24th June- RED CARPET with SHAHRUKH & VIVEK at Sheraton

This was the last of the "pre-awards" events that took place in Toronto. On the 24th of June, 2011, Vivek Oberoi and Shahrukh Khan were being awaited to grace the stage at Sheraton Hotel. Now, initially the only star projected to shine on the Sheraton stage was Vivek; but when he could not pull enough crowd, Shahrukh was called in at the last minute, to save the day!

I was really excited to attend this occasion, for primarily two reasons: 1) It was becoming impossible to get anywhere near King Khan otherwise..2) I wanted to play dress-up. So, I had planned to doll up real nice and head for the venue in the evening. All was moving according to the plan till a last hour bonus was thrown into my embrace. At about 8 in the morning, I was informed that my darling friend had given birth to a beautiful baby boy and that they were both healthy & well.

Here I proudly present to you- Rohan Benjamin Tamanamu, who I have decided to call Rishith:

         Evening was drawing close and my heart was beating faster than ever because I had planned real serious stuff for the occasion. I was getting hair extensions done for the first time ever!! Do you want to see the difference?? Ok...here...you are definitely in for a huge surprise:

Left: My lovely extensions

Right: After adding the finishing touches with my hairdresser Lisa                                                   

Having done my hair, I set off with my hubby to dazzle the pretty gathering at Sheraton..Boy I was loving my new look!! :P... Here are a few pictures from the venue:

With Hubby, in the queue to enter: Had to wait for about 1 hour before we could enter. The worst part was that people who had no tickets were also a part of this queue, despite us buying tickets previously online...Sooo unfair!

Inside Sheraton: A "red carpet" had been arranged for us to walk through before reaching the entrance of the ballroom.













The event was held in partnership with Besharam, Marla's, etc...

 1) Stage 2) Crowd gathered at the venue

From the extreme right of the ballroom, DJ Amrita from Besharam kept playing her mundane and hapless tracks as the crowd kept waiting anxiously for the arrival of the celebrities. Finally at 9 p.m.Vivek stepped on the stage. And although I am not a fan of the Oberoi boy, I do not exaggerate when I say that he lacked in both charm and glamour so much that probably the best of his fans were also disappointed that night- the dude just doesn't know the art of conversation. So, despite hearty attempts from the host- Veronica Chail, the ambiance at the venue did not warm up. 

Now, the audience at the venue had been wearing different wristbands to demarcate the category that they fell in; Green for VIP (tickets at $150), Yellow for general audience (tickets at $100 and below) and Silver (for those who had purchased their tickets when only Vivek was supposed to be attending it). These (Silver wristband) were next called to the stage to take a photograph each with Vivek.

What followed was almost 40 mins of photo-session with Vivek for "Silver wristband-ers" while the rest of the crowd killed themselves in boredom at the bottom of the stage. And everybody sighed in relief when Vivek got off the stage and left us in peace for good.

Here are some clips of our Saathiya from the venue:

 Once Vivek left, the wait recommenced. Some tried hard to dance to the tunes of SRK songs that the DJ was playing, just like I did...

 

but that could not hold the Khan's fans still for too long...

Time was flying fast...pretty ladies, gorgeous lads, food, music...everything was keeping the atmosphere alive somehow. The audience had scattered by now and one could often hear whispers like "He is not coming" or "lets leave, its pretty late". But Stalling all commotions at 12 midnight, the King of Bollywood finally arrived!

Dressed in black, wearing opaque shades, Khan drove the crowd hysterical. Here is how he looked:

Unfortunately, the lighting at the venue was so dim that Khan's pictures have not come out that well...Nevertheless, it was great interacting with Shahrukh. For some reason, I had always perceived him to be arrogant and vain. Today, my opinion stands corrected. Not only did he encourage and answer the dozens of questions asked by us, but also tried his very best to connect with the audience present there.

Some questions asked and their answers are as follows:

Q. Best song

A. amongst many- chaiyya chaiyya

Q. Secret of success

A. Work hard & try and kill the other actors at the game

Q. Why not staying on in Toronto after the event

A. Has to return urgently because he will be undergoing surgery soon & needs complete rest of 10 days before that.

Khan rocked the stage for an hour and a little more before he left. He came through as a man of great charm & personality, wit & intelligence. Overall it was a good evening today!

A Hectic day on the 23rd of June

 IIFA is getting bigger and better with each passing day as Bollywood stars are crowding up at the three downtown hotels- Renaissance, Royal York & Roy Thomson. Work began for us at 1.30 in the afternoon today when we sat down with our small load of 175 VIP & V.VIP passes at the site office.

There are two categories that needed to be demarcated today- 100 V.VIP passes and 75 VIP ones. Now, as promised, here I am going to give you a glimpse of some of the celebrities who will be there for the event:

Amisha                                                    The Deols

                                    The Kapoors off course---

Vivek Oberoi      

&  

Arbaaz- Malaika
                     to name a few...

& Mr. Anupam Kher will be hosting the show...

Now, the latest news is that Sohail Khan, Fardeen, R Madhavan, Shankar Mahadevan, Ranveer singh and a whole lot of other Tinsel-towners have already arrived downtown...here are some I met today:

Omi Vaidya, better known as Chatur Ramalingam turned out to be a really chilled out guy...not only did he pose with me but also nodded in approval of my suggestion: "don't get typecasted"

Next to come up the stairs was Kiran Juneja... she is a well established television actress who has acted in tons of Bollywood movies in supporting roles like Badmaash Company, Chandni Chowk to China, Bunty aur Babli, Krrish, Jab We Met, Fashion and so on...She is also the wife of Ramesh Sippy who you have met in my previous blog.

Aashish Chaudhary was up next. And although he is not that popular, he's made his mark in movies like Fight Club, Girl Friend, Dhamaal, Double Dhamaal, Bhootnath and so on.

& Right before leaving I stopped by a crowded elevator, just to find the director of one of my most favorite movies- Rang De Basanti...yes, this is Mr. Rakesh omprakash Mehra...I am so waiting for another film by him!!

That's all for today folks..Let me just tell you one more thing- we have received our IDs and t-shirts too today..so if anyone's left to pick them up, find them at the Media room, with the volunteer management team.

Will soon be coming up with more at Joyee Nation!!!

Red Carpet Affair at Royal York on the 22nd of June

Well, this has been my most busy day this year. I had set out of home at 9.45 am in the morning, thinking I would be back in three hours at max...and here I am, back at 8.30, tired to the core!

The IIFA event is finally shaping up with the stars all about and around, all team heads finally arrived and every thing perfecting in an organized and orderly chaos.

Earlier this morning, at around 8.45 I received two emails- 1) I have to pick up my complimentary "green carpet" tickets from the Renaissance hotel; 2) Got to reach Royal York at 11am for our team meeting and event briefing. So I rushed out at around 9.45, took a cab and reached Renaissance in about 15 mins, only to find the serpentine cue already twisting and turning through the hotel lobby. Here's how it looked like:-

 

But the wait was not a long one, as Saniya managed to give out the passes pretty quickly and I made it to Royal York much before 11.

We also got this glimpse of how the stage would look like on the award day...

At Royal York, I met my department head for the first time today....here is the crew from Wizcraft, that is going to be doing the RK Retrospective with us----

& this is our little workstation inside Royal York- in the territories room:

 

 Guess who else was there with us----??

Yes....Ruslaan Mumtaz, the male lead of Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar (MP3) & Vivan Bhatena- who portrayed the role of the vice captain of the India national cricket team, Abimanyu Singh, in the 2007 hit film, Chak De India-----

 

Royal York witnessed a real Red Carpet affair today.... check out all the twinkling stars I met---

This is Ramesh Sippy, an Indian film director, probably best-known for directing the popular and critically acclaimed film Sholay, Saagar and Shaan.

Yes, none other than Zayed Khan and Diya Mirza....Zayed was looking cool in his tux and Diya was such a pretty doll!! But unfortunately the security was too tight and a single picture with either became impossible :(

The pretty pink lady!!

That's Zayed's body guard!! :x

But look who's here now... Yes our very own Boman Irani....he was the sweetest of them all and gave us all a chance to click a single with him :)

  

Kangna Ranaut too has arrived today but unfortunately was escorted very secretively through the backdoor to her room...so none but a very few lucky security personnel got to see her...so, see you later Kangna!!

The press and paparazzi were there too---

Now for the Retrospective...

We were taken to the TIFF Bell Lightbox building at around 4 pm. I am in-charge of getting the script ready for Mr. Anupam Kher, who is going to host the show there. Appearing for the interview are the three brothers: Rishi, Rajeev and Randhir. Srm. Krishna Raj Kapoor (wife of lt. Raj Kapoor) and Ritu Nanda(daughter) are also going to be present. And with them will be our honorable Premier. There is also another very interesting interview that is going to take place here...any guesses? Of course it is Ranveer Kapoor. Yes, he is also expected to be here but I am not telling you whether Kareena and/or Karisma are going to be here yet...lets keep that a surprise for now :)

Here is how Bell Lightbox is looking like right now---

Left- A portrait of Raj Kapoor & Nargis


Bottom- A photo Booth

Posters and collector's items from the Raj Kapoor movies adorn the walls of Bell Lightbox

& this is Cinema 3, where the event will take place:

That's it for now... Tomorrow I will be able to give you a comprehensive list of the guests attending the event & the flow of the event... I hope you have enjoyed reading through this blog... 

I will see you soon in Joyee Nation :)