Actor Aman Verma with a participant at the Khulja Sim Sim show. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, May 4: They waited with bated breath since morning to catch a glimpse of the “Dilip Kumar of the small screen”. Dusk set in, but the 3,000-odd people did not complain as they jostled to get a comfortable seat.

The crowd broke into a thunderous applause when Aman Verma, the hearthrob of hundreds of housewives and teenyboppers in the country, finally decided to make an appearance. As Aman, clad in a pair of black jeans and a half-sleeved shirt, walked on the stage, young girls in the audience went berserk. Aman flashed his “cute” smile and said Khul Ja Sim Sim!

Purushree, a women’s organisation had organised the popular gameshow Khul ja Sim Sim in the capital to raise funds for the construction of a new building for Deepshikha, a school for the mentally and physically challenged. Ramji Lal Sharda, state minister of trade and commerce, was the chief guest. And with Aman Verma being the host, no seat was left vacant.

Aman immediately connected with the audience by cracking jokes. Some girls in the audience were seen toppling off from their seats with laughter.

The minister was requested to randomly pick chits containing names of the participants. In the first round, 20 participants were invited on stage. Aman asked them some naughty question, but they did not mind as they were in awe of him. Finally, of the 20 participants three were selected to play the game. Each of them was asked a question and then told to choose between a door and cash. Aman urged the audience to help the participants. “Darwaza ya Paisa?” asked Aman. The audience too chipped in — “Darwaza nahin, paisa lo (Not the door, take the cash)” “Paisa rakho paisa (Keep the money)”. Karan, one of the participants, choose the door. Aman tried to confuse him but Karan stuck to his choice. And he did not make a mistake because he won gifts worth Rs. 13,000.

At the end of the round, it was time for money distribution. “Any lady wearing at least 25 bangles can come up and collect Rs 1,000 from me,” Aman said. As soon as he uttered the sentence there was a race of sorts with women running from all parts of the arena towards the stage. “Anyone who has an electricity bill in his pocket can come up,” said Aman. To everyone’s surprise, a man ran up to the stage waving an electricity bill. He had forgotten to pay his bill and it was lying in his pocket.