Aishwarya Rai Bachchan may or may not have made Ratnam’s day, but she sure made Rajinder’s.
The balding man wheeled his MAK ice-cream van into Elias Road on Tuesday afternoon and parked it close to the closed blue gates of Saheb Kuthi where the Bachchan bahu began her Calcutta leg of the Raavan shoot for Mani Ratnam’s latest.
“I heard about Aishwarya shooting here and knew there would be a crowd outside. And everyone likes an ice cream,” smiled Rajinder, who had sold ice lollies worth Rs 60 within an hour of setting up shop.
The Ash effect turned sleepy Elias Road in Agarpara into a bustling food-and-footfall street on Tuesday. Some children in school uniform waited patiently for their “favourite heroine” to emerge from the bungalow by the Hooghly. A group of adventurous youngsters clambered up walls and trees to catch a glimpse of the “biggest star to visit Agarpara”. Peeping Toms — daughters and mothers, middle-aged men and little boys — were thwarted by a pink sheet blocking the slits in the blue gate.
Where the fans would love to be: the first-floor window of Saheb Kuthi. (Aranya Sen)
What if the gates had parted? The fans could have spied their favourite as Sita 2009 — first in jeans and a green top in the living room, and then in a ghagra on the first floor. If the morning saw the star on a treadmill, the afternoon glimpsed her in a dance sequence in a naachghar complete with the sitar, tabla and other musical instruments.
The stars on this side of the great divide were Rajinder the ice-cream man, Gurfan the grapeseller and Surinder the phuchkawallah.
For it was left to these three vendors to lift the spirits of the foiled fans — from nine-year-old Koushik who cried “I’ve seen her on TV, now I want to see her for real” to homemaker Sumitra Biswas who made it clear she was there for “Aishwarya, not Abhishek”.
Those who stuck it out till the end of the day had something to cheer about — at 6pm, as Ash breezed out in an Innova, hair tied back, she smiled and she waved.
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