London charity dinner raises Rs1.15 cr

A gala charity event on Thursday — the first anniversary of the 26/11 attack on the city that saw terrorists from Pakistan walking the streets of Mumbai, shooting indiscriminately, was hosted by Prince Michael of Kent at the Royal Kensington Palace in London.

Several celebrities from Bollywood, Hollywood, the British royalty and top-bracket socialites participated in the charity dinner. There was also an auction, which raised Rs1.15 crore. The entire amount will reportedly be donated to help the families of the victims of the attack that left 165 people dead and more than 300 injured.

A press statement said that the London-based DVK Foundation organised the event that saw Lara Dutta, Konkona Sen Sharma, Boman Irani, Shekhar Kapur, Arshad Warsi and Kabir and Pooja Bedi, who were the emcees for the night, unleash heavy duty Bollywood glamour.

The auction saw Boman Irani conduct the proceedings. A weekend on the plush Rueben family 35-metre yacht went for £11,000 to Newton Faulkner, a British acoustic musician. A ticket to watch the premier of James Cameroon’s forthcoming film, Avatar’s London, with veteran American actress Sigourney Weaver, fetched £10,000.

Another talking point of the night was the speech by Rabbi Bentzi Sudak. He spoke on the loss of Jewish lives at the Nariman House. Prince Michael spoke on how the people should fight terror.

Deepak Kuntawala, founder of the DVK Foundation, recounted how he had escaped alive from the Taj Hotel. A minute’s silence was observed at the event to pay tribute to the people who lost their lives in the tragedy.