Some Bollywood sahara for Roy

After Subrato Roy's dramatic public appeals and emotional outburts, it was the turn of his good friend Sapna Mukherji to try and generate a sympathy tsunami for the arrested businessman. The singer, who is known to be close to the Sahara chief for many years now, gathered a motely bunch of Bollywood personalities on Sunday to talk about how he was a "true Indian" and why it was absurd to accuse him of fraud.

Among those present for the ill-advised initiative in support of Roy were comedian Johny Lever, actor Fardeen Khan and singers Rahul Vaidya and Sadhna Sargam. The fiasco saw a long winded speech from Ramesh Sippy, who went on and on about Roy's patriotism and philanthropy. Fardeen Khan seemed to be reprising a role when he demanded that Roy be given a chance to defend himself, while Rahul Vaidya marvelled about the many Bharat Mata statues built by the Sahara group. But when the speakers were bombarded with questions about the Rs 24,000 crore fraud being investigated under the directions of the Supreme Court, the invitees beat a hasty retreat even before the star guests for the evening - Hema Malini and Jeetendra - could arrive. Reminds us of the adage about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.