Her mother is half-Persian, half-Pakistani. Her father was born in India. She divides her time between England and Denmark. She has sung for two Swedish blockbusters. And her Say na say na from Bluffmaster! remains a rage at every party.

Aneela Mirza (picture right) is in her own words “a melting pot”. The 32-year-old singer is in India for a whirlwind multi-city tour to promote her debut album Mahi featuring the chartbuster single Chori chori, a cover version of the superhit 1993 track Informer by the Canadian reggae band Snow.

“Chori chori was first released as a single in countries like Germany, Russia and Bulgaria but the concept of a single doesn’t work in a country like India,” explains Aneela, from Mumbai.

While Chori chori is catchy from the word chori, it is the video that grabs eyeballs.

Directed by Freddy T, who makes most of the Madonna and Kylie Minogue videos, Chori chori is four minutes of unalloyed visual extravaganza.

To shoot the video, a team of more than 120 people, including professional stuntmen (those who worked on the Hollywood blockbuster Black Hawk Down), 35 dancers and 19 models, spent four days in Aqua City, Poprad, Slovakia.

“We had to do a lot of pre-production and trained for eight to 10 hours in the days leading up to the shoot,” recalls Aneela.

“I am not a stunt woman at all and I had to do all the stunts including sliding down the stairs. But Freddy’s a genius and we all trusted him. It wasn’t easy, though, as everyone else was wearing safety gear because of all the fire and explosions shown in the video, but I couldn’t. There I stood in a blazer and sunglasses in the middle of all the mayhem.”

Ask Aneela to define her music and she has no simple answer. “It’s a mix of everything,” she says after some thought.

“It’s definitely world music but I put in whatever I pick up from the excessive travelling I do. As you move from one track to another you will sense influences from Turkish to Greek to Punjabi to Bollywood music. And I am happy that Mahi is a lot of me because I have composed, written and co-produced the album. So, there was a lot of creative freedom and I have tried to mix it up. While there is the clubby, happy, dancy stuff, there are also songs about children and woman empowerment.”

Only after touching down in Mumbai did Aneela realised how popular Say na say na had become, from big screen to discs.

“I had no idea that it has become a must at nightclubs every night here,” she says in wonderment.

“My original song was called Jande which Rohan Sippy wanted to be specially re-written for the song situation in Bluffmaster! featuring Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra. Jande was used in two Swedish blockbusters Bombay Dreams and Heartbreak Hotel. But I was really excited to be working with the Sippys since I am a big Sholay fan... Tera naam kya hai Basanti?”

Now that she is in India till December 20, Aneela is toying with the fresh Bollywood offers on her plate.

“More than working with certain camps, I want the offer to provide personal pleasure to me as an artiste,” is how the Say na girl signs off.