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Will Smith's been having quite a blast in India. On Wednesday, he partied with Fardeen Khan and Abhishek Bachchan. On Thursday, without bothering with a change of clothes, he memorably launched Sony's new English movie channel, Pix. On Thursday night, his hosts were Salman and Shah Rukh Khan. And on Friday, after meeting the 6 remaining Indian Idol 2 finalists, he did a Tom Cruise! Read on, and discover just what the Grammy-winning rapper had to tell the Idol hopefuls. Photographs: Jewella C Miranda | Design: Reuben NV | Text: Raja Sen < Next > |
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Left to right, the 6 starstruck Idols surrounding Will and show host Mini Mathur (in the blue and red sari) are as follows: Anuj Sharma, Antara Mitra, Amey Date, Sandeep Acharya, NC Karunya and Meenal Jain. Will's television experience dates back to his breakthrough sitcom, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, a show that made him a household name when he was nearing bankruptcy as a fading rap artist. With his co-star from the same show, Alfonso Ribeiro (who played his diminutive nemesis, Carlton Banks) hanging unassumingly around the stage, Will talked fondly of The Fresh Prince, but ruled out any possibility of revisiting the characters for a possible big-screen remake, a la The Dukes Of Hazzard. "A television show is about the moment, and for that moment, we captured lightning in a bottle. I don't think we could do it again if we tried." |
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He was welcomed to stage with a traditional aarti, performed by a rather nervous Antara, who stiffened visibly when Will leaned forward right after to air-kiss her hello. After performing the muah-muah routine on her and Meenal, he shocked the orange-haired (and similarly jacketed) Karunya by leaning forward in the same way, only to pull back and laugh uproariously. The Idols, in the contest to be judged on their verve and confidence, couldn't muster up the nerve to say a single word beyond 'Hi' to Will, leaving it to Mini to do the talking. |
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Asked about the first three things he would do if he were made President of the United States (the perils of opening the floor to all the press), Will laughed. "That's a peculiar question. I'm just glad I'm not [the President] and don't need to think about stuff like that." A subject the Man In Black is far more concerned about is the present he got from Salman Khan on Thursday night. "Salman gave me a present last night that is so special, it almost made me cry. It's just such a sweeping gesture." Tantalisingly, he stopped short of revealing what it was. "Ask him. You really should. He's the person to explain what it is." Rubbing shoulders with Bollywood bachchas one night (Fardeen and Abhishek) and superstar royalty the next (SRK, Salman), Will grins and says, "Well, you can see I'm really being taken care of." |
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And then there was the advice, which led to the couch-jumping, made visibly famous in our first slide. Telling the contestants how to deal with butterflies in their stomachs, Will said, "It's hard going on stage, and I used to have a weird feeling in my gut too. Sometimes, I still do. And when I really want to make sure I'm ready for stage, I go to a really crowded place, like a mall or something, I just climb up onto something (jumps onto the sofa) and do this!" He screams his guts out, wildly, his lunatic expressions all over the place. After Mini composed herself, Will got off the couch to raucous applause, encouraging the lad right next to him, Sandeep, to do the same. "Go ahead, man, go for it! Your turn now!" And this is where the Idol hopeful blew it. If Will Smith tells you to leap onto a sofa and yell your head off on television, you do it. Sandeep hesitantly got to his feet, perched atop the couch as if made to stand to attention, and then, instead of just shouting, he fumbled around for a microphone. Even as Will kept egging him on, Sandeep managed a lame 'Woo' sound, then stood there grinning haplessly. If this be our Idol, we might as well pray for Simon Cowell. |
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