In a land where cricketers are idolised and film stars worshipped, an event fusing the two is certain to send fans into raptures. It came as no surprise when all roads led to YMCA (Nandanam) for the ‘IPL Opening Nite', featuring celebrities from the worlds of cricket and entertainment.
The audience — a nice mix of the young and the old, had a whale of a time, straining its vocal chords every time a favourite player or movie star emerged on stage. The fans were not just on the edge of their seats, but also on top of them, most of the time.
Quite fittingly, the biggest cheers were reserved for Amitabh Bachchan. The evergreen superstar and undisputed all-time king of Bollywood started proceedings with a poem penned by Prasoon Joshi, on the spirit of cricket. Bachchan, a die-hard cricket fan, later took the MCC Spirit of Cricket pledge along with the nine skippers.
“ Vanakkam , Chennai,” greeted the vivacious Kareena Kapoor, who went on to shake a leg to the popular hit number Chchammak Chchalo from Ra.One. The actress, who flew into the city straight from Bangkok where she was shooting for a film, impressed the audience with her delightful dancing . Chennai Super Kings' Suresh Raina gave her a thumbs-up ahead of the other Bollywood star, Priyanka Chopra, when it came to the dancing competition.
Priyanka had her moments too. Like when she made Mumbai Indians' skipper Harbhajan Singh perform an impromptu ‘bhangra' move, and appeared suddenly on stage to interview the Chennai Super Kings players.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who began with an ‘Eppadi Irukeenga'(how are you?), refused to take the bait when asked by the Bollywood beauty about the teams to watch out for in IPL-V. In inimitable style, Dhoni replied: “Man United, Man City, and I think Arsenal will come third [referring to the English Premier League sides]!” Doug Bollinger was the other star of the evening, be it in shaking a leg to a Tamil song or in tutoring international pop star Katy Perry on the art of batting. He walked home with possibly the best gift of the day: a peck on the cheek from Katy for teaching her to bat!
Katy was the final performer of the evening, but the fans looked energised and ready for more as soon as she started her Teenage Dreams. The teeny-boppers went wild when the extremely talented Katy tweaked her most popular number I Kissed A Girl (And I Liked It) and gave it a Chennai flavour with a ‘I Kissed a Super King [Bollinger] and I liked it.'
Her third visit to India seemed to have inspired Katy a great deal, and she sang Peacock as a tribute to the country. “I came to this function just to see her,” gushed Harsha Kanumalla from the United States and pursuing medicine in a city college.
Bollywood hunk Salman Khan, the Bodyguard of the box office, and the Colonial Cousins (Hariharan and Leslie Lewis), back together for Once More, made their presence felt.
It was a special birthday gift for the ‘Indian Michael Jackson' Prabhu Deva, who turned 39 on the Opening Nite. The 'boneless' wonder provided the local flavour, dancing to many hits and making the fans crave for more.
Chennai proved once again that it is a Super King - not only on the cricket field but off it too!
