Deepika's the fave sparkler this Diwali
TNN | Oct 23, 2013, 12.00 AM ISTRELATED
As the city gears up for the festive celebrations, cracker boxes packaged with attractive pictures of Bolywood actresses are getting the required eyeballs. While Deepika Padukone is the flavour with almost every stall having boxes packaged with the actress' pictures, others like Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor too find themselves on the covers of the boxes.
With Diwali round the corner, many streets have started to line up with stalls selling all sorts of fire crackers and Diwali novelties. While the Dilli Darwaja and Raipur Darwaja lanes are dotted with beautiful Diwali lights and are swarming with shoppers, the other side of the city sees people lining up in makeshift shamianas at the Samartheshwar Ground as well as the ones near Mansi Char Rasta, Subhash Chowk and Ambavadi market amongst the others.
Pravinbhai, a fire cracker shop owner in Khamasa says, "There is no limit to spending, you can get novelty items like exquisite rockets that burst out in colourful flames and go on for up to 10 minutes also. These cost around '10,000-'15,000 and are generally bought by marriage parties apart from Diwali fans."
"Salman Khan has always been popular in Ahmedabad. Other stars come and go according to whichever movie has done well. Stars like Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan are also popular choices for cracker boxes," says Pravinbhai.
The price factor has never deterred Amdavadis from having fun and neither will it this year. Though the stars on the boxes have no role to play in the price factor, this year the average price of crackers starts at '45-'50 for a box of small kothis and chakris and goes up to '500-'600 for fancy crackers and bombs.
Hollywood cracks a punch too This is a surprise package. In Ahmedabad this year, cracker boxes are bursting with Hollywood movie stills and actors. So while your taramandal boxes will have pictures of Selena Gomez, watch out for Bruce Lee and Bruce Willis on 555 bombs. Zac Efron and Hillary Duff show up on fancy kothi and rocket boxes.
Bollywood sparklers Katrina Kaif Priyanka Chopra Kareena Kapoor Khan Shilpa Shetty Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Amrita Rao Juhi Chawla
Crackle of a mix Sachin Tendulkar Coby Bryant Nicolas Cage Vin Diesel
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