‘Item song’ sounds derogatory: Kareena Kapoor

She has grooved to chartbusters like “Chhammak challo”, “Chhalliya”, “It’s rocking” and “Mauja hi mauja” – but actress Kareena Kapoor says she finds the term “item song” derogatory. She has also clarified that she is yet to accept a song in Salman Khan’s “Dabangg 2”.

“I hate that word item song,” Kareena said in an emphatic tone at the India Today Conclave 2012 Friday.

“It’s become a trend among directors and producers…’Chalo ek item number daal dete hain (Let’s put in an item number)’. I don’t like this word item number. Why can’t it just be called a song,” she added.

The 31-year-old says hit dance numbers deserve more respect, just the way yesetryear dancer Helen used to command through her songs.

“In the 1960s, when Helen aunty used to do a song, my mom has told me, that she used to get scared and used to say ‘Oh my god, Helenji is going to do a song in our movie’. So she always knew she might not be noticed (in the film), given Helen aunty’s personality and the command that she respected,” said Kareena.

“I just find something very derogatory about songs being called item numbers. I wish people just refer to them as just songs because songs make our Hindi films. They are what make our films global.

“When I walk the streets of London, fans come up and talk about ‘Chhammak challo’, ‘You are my soniya’ and songs of ‘Jab We Met’. Songs are part of our culture, we should be proud of them,” added the actress, who has shot a mujra song for her forthcoming film “Agent Vinod”.

She has also been offered a song in the sequel to blockbuster “Dabangg”.

“They have spoken to me about it. But we haven’t decided anything yet. Salman has been saying you should do it, it will look great. But I don’t want to do an item song…I want to do a good song in a good film like ‘Dabangg 2’,” she said in a diplomatic way.