|
Film stars bowl cricketers over in benefit match
for Kutch victims
2001 Feb 28 Indiya com
Sunil Shetty sure lives up to his nice guy image. The who's who of the
industry turned up at the CCI (Cricket Club Of India) solely for the Shetty.
A charity cricket match organised by Popcorn Entertainment for earthquake
relief (for the Save The Children trust run by Vipula Kadri, Sunil's
mom-in-law). The turn out comprised of almost the entire industry.
"It's for a cause I strongly believe in. It comes straight from the heart."
Sunil was at his emotional best at the event. Gorgeous wife Mana glowed in
an ethnic ensemble and was busy entertaining Ayesha Shroff and Rhea Pillai.
Sunil, of course, stuck to his buddies Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff. Even
one-time archrival Akshay Kumar flashed that gummy grin and went into
raptures about Sunil.
The match started late, but went off like a dream. There were two
semi-finals of ten overs each, and then the final. In the semi-finals,
Raveena Tandon bowled like a pro, while wonder kid Sachin Tendulkar batted
away. Saurav Ganguly got all the raves - only everybody was raving about his
relationship with Nagma. Rahul Dravid had all the pretty young things
chasing him for autographs.
All eyes were on Sanjay Dutt when he walked into the stadium (minus that
beard he had grown for Mahesh Manjrekar's Pitah), but the deadly Dutt had
eyes only for Rhea. Just like Salman Khan, who was glued to girlfriend
Aishwarya. Sallu was undeniably the scene-stealer of the evening. He
actually did a cute li'l jig right in the middle of the evening even to the
extent of falling at the umpire's feet.
The female populace wanted the Khan with his shirt off, but for once, Sallu
didn't comply. After all, Ash was around.
The other Khan, Aamir, with his miniature goatee, looked hip. And shot
straight from the lip. When asked about the match, Aamir grinned: "We are
here to give Sachin and company a tough fight." And boy, did they! Even as
Jackie Shroff, Sunju Dutt and company cheered for Aamir, Aftab Shivdasani,
Arjun Ramphal, Jimmy Shergill, Sanjay Suri, Sharad Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan,
Namrata Shirodkar, Mahima Chaudhary, Preeti Jhangiani, Kim Sharma, Diya
Mirza accompanied by Anupam Kher, Shekhar Suman, Aditya Panscholi, et al.
The comperes, Javed Jaffrey, Asrani and the inimitable Johny Lever kept the
audience in splits. Mahesh Manjrekar's ponytail was the main topic of
discussion. At one point, Asrani did go overboard by making an uncharitable
remark about Aditya Panscholi, that too at a charitable occasion. He
tittered: "Ladkiyan bhaago, Aditya Panscholi aa raha hai." Aditya, of
course, didn't find it funny. Neither did the audience. Panscholi played his
angry young man part till Asrani apologised. After that, all was well again.
The icing on the cake was most definitely the visiting Australian team, what
with Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Greg Mathews, Shane Warne, Glenn McGarth
and Kim Hughes gracing the occasion. Sri Lankan cricketer Roshan Mahanama
also made a mark.
The highlight of the evening was Amitabh Bachchan's speech, where the Big B
passed off Shatrughan Sinha as his senior. While Bachchan's favourite senior
Dilip Kumar held the audience enthralled with his polished diction. Chief
Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister Chagan Bhujbal did
their bit for the noble cause.
The grand finale was the auction ceremony, where a swanky car (especially
autographed by the celebs), was auctioned off at an unbelievable rate. Javed
Jaffrey and Shekhar Suman were at their funny best even as the show came to
a close. They sportingly declared Raveena Tandon the man of the match.
Though the real man of the match was Sunil Shetty, who went out of his way
to make everybody comfortable. When Rhea Pillai and Ayesha Shroff asked him
why he was not playing, Shetty quipped, pokerfaced: "I'm the spot boy here.
Let the stars play." They sure did.
Back
|
