Bollywood Glitterati, Fans Defy New York Rains for IIFA Green Carpet
Salman Khan, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt in New York, July 12, for the 18th edition of International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards, held on July 15. (Press Trust of India)
Intermittent showers greeted Bollywood stars in New York, as they took to the green carpet at the IIFA Rocks event but that did not dampen their spirits. Stars including Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt, Kriti Sanon, Shahid Kapoor made sure that the show went on even as some fans chose to leave the MetLife stadium due to the downpour. But there were thousands of fans who braved the bone chilling cold just to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars at the event.
Salman took to Twitter and shared, “It’s raining in #NewYork, loving the weather. If it does rain tomorrow it will be awesome dancing in the rain at #IIFA.”
While, an excited Shahid wrote, “#IIFA rocks. Rain can’t stop the party.”
Filmmaker Karan Johar, Saif Ali Khan, Varun Dhawan, Anupam Kher, Diljit Dosanjh, Kamal Khan and Riteish Deshmukh were also in attendance at the event which saw a special performance by music maestro A.R. Rahman.
The Oscar-winning musician collaborated with Diljit Dosanjh, Javed Ali, Jonita Gandhi, Benny Dayal, Neeti Mohan and Haricharan Seshadri for a music medley.
Due to the rains, some concert attendees were not able to make the most of the event.
“I am disappointed as we couldn’t enjoy the concert. We walked almost for an hour as we were not getting any cab. We had just bought tickets for $50 each for today’s show.
We are not sure if we should come tomorrow,” Shaheen Bhatt, who is the sister of Alia, told PTI.
Panila, who is resident of New York, was also disappointed as she had booked front row tickets but due to rains she had to move few rows behind.
“We had paid $50 for the tickets. We wanted to see the show, so we had booked front row tickets but the rains forced us to move behind. For tomorrow we have booked two tickets for $1,000,” she said.
The event was hosted by Riteish Deshmukh and Maniesh Paul.
Varun Dhawan makes Times Square dance to ‘Tamma Tamma’
Hundreds of foreign nationals and Indians were seen cheering for Bollywood celebrities at one of the busiest places ever, Times Square, New York where Shilpa Shetty, Huma Qureshi, Disha Patani walked the ramp and Varun Dhawan grooved on some of his top chartbuster songs.
Varun danced to “Tamma Tamma” remix version and “Badrinath Ki Dulhania” title track. The crowd enjoyed the performance and couldn’t resist shaking their legs on the dance numbers.
The 18th edition of the IIFA weekend and awards commenced, July 14, with a bell ring at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) by Sonakshi Sinha.
The center of the city was transformed into a buzzing blend of music, dance and fashion.
IIFA Stomp saw models and Bollywood actresses including Taapsee Pannu, Neha Dhupia and Dia Mirza walking the ramp as part of the fashion show presented by Myntra.
