I had the best seat in the house for the final rehearsal. I had Shah Rukh Khan, gracious as ever, ask me if he did “ok”.

But if rehearsal night on Monday made me feel lucky to be where I was, show night on Tuesday has dragged me back to the reality of being a speck in a Calcutta crowd. That too an unruly one.

I have reached Salt Lake stadium an hour and a half early for the IPL-6 opening, hoping to make the most of the first-come-first-seated rule. I find a chair among the first 10 rows of the Silver seats (the lowest category of the on-ground seats) but realise soon enough that for me, this isn’t going to be the show I had seen being put together the previous night.

With no guards around to stop them, some in the audience are dragging the plastic chairs wherever they want to, including the aisle, and standing on them. Those of us behind them would need to borrow stilts from the Dutch performers to have a clear view of what’s showing on the giant screens!

And this when the stars of the show — SRK, Deepika, Kat and Pitbull — haven’t even started performing.

No, I don’t get to see Pitbull. On either day. He had not reached on Monday. Today, it’s so chaotic inside that I leave the stadium by the time he comes on.

The prelude

Waiting for the rehearsals to start around 7.25 on Monday night, the sense of anticipation is overpowering. The long wait for SRK to arrive — he had landed in town around 3am on Monday but showed up only around 6.05pm — and the suspense over when he would join the rest of the performers has added to the excitement all around.

After multiple rounds of screening all afternoon, the only ones allowed to stay on at the Salt Lake stadium are the production crew and the performers, numbering barely 100. I have reason to feel privileged.

The dress rehearsal starts at 7.30pm.

The diya girls in traditional red-bordered white saris take the stage. The events flow in sequence, with the TV cameras rolling in preparation for the live coverage the evening after. On the sidelines, the Dutch stilt walkers pace up and down, awaiting their turn. Around 8.15pm, it is announced that music director Pritam’s freshly mixed track with Shah Rukh’s voiceover has just arrived.

When the track is played, SRK’s timbre resonating with the words of Tagore — Where the mind is without fear — echoes in the stadium. So much better than the scratch used for the earlier rehearsals.

But where is the man himself? He emerges from the green room around 9.15pm in the company of IPL boss Rajeev Shukla, sporting a maroon scarf that he wears like a bandana. SRK sits through the segment where a dialogue from his Jab Tak Hai Jaan is part of the soundtrack before disappearing backstage again.

“Who is he?” the question is writ large on the faces of a couple of foreign choreographers. “He is the big Bollywood star we were expecting,” they are told.

“Oh! Sharukha?” the visitors exclaim, the strange pronunciation apparently derived from the event-flow charts in their native languages!

Shah Rukh takes the stage at midnight. Even during the final round of rehearsals, where the rest of the dancers seem to adopt the Sunil Gavaskar strategy of conserving energy, SRK’s jhatkas are so full of zest that jaws drop.

Wife Gauri watches the proceedings, seated on a chair someone has fetched for her. An acquaintance asks: “Where are the children?”

“Aryan is sleeping in the hotel,” Gauri responds.

Shah Rukh has alighted from the stage and is dancing within a few metres of the team tables where the IPL players will sit on the big night. Ten kids line up to dance with him to a Kuch Kuch Hota Hai number and give a peck each on his dimpled cheek after finishing the routine.

Sonika Kothari, 7, and Khushi Poddar, 8, come off the stage wide-eyed and grinning. “What wouldn’t we do to trade places with them,” sighs some of the older girls.

After 40 minutes of heavy-duty moves, SRK slumps on a chair next to his wife. Bollywood’s first couple are quickly escorted to the carpeted area across the cordon, where Shah Rukh lights up.

Within 10 minutes, dressed in a loose top and tights, with hair hanging loose, a woman in black emerges. It’s Deepika Padukone.

“What a body!” some of the teenaged girls gush in unison.

SRK is retiring with his entourage when someone apparently brings to his notice that Deepika has arrived. He stands on the synthetic track as the girl who had debuted in his Om Shanti Om takes long strides to cross the entire ground and reach him.

A little later, a group of dancers start swaying to a Cocktail track. Deepika stands next to choreographer Geeta Kapoor, watching the group and trying to get in rhythm with slight movements of her hands. “Arrey, chalo. Udhar toh kadna padega hi (Come on, let’s go. We will have to do this there),” says Geeta, dragging Deepika to the stage.

As she walks past some seated girls, a soft “Hi!” from her elicits a chorused response from the group.

Choreographer Geeta’s constant smile and quips keep the mood light amid all the hard work late into the night. When Deepika strikes a classical dance pose, Geeta jokingly ticks her off: “Bilkul statue lag rahi hai (you are looking like a statue)!”

Katrina Kaif comes next and continues rehearsing till 3.30am.

How hard they work!

My SRK moment

Shah Rukh Khan is holding court at the foot of the stage when I walk up to him. “So are you supporting my team? Writing good things about us?” he quizzes, dimpled smile in place.

King Khan is clearly in the zone. “There’s so much happiness. We will have a great inauguration tomorrow,” SRK declares.

On learning that I had waited for him at the stadium till late on Sunday and all of Monday, he is apologetic to a fault. “Actually my wife and children are back from vacation, so I went to the hotel first from the airport to spend time with them,” SRK explains as wife Gauri looks on indulgently.

The showman is a family man first.