Shabana Azmi to sing in English film

(##include msid=2162032,type=11##) MUMBAI: Actress and social activist Shabana Azmi, aself-confessed "non singer", will be heard singing in her forthcoming awardwinning English film, . The film has just won the Best Feature Film Award at the 65thAnnual First Run Film Festival "Since I played a person who singsthe song from theHindi film , ManishAcharya (film director) was insistent that I should sing the song myself. I am abathroom singer and have never trained in music, formally," said the NationalAward winning actress in an informal tete-a-tete on Friday with surfers onIndiatimes chat.Shabana is not hoping to bag another National Awardfor her role in the film. She plays a cameo in the rib-tickling comedy where sheportrays a New Jersey based socialite who participates in a singing contestnamed to win thousands ofdollars in prize money so that she can donate it to a charity. The film alsostars the American-Indian actor Ajay Naidu and the acclaimed actress AyeshaDharker of and fame.The issue ofHIV/AIDS awareness being close to her heart, Shabana has just completed shootingfor a film made by FarhanAkhtar on different aspects of HIV/AIDS that has been put together by Meera Nairfor the Bill Gates Foundation. When asked what she feels on all bigorganisations' involvement only with the spreading of awareness about HIV/AIDSand doing very little in terms of actions to curb the dreaded disease, shereplied, "The fact that India has realised the human rights to treatment and ismaking it available at a lower cost, it is a step in the rightdirection."Extremely proud to be a part of the Indian filmfraternity, Shabana dislikes the term 'Bollywood' for Indian cinema, as it sayssuggests Indian cinema to be a "poor imitation of Hollywood, which is unjust anduntrue." She adds, "The Indian cinema is the largest film fraternityin the world making largest number of films (more than Hollywood does). It isthe only industry that has managed to withstand the onslaught of Hollywood.Globally, I admit, there is a greater recognition of Hindi films withsong-and-dance. But it's a long way before we can be accepted in the main streamwestern world. As the world shrinks and becomes a global village it is beingincreasingly accepted that cultures have to be understood within their ownparadigms rather than on yardsticks of measurement imposed by the East on thewestern world. Hindi films must be accepted with its song, melodramasclichés. We cannot sanitise it for the benefit of the westernworld."