Artcle=Farhan & Zoya Akhtar bond over kbc

Zoya and Farhan Akhtar say this is the first time the two are playing on the same side.

To celebrate the many facets of love, Shah Rukh Khan has invited brother and sister - Farhan and Zoya Akhtar - to KBC for the Valentine's Day Special to be aired tomorrow night.

Zoya, who is currently working on her directorial debut film, says she looking forward to playing the game with her brother. "Farhan and I are a year apart so we have been very tight. What's interesting is that we are both into playing board games and stuff like that. And we are always on opposite sides. We are really competitive so this is actually the first time we are playing on the same team. So I'm quite excited about that because he is usually my biggest competitor so its fun to be on the same side."

Farhan seconds Zoya's excitement. He adds that normally when the family plays these games the atmosphere isn't this friendly. "Actually board games have always been a very major thing in my family. And there's always this intense rivalry in the family when we play these board games. There is no fun or leeway because we love each other. It's very cut throat and competitive. And that's always been a part of my growing up years" says the DON Director.

Although he was looking forward to the evening ahead, Farhan says he is also quite stressed and feels like as if he is back at school. "At first I was taking it real easy. I thought let's just go and have fun but after I spoke to Farah and Zoya – they've really been very involved and reading Trivial Pursuit very religiously and going on the web. So then I totally got into it too and I think if I hadn't done it I would have been much more relaxed. But now since I have decided that I want to feed myself with a lot more information it's been like an exam - like what if they ask me a question today that I knew the answer of this morning but can't remember right now then I'd be really disappointed."

Farhan and Zoya plan to donate their winnings from the evening to an organization that works with slum dwellers.

"There is an organization called Navarra Haq which concerns the slum dwellers in Bombay. It is involved in education, in empowering women, in setting up hospitals, in education of slum dwellers so that is the organization that Zoya and I have decided that we will credit our winnings to. So we will try our best and get them as much as we can because the slum dwellers in Bombay are a huge and integral part of this city. I think if they were to take even a day off, Bombay would come to a halt. So it's very very important that we can figure out what we can do for them," says Farhan.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007