I'm a disgrace to my maternal side: Soha

Actress Soha Ali Khan might have inherited acting skills from her Bengali mother Sharmila Tagore, but she says she is 'a disgrace' to her 'maternal side' because she can't speak Bengali.

'I don't know Bengali... That ways I am a disgrace to my maternal side but I am working on it. I am learning it,' Soha told IANS here Sunday evening.

Sharmila, however, came to her daughter's rescue.

'She is good. The thing is she is very conscientious. She can't speak spontaneously but she does her homework and picks up the lines and then speaks them fluently,' Sharmila said.

The mother-daughter actress' duo were in the capital on the first day of the first ever Pravasi Film Festival for the official screening of their first outing together 'Life Moves On'.

Revolving around the cultural conflict between a father and his youngest daughter, with different sub-plots shown in flashback, it is a English-Bengali bi-lingual.

Directed by debutante Sangeeta Datta, it also stars Girish Karnad, Om Puri, Rez Kempton, Neerja Naik, Mukulika Banerjee, Christopher Hatherall, Stef Patten and Aria Gitanjali Banerjee Watts.

Asked if Soha's siblings - Saif and Saba - can converse in their mother's tongue, Sharmila said: 'They cannot because it is not the language spoken at home.'

Soha, however, said: 'I'm the best (at speaking Bengali amongst the three).'