Ash has airs, Julia doesn't!

One of the highest paid actresses in the world, Julia Roberts moves about the hotel she's staying in with minimal security, but when our celebs

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan arrives at the event More Pics

came there for an event, their tantrums and security entourage took centrestage. Julia quietly went to the spa. A first person account...

Quite a big part of Bollywood, and consequently, a BIG congregation of bodyguards were in Delhi recently, to attend the India Youth Icon awards ceremony. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was here, so were Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone among others. Going by a ratio of eight bodyguards (yes, we counted) per celeb, that made it 24 of them already. No wonder the event appeared to be crowded!

And then, there were Dia Mirza, Irrfan Khan, Rahul Bose, Shabana Azmi, Sayali Bhagat, R Madhavan... phew! And amidst dashing after one star after the other, and being pushed around, we came face-to-face with Julia Roberts! And what a change it was! While several from the hotel's security staff (adding to the celebs' own entourage) escorted our Indian celebs, Julia was casually moving about the hotel sans any security. "She had breakfast in the restaurant, was spotted in the lobby with her kids and spent some time in the spa too," a source told us.

On Thursday, Julia had arrived 20 minutes before she was expected to, without any fanfare and she didn't use the lobby. There weren't many people waiting for her either – just a handful to ensure that she got to her suite comfortably. And before Aishwarya was slated to arrive, members of the hotel staff were waiting for her with posies and a thali complete with a lit diya to welcome her. And while the wait got longer (Ash's flight was late), somebody joked, "Arrey, yeh diya toh bujh jayega Ash ke intezaar mein." And that was met with a witty rejoinder, "Nahin, yeh Devdas wala diya hai, especially Paro ke liye aaya hai... nahi bujhega."

When Ash arrived, she didn't admire the diya – she didn't get to see it at all, for, she was quickly whisked away to the second floor. And while all this was happening, Julia returned from the spa to her residential suite on the fourth floor of the Leela Kempinski Hotel – quite by herself. We caught her coming out of the lift with her daughter. Looking casual in a pair of denims and a mauve tee, Julia returned our greeting and smiled, before walking away to her suite. No wonder the hotel staff thinks she's "pleasant and warm"! We went snooping again, but Julia's floor looked normal. A hotel staffer informed us "there's a special butler who cooks for Julia. He's from India, and not somebody who has travelled with her." But on Ash's floor, the vibes were intimidating. The security personnel asked us to "just leave". "There are no celeb tantrums with Julia. She goes down for breakfast with her family. She's a genuine star, the kind rare to find," gushed another hotel source, explaining just how impressed they were with Julia's non-celeb, simple ways.

Yet another source told us, "Julia is Indian at heart when it comes to raising her children. She's in the hotel just for her kids and she spends each minute with them. She's either feeding them or taking them for walks, she's involved with them. I've not seen a lot of stars doing that. Their children are generally the nanny's responsibility – but in Julia's case, even though her kids have nannies, when she's around, she does everything herself, just like we all do."