THE HELLO
THE HIGHLIGHT

Abhishek and Aishwarya won the Best Actor and Best Actress trophies for Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, an honour which meant a lot to the first couple of Bollywood. The two had, in fact, shot here in the city for a couple of important sequences of the film by the river. “Calcutta is always welcoming and we get such a warm response whenever we return to the city. But that we are winning for Raavan makes this trip that much more memorable,” said Aishwarya, looking stunning in a green zardosi sari. With Abhishek all ears in the front row, Ash added: “An honour like this gives much more impetus to our pursuit of the craft and inspires us to do more impactful and meaningful cinema.” A not-so-veiled reference to the fact that Raavan did not do well at the box office.

FOR HER EYES ONLY
PREEN AND POSE

Saturday was a very special evening for Abhishek, who had made his first ever public appearance in the city at the same Science City auditorium a decade ago. “It was on this stage that I had first experienced the love and adulation of Calcutta when I had come to promote Refugee here,” Bachchan Junior said. Having always maintained that Calcutta is the place to be if you are “feeling down”, Abhishek added: “Calcutta, you are the most wonderful people on earth. You really made my evening.”

THE AWARDS

Team Le Chakka bagged four awards — Best Film, Best Director (Raj Chakraborty), Best Actor (Dev), Best Actress (Payel) and Best Music Director (Indraadip Dasgupta). “Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would get the best actor award!” gushed Dev

 

The other big Bolly presence at the Tolly event was Ashutosh Gowariker, who was feted by Sandip Ray. “It is such a pleasure to be on the stage with Sandipda,” said the Satyajit Ray fan, who has a Pather Panchali poster in his Mumbai office. Gowariker was “overwhelmed” with Calcutta’s love for Surya Sen, moments after the Science City audience gave a standing ovation in memory of Masterda

 

 

Shaan bagged the Best Non-film Music Album award for Khola Haowa. His cousins, archers Rahul and Dola Banerjee, received the award on his behalf from Ustad Rashid Khan

 

 

 

Indaneil gave away the Best Debut (Female) award to wife Barkha

 

 

 

Little Tithi got the Best Acting award and a big hug from Chaiti Ghoshal for her act in the STAR Jalsha serial Maa

 

 

 

 

watch out!

 

Hosts Mir and Rimjhim Mitra strike the Titanic pose! Mir left the audience, including the Bachchan couple, in splits with his wordplay and antics

 

 

 

“I am part of your family!” scribbled Usha Uthup on an Anandalok Puraskar poster at Science City

 

 

 

Abir Chatterjee, Payel, Subhashree and Rupam enjoy the show

 

 

Shrabanti with director hubby Rajib Kumar in the audience

 

 

The song ’n’ dance

Barkha Bisht Sengupta sizzled on stage, shaking her hips to Dui Prithibi’s Pyarelal track, Crazy kiya re and Munni badnaam hui. The audience, led by Abhishek and Aishwarya, cheered her on	Monali Thakur belted out foot-tapping numbers like Anjaana anjaani, Zara zara and It’s only pyaar from Dui Prithibi. “It’s lovely to come back to Calcutta to sing,” she smiled
Naresh Iyer, the voice of Rubaru from Rang De Basanti, kicked off the song-and-dance series with some Rang De Basanti numbers and Pappu can’t dance saala	Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s late entry meant she missed her Chokher Bali co-star Tota Roy Chowdhury’s power-packed performance on stage. Tota’s break dance to remixed Tolly numbers like Challenge nibi na sala and Le paglu drew loud applause and cat calls from the audience — none louder than from Dev!

fun moments

Before leaving the stage, Aishwarya shook Mir’s hand, which drove the host crazy. “Wonder what the reading must have been like on the Richter scale when she shook my hand on stage,” the t2 columnist later wrote on Facebook. He had earlier called up the Red Cross to send across a couple of ambulances. “I am going to faint!” he said, of the Ash effect. But after she shook his hand, Mir went bonkers and started kissing his own hand. Abhishek then decided to take matters into his own hands. He grabbed his wife’s hand, raised it for Mir to see and then kissed it deliberately. Mir went silent (for once), Ash couldn’t stop giggling and the crowd erupted. This fun moment of one-upmanship apart, Abhishek was “impressed” with Mir’s madness on stage, even asking the funnyman to “come to Mumbai for the Dostana 2 auditions”!