Bollywood A-listers Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan and Bappi Lahiri walked the red carpet on Saturday, December 12, at the Filmfare ME gala to celebrate the movie magazine’s fifth anniversary in the region.
Held in conjunction with the Dubai International Film Festival, the event saw a host of celebrities arrive at Madinat Jumeirah, but the biggest stars of the night – Khan and Kajol – arrived nearly two and a half hours late.
One diehard fan, the Dubai resident Jerry George, who manages content for the sites Dubai Calendar and Visit Dubai for Dubai Tourism, was there among the photographers and journalists – he had managed to find his way into the complex for a chance to shake Khan’s hand.
“I got one of these media passes somehow, I just waved it around every time anyone asked me!” said George, who is from India. “Then I looked at the invites of these guests, saw someone’s name and said – ‘Yeah, that’s me.’”
But when the couple finally arrived, George’s hopes were dashed – they were swept away in an impenetrable swarm of festival staff, security guards and fans holding cameras aloft and scrambling to get near. Women in elegant ball gowns desperately pushed into the crowd to get a photograph of the legendary couple. One of them even seemed to step on Khan’s foot as she stumbled into the mob.
George laughed off his missed opportunity to “shake the hands of power”.
“All this effort, just so I can stand 10 feet away from him while a bunch of women mob him. I guess this is as good as it gets and I’ve got to take what I can get,” he said.
Luckily, Khan's Dilwale co-stars Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon had arrived a few minutes earlier, and stopped to chat.
"I think over here, it all comes together," said Dhawan. "Dubai is a melting pot for culture, film and the arts, and now Abu Dhabi will host the regional premiere of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens this week. It is amazing how much films are encouraged here. It makes us feel very welcome."
Dhawan is looking forward to returning to Abu Dhabi next month to shoot the big budget action flick Dishoom.
“We will be taking over Abu Dhabi and creating some chaos,” he said with a smile. “We will resume shooting on January 15. Me, John [Abraham] and Jacqueline [Fernandez] will be there. There are many important scenes we will be filming in Abu Dhabi.”
Sanon said filming Dilwale had been the highlight of her year. "Especially the Hyderabad schedule, we all really had a blast – and now Dubai!"
While all the other guests had followed the black-tie dress code, Nagesh Kukonoor, director of Dhanak (Rainbow) that screened at Diff over the weekend, showed up in a black T-shirt, jacket and blue jeans.
“I was caught off guard — I never came to Dubai prepared for any black tie. This is as black as I get,” he said.
Actress Kalki Koeclhin, whose new film Waiting had been well received at its Diff world premiere over the weekend, wore a tasselled, black and white dress by Circus. “We had an amazing first review for Waiting – I was jumping on my bed this morning when I read it, it was fantastic,” she said on the red carpet. “My greatest memory of this year.”
Also on the carpet was popular Keralite actor Nivin Pauly, who is currently shooting his Malayalam drama Jacobinte SwargaRajyam (Jacob's Kingdom of Heaven) in Dubai.
“Filming is 60 per cent complete,” Pauly said. “The shoot will be over by the end of this month. It was mostly shot in Dubai, because the story is about a character who lives here. A lot of Keralites here know who I am so it’s like the same as when I am walking around Kerala for me.”
Bollywood's "father of disco" Bappi Lahiri was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award for his 42-year career in the Hindi film industry. Lahiri, who is based in Los Angeles, says he still manages to do a lot of work in Mumbai, most notably his short film, Slum Stars, which gives a voice to gifted singers from the city's impoverished neighbourhoods, and bagged best short film award at the International Film and Entertainment Festival in Sydney.
"We have also gone in for a Grammy-award submission – it is a wonderful album of songs," says Lahiri, resplendent in a black suit and his signature tangle of gold jewellery. "I got involved in Slum Stars because Mother Teresa had once said to me: 'Bappi, you have to do something for the slum children.' This album is dedicated to her."
artslife@thenational.ae
