Asha Bhosle is thrilled about the novelty of her new song in Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3. She recorded the song in San Francisco in a 'dry' voice, transferred it online to Mumbai, and then did the patchwork.

"It's the first of its kind, in my 60-year career," she said.

She was speaking about her song Huzoor-e-ala -- which isn't in the film but features on the music album -- composed by EMI Virgin Records (India) general manager Shamir Tandon. She said that hearing the tune was very catchy, but recording it without a music director or lyricist to explain the situation to her was very peculiar.

She was confused about how she should emote. Her son Anand suggested she sing while imagining Helen, which she did. She was actually afraid the song would get rejected!

The music launch was simultaneously held across 12 cities, including Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai.

Konkana Sen-Sharma, who stars in the film, said, "This is my first film in Mumbai and my first really professional experience. All my other films have been in my hometown and with my mother [director Aparna Sen]."

This was also her first music release.

Explaining how she was cast for Page 3, she said, "It was last year in November that Madhur Bhandarkar talked about this film and told me it's a very unusual story. He asked me if I was interested. I really was because I thoroughly enjoyed [his film] Chandni Bar, and I was dying to work with him anyway.

"I was familiar with the concept of Page Three, but not with Mumbai, which is a major part of this film, where she [her character, a journalist] moves to Mumbai. That was the kind of familiarity I needed, and now, over the months, I have.

"Actually Madhurji ne bahut help kiya tha [Madhur helped me a lot]. He really took me out on the local trains; my character is a person who works in town and lives in the suburbs. So she always travels by local trains and autorickshaws and is constantly on the move. We took lots of trains and went to a few offices so that I got familiar with Mumbai.

"Madhur is a wonderful director. We shared a good professional relationship. We had a very good time."

Page Three trio: Sandhya Mridul, Madhur Bhandarkar and Konkana Sen-Sharma
Photograph: Pradeep Bandekar | Reportage: Patcy N