Amitabh At Shabana Azmi’s B’day Party: The Inside Story

You must all have seen pictures of Shabana Azmi’s 60^th birthday celebrations, the hype around Amitabh-Rekha’s appearance at the same venue, etc., by now. But it’s time for the inside story. Koimoi.com brings you the scoop on what went on inside the party that lasted all night: the pranks, the jokes, and the jibes. Read on!

Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar are Bollywood’s ‘intellectual couple’; one being an actress par excellence and the other a prominent scriptwriter, poet and lyricist. But very few know that ‘Jadoo’ (as Shabana calls Javed fondly) has the best sense of humour in the industry. Since Shabana works closely for the upliftment of slums, her cake was just that! Javed Akhtar had Shabana’s birthday cake designed as a slum: complete with huts, gutters and the muck. He even called it ‘Shabana Nagar, Galli No. 60’! Yes, because his wife Shabana was turning 60 years old.

The theme for the party was innovative headgear, so Amitabh Bachchan came with a Manali topi but the rest of the Bachchan family wasn’t that much of a sport. Abhishek, Aishwarya and Jaya Bachchan gave the headgear a miss. The junior Bachchan was on cloud nine with congratulations for his Paa and Delhi 6 National Awards pouring in.

With the Manali topi and all, Amitabh Bachchan was in a very good mood. In fact, as our insider pointed out, the superstar has in an excessively jovial mood. Hmm, we’re thinking that his recent National Award win must be the secret. The veteran actor chatted away with old friends Shatrughan Sinha and Vinod Khanna. When Perizaad Zorabian hugged Amitabh, Shatru quipped, “Now my work is done, I should leave.” Touché ‘Shotgun’! Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh were at loggerheads a few years ago when the Sinha had jibed at the Bachchan family’s absence at an award function.

Amitabh had everyone’s attention at the party; while Tabu gave him a bear hug, actor-producer Anil Kapoor touched his feet! The reel-host of KBC meets the real-host of KBC!

Sonu Niigaam may be nasty to the media otherwise, but the singer was the life of the party. He had turned up in all-white and his hair even looked good (for a change). Taking over from the DJ, Sonu doled out songs for the gathering through the night and was joined by singer Alka Yagnik and music composer Lalit Pandit.

Some people took the headgear theme too literally. Shankar Mahadevan made an appearance in a Rastafarian wig! Vidya Balan was seen sporting a strange contraption. Maybe you can tell us what it is! Starlets Dia Mirza, Amrita Rao, Rhea Kapoor, and oldtimers like Sandhya Mridul and Urmila Matondkar were also spotted at the party.

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