A former Bollywood queen and the current Badshah of B town have given a heady mix to the most glamorous team in the IPL.

By Kashinath Bhattacharjee

She was Amir Khan's first heroine in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. Probably, that was the first time, Bollywood learnt to spell long filmy names in abbreviated form i.e. QSQT. The chubby girl stole many hearts, including the new boy in the town, whose wishes was limited to “Papa kehte hai bada naam karega.”

Juhi Chawala is now donning Shah Rukh Khan's shirts! And she claims to be a “big fan of Dada”.

At the Eden Gardens on Sunday afternoon, the infectious smile was back to her lips. “See, Dada as captain can do wonders. I am sure under him the team will perform even better. We have won the inaugural match and going great guns in the second too (Bangalore had already lost their top order then). Under Dada, I feel we have the potential to go the full length at this tournament.”

If it happens, what she will do?

“I have too many friends in Tollywood (the Kolkata film industry). I’ll request them to join me at Eden and we shall be dancing to the tunes of ‘Korbo, lorbo, jitbo re’! ”

Simple, isn't it?

32K to be with SRK 

If you want to spend your evening with Shah Rukh Khan next to your chair, what should you do?

Nothing much. Just spend 32 thousand bucks to buy a ticket for a Kolkata match at the Eden Gardens!

Yes, there is a specially structured portion of the gallery, on the right side of the Club House at Eden, where SRK would sit next to you. You can shake his hands, even talk to him. Not only that, buying the ticket would entitle you entry to a fashion show at a five star hotel on the same night and have your dinner. On Sunday afternoon, those ‘lucky’ people had the chance to sit next to Brian Lara, too, in the same premises. All for sirf 32K, waow!

But the story does not end there. PWD, a department of the West Bengal Government, was not particularly happy with the construction of the temporary gallery. In fact, just a couple of days before, they refused to issue “no objection certificate’ to the gallery since, they felt, the gallery was not ‘safe’ for use of general public. When the Police was informed about it, they too were of the opinion that since the PWD declined to declare the structure ‘safe’ they would not allow spectators to sit there.

However, when the match started, not a single chair was vacant there. Neither the PWD, nor the police had any complaints. Even people present there had no complaints to the scorching Sun!  They knew it was a lifetime opportunity for them to be so close to King Khan and they were busy in making it memorable by dancing to the tunes of SRK numbers or “korbo lorbo jitbo re” whenever the songs were played by the DJ.

Good experiences come for a cost, true. But, then who cares?