Sreelekha Mitra in performance: Dance dance. Pictures by Aranya Sen Locket Chatterjee: Green gloryJames Spader: Top notch

What do the stars do behind the scenes? What happens during shooting? Is it more work or play? Well, a section of the city?s star-struck crowd did get some of the answers at the Rabindra Sarobar stadium this Sunday with a ?live cinema? show.

Beating the blazing sun, thousands of fans thronged the grounds for an eyeful of the stars ruling their cable homes, night and day. The backbenchers, dissatisfied with a bird?s eye-view of the performers on the makeshift open-air stage, abandoned their seats and scurried forward to squat on the ground, even whipping out umbrellas and munchies.

The show was slated for 2 pm, but minutes flew with the stage being readied. Finally, it was time for a bunch of actors and actresses to show their audience what goes into the making of a film in Tollywood. Called Janto Chalochchitra, the show was part of the daylong Poila Mela organised by ETV Bangla.

The scene of action was a shooting spot, furnished with all the gadgets ? camera on a trolley, boom and lights. It all started with a producer (Kharaj Mukherjee) out to trap an unsuspecting moneybag into funding a masala movie. The fun started when the suburban trader, played quite convincingly by TV serial-maker Jishu Dasgupta, arrived at the shooting site to keep an eye on the goings-on. From the self-obsessed heroine to the snooty hero, the modest villain to the hapless spot boy, the incorrigible trouble-maker to the hassled director, there was every character worth a sample. The script was tight and hilarious, and even took a dig at the film-making process.

After Sreelekha Mitra set the ball rolling with a sizzling dance number, a traditional tear-jerker of an emotional scene actually found Dipankar De, Rita Koyral and Locket Chatterjee misreading their lines and cracking jokes. As a gawky Dasgupta stared on, the sari-clad, sindoor-smudged Locket walked in wearing a slick black outfit, smoking a cigarette. Next, Pallavi Chatterjee rushed in with a bunch of goons led by Rajesh Sharma on her heels. Enter, Abhishek Chatterjee on a bike, beating the bad men black and blue before breaking into a jig with the damsel no longer in distress.

The stunt scene was left to macho man Tota Roy Chowdhury, who crashed through a wall (made of thermocol) to save Sreelekha Mitra and her father Dipankar De from the clutches of villain Bharat Kaul. The comedy cuts were reserved for Shubhasish Mukherjee.

What made the show, close to two hours, special was the wholehearted participation of all backstage hands, from the spotboy to the lightman, make-up artiste to hairdresser.

Scripted by Rangan Chakraborty, the skit was directed by film-maker Subrata Sen (Ek Je Achhe Konya, Nil Nirjane) and executed by Golden Moments.

The multi-Emmy Award-winning drama The Practice enters its eighth season on STAR World beginning April 27, every Wednesday at 9 pm. Set in Boston and centred around a firm of passionate attorneys to whom every case is important and every client worth a fight to the end, The Practice, from renowned writer-producer David E. Kelly, promises more provocative, issue-related stories along with the trademark humour.

In addition to returning cast members Manheim, Harris, Badalucco and Capshaw, this season Kelley will inject the series with intriguing new faces, including acclaimed film actor James Spader. Spader will play Alan Shore, a complicated and ethically-challenged lawyer while Rhona Mitra will play Tara Wilson, a confident paralegal in her third year of law school who is also the firm?s new tough-as-nails assistant.

Season eight also boasts of some great guest appearances from stars like Sharon Stone, William Shatner and Betty White.

The upcoming season is also high on award count even as it hits the Indian broadcast. The Practice has earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series, a Peabody Award, an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and most recently, the coveted Humanitas Award.

Spader received the Emmy for the Best Lead actor in a drama series for the show, while The Practice also received the Golden Globe awards for the Best Guest actor ? Stone as Sheila Carlisle and Shatner as Denny Crane.

The first episode of the new season, titled ?We the people?, is about how Alan Shore (Spader), an anti-trust lawyer recently fired from his firm for embezzling, approaches Ellenor, a friend from the past, about a job. She reluctantly agrees to give him a chance, but first he must prove himself by taking over a case. Also, Ellenor and Jamie, working for the firm, take on the case of Brad Stanfield, played by Chris O?Donnell, a man who stands accused of murdering his pregnant wife. Catch The Practice on STAR World every Wednesday at 9 pm.