Glitz and glam at Mallika Reddy's sangeet

The mood for the sangeet function of Mallika and Siddharth Reddy's wedding was set miles before you actually reached Hyderabad's Shamshabad Airport Arena, the venue. The usually deserted roads leading to the venue were abuzz, with Bentleys, Phantoms, BMWs and Ferraris whizzing passed by the dozens.

Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla worked magic at the venue, which was converted into a fairy tale set with giant floral arrangements, shimmering crystal hangings and a larger-than-life stage on which all the action would take place. The bride's father Sanjay Reddy, was present at the entrance to welcome the guests. The Bachchans – Amitabh, Jaya, Aishwarya and Abhishek, the Ambanis, Vijay Mallya, Shashi Tharoor-Sunanda, Rakesh Roshan, Jitender made an early entry.

Bollywood Tadka
The Bollywood act of the evening kickstarted with Karan Johar taking the stage as the host. "This is not just another sangeet, it's something you have never seen before and will never see again," KJo said, before announcing the first competition – a dance war between the girl's side and the boy's side. Teams were divided according to age groups, with names like the "bachcha party", "masti ladies", "masti boys", "evergreens" etc. The judges were Rani Mukerji, Ram Charan Tej and Sandeep Khosla. The dance rounds, choreographed by Remo of "Robot" fame, were entertaining – particularly those that featured the young couple's parents – Pinky-Sanjay and Shyam-Sundari. Shriya Saran shimmied with members of the girl's side in one of the rounds. The event ended in a tie, with Mallika, looking lovely in a red-gold lehenga, and Siddharth, in a black jodhpuri suit dancing to "Mere Khayalon ki Mallika".

Naach-gaana
Vivek Oberoi came on stage and entertained the guests with his jokes on marriage. The first act in round two was by Anushka Sharma and Ranveer, who were introduced as "the young dashing couple" – so much for the duo constantly denying their relationship status! They danced to their hit "Band Baaja Baarat" numbers.

The real stunner was Mallika Sherwat, who shimmied to all her numbers and ended her act with a sizzling new version of "Sheila Ki Jawani". In the mood for some leg-pulling, Vivek asked Shashi Tahroor what his thoughts were on Mallika. He said, "I was only looking at my wife." While Vivek rubbished that as a politician's trademark answer, Sunanda vouched for Shashi. The party was on till 5am with a gig by Jay Sean and international DJs.

Shah Rukh Khan was in his element at the Reddy sangeet held in Hyderabad on Friday, which had the whole of B-town in attendance.

The King Khan, who was roped in as a replacement for Jennifer Lopez, who couldn't make it to India, said on stage, "I'd like to tell you all that I am a replacement for JLo... I wasn't the original choice for this evening. I have a bad knee, but when Pinky told me I have to come, and I have to dance at the sangeet, I just couldn't say no, they're such dear friends. Mallika, the bride, is like my little daughter." He then turned his back to the audience, shaked his booty a little bit, and said, "Every time I do something like this, it's just to remind you that I am here instead of JLo..."

Just before having the 2,000-strong gathering in splits with this comment, SRK made a grand entry at the venue —designed and decked up by Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla —dancing to a very dramatic mix of "Don 2" title track "Main Hu Don". After the brief performance, he stopped to apologise to Amitabh Bachchan, seated in the front row, for performing this number in front of the original Don! "I was told to do an original item of mine, and I chose Don... ab mujhe kya pata tha Mr Bachchan himself will be sitting right here. Mr Bachchan, I apologise for having performed this in front of you."

Claiming that he is a "bad dancer, who made a career out of bad dancing for more than a decade now, SRK said he had another original item up his sleeve for the evening. Calling it a number "by the Reddys, for the Reddys, from Ready," he pulled out his sun-glasses from behind his collar, a la Salman Khan, and did an SRK version of "Dhinka Chika". Taking pangas with two of his favourite rivals, SRK clearly won round one, and went on to host the rest of the evening in classic Badshaah of Bollywood fashion. Despite a torn ligament and a bad knee, SRK also did his famous chair roll, much to the delight of fans present.