Amitabh Bachchan has been doing it for 40 years but I'm still awestruck when he turns up a minute before the given time for an event. Often even before his tardy hosts.

Amjad Khan's son Shadaab (Rani Mukerji's first hero in Raja Ki Aaayegi Baraat ) recently added his name to the growing list of Bachchan's admirers. One hears that while junior actors like Anil Kapoor operated through their whimsical secretaries, Gabbar Junior, who has turned writer, had to only send one SMS to Amitabh Bachchan to bag the best chief guest in town for the launch of his new novel Murder In Bollywood.

AB is the best (sorry, SRK) because he not only doesn't keep the organisers dangling (when he turns down a request to release one of my books, he is equally prompt with it), he also turns up with his own well-trained security detail. From the time his car drives in to the time he zooms out, his security men know precisely how to throw a cordon around him and how much space to give him. He's protected but accessible. Amitabh's security could well be an organiser's nightmare but he considerately takes care of it himself and doesn't burden the host with any demands.

Amitabh knows what to say, how much to say and how to pose for the legions of cameramen who go, "Look left Amitji ", "Look in the centre sir", "Look right, Mr Bachchan". He faces them all and then vanishes like vapour.

Amitabh is the epitome of graciousness. He released Shadaab's book, spoke briefly of his friendship with Amjad and topped it by tweeting about the book release the same night. It got retweeted and "favourited" hundreds of times which is more valuable than what any PR agency can do for a new book. Don't all these put together make Amitabh Bachchan the best chief guest for an event? QED.

At Shadaab's event, AB wore a white cotton kurta (slightly crumpled) and churidars, a mustard Modi-type jacket, a fluorescent green watch strap on his left wrist, a red holy thread around the other and maroon mojris . Which also made him a very colourful man, indeed.

Talking of colour, this has been a week of awesomeness. The spectacular technical leap taken by Indian cinema with Bahubali has quite deservedly turned the most expensive Indian film (Rs 250 crore) into the biggest money earner in the North for a dubbed film (Telugu original dubbed into Hindi).

One had barely got used to that scale of filmmaking when Sanjay Leela Bhansali invited some of us for a sneak peek at the teaser of his Bajirao Mastani . By the time you read this, it should be out on the Internet. But when we saw it at Eros International's small private theatre with a big screen, the dramatic combination of awesomeness and aesthetics was an unexpected experience.

Bhansali's visual presentation has always been grand, whether he moved Aishwarya Rai from the vast stretches of Kutch in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam to the palatial splendour of Bengal in Devdas, or took her to a dilapidated Goan mansion in Guzaarish . With the war-and-love-torn tale of Bajirao, Bhansali strides into Maharashtra, a first for him.

The filmmaker, who popularised "Eeshhh" from Bengal after Aishwarya teased Shah Rukh with the word in Devdas , is out to do what no tourism board can do for Maharashtra. And there is no romantic episode from our history that's more intense than the love story of the married Hindu Peshwa king and Muslim dancer Mastani. Move over, Mughal-e-Azam.

Will share a chat with Bhansali next week since one has to accommodate here the third event of the week, an advance birthday gift for Zarina Wahab. Zarina, who was busy shooting for a commercial, couldn't be there when Salman Khan officially presented her son Sooraj Pancholi and Sunil Shetty's daughter Athiya in the 2015 remake of Subhash Ghai's Hero to the media. Salman cleverly timed the event two days before the release of his first production Bajrangi Bhaijaan, ensuring that he stayed in the limelight all week.

Zarina had heard all about the emotionally stirring moment on stage when Sooraj turned his back to the guests to wipe his tears, overwhelmed at Salman's unwavering support to him. So far, Sooraj had received attention solely for his part in girlfriend Jiah Khan's suicide (or murder, as Jiah's mother Rabia has claimed). Thus, standing before the media as a new hero was a refreshing change for the young man.

"I'll be eternally grateful to Salman for it," said Zarina. "Considering all that Sooraj has been through, anybody else would have withdrawn his support."

It makes Bhaijaan the real Hero of the week. And happy birthday (July 17), Zarina.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author