OSAMA - PAKISTANI SINGER THREATENED OVER OSAMA FILM ROLE

Pakistani star ALI HAIDER has turned down the chance to appear in new Bollywood movie OSAMA after receiving threatening calls. The musician was offered a part in the film based on the life of a young boy who travels to Afghanistan and ends up at the World Trade Center in New York at the time of the 2001 attacks. But some people wrongly believed he was to play al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. He claims turning down the part has cost him $160,000 (GBP80,000). He says, "It was to show the world the other side of the coin. I felt it was my responsibility as a Muslim. "But in circumstances when an important person like Benazir Bhutto cannot have adequate security, what will happen to someone like me?" Haider says the movie's producers will still use his music for the film's soundtrack.