Asha Unlimited: B'wood's original diva

New age, new friends

At a suburban restaurant in Mumbai, the singer celebrated the success of her latest album Asha and Friends with her entire team. She says the songs have helped her reach out to a whole new generation of listeners and is planning to start work on a second part of the album.

Overwhelmed with the response to the first part, Asha, musician Shamir Tandon and director S Ramachandran are confident of repeating the magic this time around also.

"Unlike other forms of art like dancing, singing is something that comes naturally to every human being," Asha said.

"Also, I always knew the fans would like to see a different side of their favourite stars."

Actress Urmila Matondkar, who has sung a song in the album, says initially she was petrified of sharing the mike with such an experienced singer but her Ashatai inspired her to give it her best shot.

"I had a complete blast doing it," she said.

Singer Shaan says being creative people, it is an interesting challenge for the stars to sing with Asha Bhonsle and gave her full credit for bringing such a concept together. One insider insinuated, "Nobody knows better than Ashaji the importance of having an audio-visual package to promote a song".

Asha herself added that, "Since Brett Lee has already featured in the first album. I am considering asking some of our players to come forward for the second part. I have no favourites, anybody who believes in my concept can come forward and participate."

Some persistent souls questioned her about her equation with Himesh Reshammiya. In the recent past, she and Himesh have not been on cordial terms. The reason being Himesh called RD Burman a nasal singer. Asha to her credit pretends that there is no dispute. On being questioned about including him in her list of 'friends' for the new album, she smiled. The PR and marketing skills come to fore as she replies "No Comment!"