilith Chu, Uzair Sajid, Areena Jarial, Adnan Shaffi, Zahra Aijaz, Ali Tabish & Faiz Dar