What's cooking? - Dharam paaji's tête-à-tête with Zee's Subhash Chandra

And if Chandra, in traditional India silk dhoti-kurta soaked in the appreciation, there is no denying the fact that Shah Rukh Khan is not called King Khan for nothing. He ruled the hearts of people, irrespective of the sex, ranging between six and 60 years. Hrithik and Salman almost paled in comparison as Shah Rukh danced, sang, handed out gifts, courtesy some of the sponsors (notably Samsung) and himself took home a fairly big booty of an award and a complimentary bank account in the city-based ME Bank whose owners deposited 50,000 dirhams in the account.

Shaking a leg with God himself! - Natasha Puri with Shah Rukh Khan

No wonder a pleased-as-a-punch Khan quipped that he would love to give the money away to a charity, but since people are so rich in Dubai, he might as well take the money to India and find a suitable charitable cause for it. Clap, clap.

“Whatever Shah Rukh does, he does so with an élan that is so adorable,” gushed Natasha Puri, the local girl who got a chance to shake a leg with Shah Rukh to the tunes of the song from Chalte Chalte where King Khan is trying to woo Rani Mukherjee.

And if you thought that the Dubai girl, Puri, who is planning to go to Canada to study TV broadcasting, was shy, then think again. Just stopping short of acceding to Shah Rukh’s requests for, may be, wearing, a mini, Natasha gamely even agreed to change her dress so colours did not clash.

In between Khan saheb had some fun with a belly dancer.

Was Natasha a bit nervous as Shah Rukh’s gaze fell on her from amongst the thousands of girls in the audience who wanted to dance with him? “A bit to start off with,” Natasha told indiantelevision.com later, adding, that every step that she took on the stage with Khan gave her more confidence.

Pointing out that she only came to watch Shah Rukh, Natasha seems to live, eat and breathe Bollywood and, in particular, Shah Rukh. According to her mother, Natasha’s room is full of pictures of stars from Bollywood.

When asked, if she’s going to do higher studies in TV broadcasting, whether she is aware of TV stars and watches TV serials too, Natasha was frank enough to admit that she is not much a fan of Indian TV serials.

Natasha was not the only girl to dance with Shah Rukh, there were two others, including an aspiring fashion designer, whom Khan has promised that he’d wear her creations when she starts.

However, France-based Ghulam Ali and family, comprising wife and daughter, felt that Aishwarya Rai’s absence was sorely felt. “They got everybody for this grand show, people like Amitabh, Rekha, Shah Rukh, Dharamendra and Preity, but we definitely missed Ash. Our days would have made, if she had also come for this show,” he said. Ali’s family is on a holiday trip to Dubai and was lucky enough to corner tickets for the show, which were being sold at a premium.

Ikram Ali, a businessman from Karachi, who had flown in especially for this show, felt that the show was a bit tad long - if only Zee had the powers to edit on-stage performances like it is done when being packaged for television - and there should have been more performances by several other stars.

Vinay, a civil engineer with a Dubai-based company, was of the opinion that the show was certainly one of the better ones in recent times and well organized. “In recent times, I have seen several such shows, including the Jalwa show, but this has been very well organized,” he quipped.

Similar sentiments were echoed by a bunch of school kids – all in class XI and more trendily dressed than, probably, New York colts. According to Venky, the money spent on the tickets was worth it.

(Pictures by Sanjay Sharma/Indiapix Networks Copyright 2004)