Kapil Sharma, I am not a stalker!!!- Hira Mehta

Laughter is the best medicine-who ever said that. Some might say that laughter is a medicine to hide a hurt, some say it frees me from sadness, some say it is an exercise to keep happy. So let me think this through. I got it.. Laughter is Kapil Sharma and his team for me and my infection has not been cured yet..................... and hey, I don't want a cure. I want to be infected more.. so waiting now for The Kapil Sharma Show.....

but I am not a stalker.....just a genuine fan of the show because that's the only show that brings a smile to my face...I have tried watched other laughter shows (need I name) while Kapil Sharma has been off air, but they are so so dumb and silly ...that I might just die laughing (and by that I being sarcastic).....

I have not missed a single episode of Comedy Nights with Kapil show of course..........but then let me also count how many times have I got truly infected in person. In the audience for episodes starting with Farah Khan, Shekhar Suman/Adhyayen Suman, Shilpa Shetty & Raj Kundra/Harman Baweja, Sonakshi Sinha in the awesome deep orange outfil ( and hey,I asked a question too), Karishma Kapoor & Armaan Malik, Rekha, Ranbir Kapoor/Deepika for Tamasha........ Salman Khan (love the guy) /Nawazuddin Siddique (such a down to earth person)....I recall raising my hand to say I would be happy to call Salmaan Khan "bhaisaheb" to much laughter and ribbing by Kapil Sharma.....and why not cause I am not a giddy headed person who loves a particular star....anyone that entertains becomes my favourite......... and then what can I say about the awesome Shamitabh episode with Amitabh Bachchan/Dhanush/Akshara (Yes,I ran on stage to dance with Mr. Bachchan too). You may ask how I managed to be there so many times. Well, I'm not telling.... but where there is determination there is a way....... My only regret is not being able to be there for the ABCD2 episode to see my absolute favourite dancing stars (by the way ABCD is that one film that I have seen first day first show all alone in a theatre...and by all alone I really mean in all my growing up and present years and  yes I cried tears of joy at every dance performance (damn those 3D glasses) ..... 

Each time has been something more memorable than the other....and what's more surprising is that I never got that photo with Kapil Sharma too (except for the TV grab)....not once in all the times I went there..........So much energy on the sets....Kapil would come out and play drums sometimes...sing his favourite "mere mehboob kayamat hogi" (goosebumps) and talk to audience...and sometimes even give a dose in good jest to audience if they tried his patience .. My friends teased me that I was stalking him each time I landed there....... but no way, because watching Kapil and his team in person was like being a part of the Sharma family and besides there was so much more laughter to experience and so much more footage to see performed live on the sets than that which gets edited into a capsule for TV......  after all there is nothing more breathless than watching a live performance....

Let me share some moments I remember....The first episode that I was to attend was the Sonu Nigam one and there I was all excited and ready to leave when I get a message that its cancelled.....totally disappointed only to realise later that a fire had burnt down the set......but there I was at the first episode with Farah Khan and even got a photo with Dadi and Bua...... And then there was that episode when the pyros shot up in the air as Rekha entered onto the stage and break..some sound issues ...again the stage was cleared up and once again fanfare, entry and not again, I thought, again problem with her mike sound...flurry on sets...much discussion.... and I scream out to the production person "it's the lapel mike sound against the huge gold chocker around her neck"...back again fanfare and this time Rekha enters with a hand mike and the episode gets on way...but damn it took twelve hours to shoot as they recorded two back to back episodes with her....  Farah Khan episode was where I got to ask a question but it was edited out.....but I managed that in the Sonakshi Sinha episode where I got to debate with Kapil on the benefits of marriage....interesting and funny ....  and then how can I forget standing bang next to Ranbir Kapoor in the opening sequence of his episode where I dropped a coin in his hand...(want a grab of that but can't find the episode on youtube ...anyone???)....of course nothing can compare to a dream come true that remains with you for a lifetime....so what if I have seen Mr. Bachchan up front at my bank, shooting for the commercial as brand ambassador or getting a personalised autograph in his autobiographical  book  on my 50th birthday (thanks to my sister who designed his book "To be or Not to Be") .....though nothing can compare to grabbing the opportunity to be on stage to dance with the God himself.. and I did.. and that warm hug after the sequence ....just an icing on the cake ....

So what if it took hours before the actual shoot started hours later.....For me long hours on the set was not just pure fun observation time but most importantly when you are sitting there you realise and appreciate the amount of  hard work that goes behind each episode of just 50 minutes to reach our TV screens....... that itself was a big learning for a filmy keeda like me. 

And now team Kapil embarks on a new journey with The Kapil Sharma Show as I wait with bated breath to find a way to get there on the sets again to watch them perform .....waiting for them to give us the audience doses of laughter...Hats off Kapil Sharma for you are indeed my weekend dose of happiness ....

Mr. Bachchan and Me !!!

The name is enough to make anyone crazy. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan.  The one actor and the wonderful human being that everyone dreams of meeting once in their lifetime. Not many are as unlucky and as lucky as me.  Let me tell you my story that reads like an old English proverb “There's many a slip between the cup and the lip.. “

It is 1972 and its Raj Kamal Studios where Jaya Bachchan is shooting for Piya Ka Ghar and we school girls are there to watch the shooting.  Standing in a line to get an autograph…which by the way is not for me? So while the girls put down their autograph books and she signs away talking to someone about Mr. Bachchan having fever, I thrust my autograph book under her nose. She smiles, signs it and tells us all to go and harass the hero Anil Dhawan, which we do.  Come 1974, the film Majboor releases and a friend and me find ourselves in the audience at the premier. I still remember that day as I dressed up in my pink and purple floral sari all excited and wondering where Mr. Bachchan was seated…and then the film ends and lo behold walking down the aisle is the man himself and I scamper after him as he begins to walk out of the door  and as I close an inevitable blooper happens…the pleats of my sari come unfold and I drop to the ground….nahin..nahiiiiiiiiiiiiin.... it is too late. Mr. Bachchan has gone out of the door and I shed silent tears. Of course, the outcome of this horrifying moment is simple. I never wore a sari thereafter without pinning the pleats, ha ha ha! 

Many years later and I mean many many years later in 2000, sitting at my desk at my bank I realise suddenly that colleagues are running to the foyer and it turns out that Mr. Bachchan is in the building.  Everyone is down in the foyer gathered to have a dekho.  The security control room has sprung into action and I being a volunteer as always find myself lining up the employees who for once had forgotten the time and the regular locals that they took home.  Every time the executive lift came down there would be a loud roar to a disappointment and then it happened.  There was Mr. Bachchan with my Deputy Managing Director stepping out of the lift.  I remember till date the look on Mr. Bachchan’s face of pure shock when he saw before him a serpentine pathway of screaming employees. He drops his head down into his chin and as I walk along side, I muster courage and say “Mr. Bachchan, please look up, They’ve been waiting for hours to see you”. A slight look at me and he walks ahead to the loudest noise I have ever heard a crowd make.  Holding hands with the security staff we walk behind Mr. Bachchan protecting him from the surging crowd of employees and as he reaches the main door, my Deputy Managing Director turns to me as the chain we have formed is being pushed against. “Hira, what is this, what is happening?” she asks while I tell her “M’am, Mr. Bachchan is saying something to you”…but she is so aghast that she keeps chiding me to control the employees... “M’am, it is Mr. Bachchan, what did you expect?’ I say as she waves him goodbye and employees disperses.

Surprisingly when the advertisement for the bank is shot in the foyer, the employees (not me) seem to have had their full of him.  Of course I watched him shoot and enjoyed every moment of that day.  During those days, I took a promise from my superiors for a photograph for my Saturday Kids Club children and yes that did happen too. Thereafter many and events and many an opportunity to see Mr. Bachchan up close on stage but none close enough for a photograph with him. Then I go on the sets of Kaun Banega Crorepati thanks to my bank and once again it is so near and yet so far… again!!!

One fine day my sister informs me that she is designing the coffee table book of Mr, Bachchan ”To be or not to Be” but I’ll be damned if she is ever going to get me to meet him. Yes, that’s my over the top professional sister for you, who would rather be damned than letting this filmy crazy keeda anywhere close to Mr. Bachchan.  No amount of pleading, threatening to disown her or begging worked and soon I gave up but then a surprise was waiting for me.  On my next birthday one of the gifts that tumbled out was the paperback with an autographed page by Mr. Bachchan ….scream… aaaaaaaa.. scream… aaaaaaa…scream….a handwritten note in the inside cover of the book wishing ME happy birthday…..again there is Mr. Bachchan but not there at all…..

 As I mentioned before volunteering for events at the bank was a done thing for me and I was known for being there at every opportunity so it was not surprising that a colleague asked me to be present to assist his team for a high profile event at the bank.  Yes, there I was being asked to escort Mrs. Jaya Bachchan to the event area. Oh, I forgot to mention here that a week before this event Abhishek Bachchan was shooting for Dhoom outside our bank walls. Of course I had to meet him and did get to him and mention that I was the other sister.  So here I am waiting and I decide to take a trip of my uptight sister and I call her and say I am going to tell Mrs. Bachchan that I am your sister to her banshee screaming and threats to disown me for a change. As I walk with Mrs. Bachchan, she very sweetly asks my name and yes I said it …I told her..... Later at dinner, my colleague shovea me in front of Mr. Bachchan to say “Mr. Bachchan I must introduce you to this very hardworking colleague ..blah blah…..” and we see Mrs. Bachchan nudging her husband to say “that’s D……’s sister” .  I can never forget those mesmerising eyes looking at me…. So there it was again, so near and yet so far….

It is 2012 and  Amitabh Bachchan is guest of honour at the 12th edition of River to River Florence Indian Film Festival in Italy and I am there screaming my heart out once again rushing to him and shoving a diary under his nose for an autograph (naughty me had pasted the birthday note on the page too) .....…Got it ….at last a photo in the same frame with him…. I have done it Mr. Bachchan….I have done it…..It took me so many years to get that one photo even though it is not the best one......but wait there is more……am I blessed or what?

February 2015, on the sets of Comedy Nights with Kapil Sharma deciding to behave like a good little girl for once, I am quietly watching the shoot of the Shamitabh film promotion episode unfold before me, until one girl gets up asking to dance with Mr. Bachchan. Somewhere another girl jumps and runs up ….and then another…. and another and yes, yes, I am also jumping onto that stage too…Mr. Bachchan sings to mere angaane mein  and when the song ends hugs each one of us one by one....…oh my, oh my!!! I almost fainted with joy…..I got a hug from Mr. Bachchan…....Mr. Bachchan hugged meeeeeeeeee….. yeah I did it…it happened......Janam safal hogaya ….at last …..at last….