Star-Struck In Sun City

On the morning of 15th of June at the Johannesburg airport, some native South Africans congregated for a welcome that some called epileptic whilethe more refined chose the adjective 'vehement'.

The fast paced tribal dance was a special welcome signal for Indian film stars who had descended froma South African Airlines flight which, by popular consensus, served smilesfaster than wine.

Foreign airlines may have an unflattering view of Indians (part of the reason why they ration alcohol) but on that morning at theJohannesburg airport, there was celebration of all that was Indian.

The film stars had come to grace the Kelvinator International Indian Film Academy(IIFA) awards. And desi types had emerged from the wood-works to lay a siege outside the airport.

As people like Hritik Roshan, Aamir Khan, Karisma, Urmila, Sunil Shetty, Namrata Shirodkar stepped out,there were girls and their mother running frantically and shrieking shamelessly to bag autographs. Fathers were stillparking their cars.

One has to say that these displaced Indians were sometimes not very sure of lesser known stars and so to beon the safe side they took autographs of any character who wore sun-glasses.

Considering the fact that it was seven in the morning, the fans' thinking was not flawed forit can be empirically proved that only those possessed by fame will wear accessories that do not match the biggercanvas. But that of course is a different story.

Some 200 km from Johannesburg is a cluster of resorts called Sun City, a place which St. Peter,at the gates itself, would definitely want to know whether you have been to. Your chances of entry into paradise maygreatly be hampered if you answer in the affirmative but then there is a growing opinion that hell onEarth is vastly better than the heaven beyond, as a consolation.

An impressive population of Indians had already invaded Sun City. All they wanted to do was wait by theporch of the main hotel and coo at the film stars who whizzed by.

The Hindi film industry may be called many names back here at home, but to displacedIndians it's their strongest link to their place of origin.

And so the desire on the part of Wizcraft, the event managers, to capitalise on the kind of hysteria that the Hindifilm industry generates. The first IIFA awards were held during the dawn-break ofyear 2000 in London's Millenium Dome. Sun City played host to the secondinstallment.

The impact of what's irreverently called Bollywood is so perceptible here in Sun City that Joe, a black driverasks on the way from the lion safari, "I hear Shah Rukh Khan hasn't come." He gives aspiel about how he is proud that his country is playing host to such an event,which is all very fine, but if you meet him when you are in Sun City, don't givehim 80 rands for the lion safari.

We were just ripped off but one consolation is that the man knows hisBollywood. He didn't have a choice. There was so much in the airaround Sun City last week-end.

Many spent hours by the hotel porch waiting for just a glimpse of the stars. The reliable news from theladies loo was that grown up women, whose unsuspecting daughters were waiting patiently with autographbooks at the porch, were dabbing lip-stick feverishly saying, "Hritik will be hereany minute."

And when Hrithik arrived at the porch for the first time, these women screamed so much that some securitypersonnel rushed thinking, as they always do, as if it was the end of the world.

All kinds of stars got complete unadulterated adulation from a highly desperate NRI population. Across thecasino bars and fancy shops, stars being chased for autographs became a regular sight. In fact, Priety Zinta wasseen on many occasions walking hurriedly away from the hunters saying, "Not now please."

The premierof Lagaan saw even Rakesh Roshan and his historical contemporaries being hounded forautographs.

The awards night was a grand finale of a truly Bollywood weekend at Sun City. The venue wasThe Superbowl and it was filled with Indians with a sprinkling of other races that the world is composed of.

The event could've been anywhere in India. Such was the sheer Indian presence.

Kabir Bedi and Priyanka Chopra carefully navigated the evening with the right mix ofEnglish and Hindi. To Priyanka's discomfort though, most of the audience kept looking at the teleprompter as she tried to speak.

But Kabir Bedi reminded one and all about some simple truths of an awards function."You're a part of an international production team." Once the audienceunderstood that, no body was confused when asked to applaud all of a sudden withoutany reason. It was all for television.

The awards function, which had some great entertainment capsules, also saw Urmila making a big entry with a ratherrestive lion cub that seemed to say, "Try holding me, woman, after a year".

Humans triumphed though (see, what you can do if you have a thumb), Urmila got rid of the cub as rehearsed,and went on to dance her dance. Hritik was the big draw, his every move getting howls of approval. He alsowon the best actor award for Kaho Naa Pyar Hai which bagged seven of the KelvinatorIIFA Awards. With these, the film has amassed 92 awards so far, a world record.

Karisma won the best actress for her lachrymose performance in Fiza. Theacademy also presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to Shammi Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman for their invaluable contribution to IndianCinema.

Among the other glitteringly famous types to walk down the carpet were the celebratedactors and actress of the 80's: Bo Derek, Suzanne Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Tabu, JackieShroff, Sushmita Sen, Lucky Ali, Priety Zinta, Javed Jaffery, Kumar Gaurav, Mr. & Mrs. J.P. Dutta, Mr. & Mrs. Rakesh Roshan, JaavedAkhtar and Shabana Azmi, Randhir Kapoor, Nitin Desai, Sunil Shetty, ShasmitaShetty, Sonali Kulkarni, Smitha Thackarey, Suman Raghnathan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra,Namrata Shirodkar, Arshad Wasti, Kim Sharma, Prem Chopra and a whole lot more whose names I seem to have forgotten..