Bhubaneswar, April 4: Strobe lights, ear-splitting music and a bevy of movie stars promise to make Wave-2012 — the annual cultural extravaganza of the Utkal University— an event to remember.

Busy giving final touches to the preparations, members of the university’s postgraduate cultural club are expecting a crowd of over a 1,000 students for the “morning show” of the daylong programme on Thursday.

“Odia film personalities, including actors Sabyasachi, Babushan and Priya Choudhary, have confirmed their participation in the event. So, we are very excited about it. Inviting matinee idols for college shows is the latest fad and we are hoping this would be a successful event,” said Prabin, a student of the university and a member of the organising team.

Noted lyricist Arun Mantri is also expected to make an appearance tomorrow. “They will be here till about 2pm. The university will felicitate them. But we will not allow them to leave without performing on stage. We will request Sabyasachi and Priya to dance and say some dialogues from their films. The crowd would love to hear Babushan sing,” said president of the university students’ union Tanmaya Swain.

The second half of the programme will consist of a musical concert by popular singers, T. Souri, Debasish, Pammi and music composer duo Manas-Pritam.

There will be a special performance by Manasi Mishra, a former student of the university, who shot to fame with her debut in one of the most-watched TV serials and as anchor of several programmes.

Realising that the star-studded event is sure to attract outsiders, the university is making adequate security arrangements.

Police personnel will be deployed on campus and the student-volunteers will conduct thorough checks to avoid any untoward incident.

“Students from other institutes are also welcome, provided they do not create any disturbance. However, we will be able to allow only a small number since we have limited seating capacity,” Prabin said.

The total expenditure for the event is around Rs 1 lakh, a major chunk of which is being borne by the varsity. “Though nothing is confirmed so far, some of our students are also planning to perform a dance or two tomorrow,” he added.