IPL begins with a gala start amidst glamour and glitter.
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Amidst all adrenaline rush and much anticipated glam roll, IPL finally kicked off on a feisty note on 2nd April, 2013. With the ceremonial lamp lighting ceremony by none other than the revered Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, the show began with some frenzied and glamorous performances.
Amogst the crowd, the who's who of cricket fraternity was also seen. This includedRajeev Shukla, the chairman of IPL, N Srinivasan, BCCI President, Arun Jaitley, the vice-president and many others.
The show opened with KKR's owner, Shahrukh Khan's voice in the background booming, 'Where the mind is without fear'. Shahrukh's rendition to a famous Rabindra Sangeet poetry lent an ethereal feeling into the atmosphere, as the dance performances came alive with the regional song.
With a background of heavy cascade of shimmering silver curtains, the performance, which followed soon after witnessed some jazzed up acrobatics by a well trained troupe, consisting primarily of Chinese percussionists, flying drummers and a balloon performer, dropping the iconic trophy into the KKR captain's hand.
The auditorium soon reverberated with the booming voice of Ravi Shastri's 'Welcome boys and girls' captivating and sending the frantic audience into an uproar.
Starting with the Indian Cricket team captain, M S Dhoni, the team captains, signed the 'ICC fair play pledge', to mark the onset of the almost 2 months long festive cricketing premier league.
After the acrobatics, sky dropping performances, and some fair play petitions, it was time for what all waited for. It was time to witness a grand entry of our beloved Bollywood stars.
Dressed in a shimmering golden gown, carried on a chariot, looking no less than some Egyptian princess, Katrina's beauty looked replete with glamour, and exquisite elegance. Dancing on her songs, Sheila aka Katrina rocked as the svelte and suave girl, throbbing every heart in the auditorium.
Soon after, it was Deepika's turn to re-ignite the stage with her power packed and energy spiked performances. She grooved to music tracks like 'Tumhi ho bandhu, sakha tumhi'.
Shahrukh, after a long wait, made a grand entry with 'Main hoon Don' and also jigged to 'Kuch kuch hota hai' with some children. Lending his voice to his famous dialogue 'picture abhi baaki hai mere dost' he swigged to some more raunchy numbers like 'Chammak challo' etc.
Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri were also rearing to go as they did Kolkata ceremony proud by singing songs from their famous compositions.
However, what made the show reach its zenith was the star performance by the famous rapper, Pit Bull, who set the stage on fire with his great performances.
The IPL inaugural ceremony, which was also reported live on TV, on Sony Six, on 2nd April, started with some casual chit chat by Gaurav Kapoor and the captains of Kolkata Knight Rider and Chennai Super Kings, in the crowded auditorium of Salt Lake stadium.
While Gaurav reported the auditorium happenings, Kapil Dev and Sidhu chatted away with Samir Kochhar about the razzmatazz, back stage, in their extra innings segment. They were accompanied by the glitzy, Karishma Kotak , apparently the newbie anchor ofIPL extra innings T20, who will be reporting the nuances of the matches, shoulder to shoulder with the cricket stalwarts. She is making her debut with the 6th season of IPL. Let's see what this lasso has to add, as a substitute to the noodle strapped 'Mandira Bedi'?
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