Several of Bollywood's leading stars couldn't cast their vote because they weren't even in town — most of them were busy shooting for their films outstation.
Months of buildup, weeks of exhortations, days of personal interactions and desperate last minute appeals. And then finally, it was time to take a reality check. So did Mumbai step out and vote or did it stay indoors and watch? Even here there’s a hung verdict.
Whatever the exact voting percentages, it was a bit of a dampener to find many of our celebrities missing from the polling booths. They had their reasons, of course.
Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif are holed up in Singapore shooting for their film De Dana Dhan while Salman Khan, after canvassing for multiple candidates and reminding us all about our duty to vote, is now in London shooting for his film Veer.
There's hazy information about Saif Ali Khan. He’s said to be in the United States. Even lady love Kareena Kapoor is not in town. Can we Saif-ly bet she's also there somewhere in the US? And while we're on the Chhote Nawab, it would be in order to mention that little sis Soha Ali Khan is also out of town on a shooting schedule in Goa. Ajay Devgan is also there.
But it isn't only films that have kept a substantial chunk of our filmstars away from the city on D-Day. Preity Zinta, who is with her cricket team in South Africa – apparently didn't manage to catch a flight back to Mumbai in time. Ditto for Shilpa Shetty, who's also tending her team in South Africa.
But then there were others like Shah Rukh and Aamir Khan who made it a point o fly back despite being overseas in time to cast their vote. "As a citizen, I felt that I was needed here at this point of time, and here I am. It is a non-issue about how far I was from the country and what efforts I took to come here. I wanted to be here today and that’s all that counts," said Aamir who took a 16-hour long flight to reach Mumbai (see right for detailed interview).
But that’s not to say that there wasn’t a definite upswing in the voter profile. “In previous years, the only people who used to turn up to vote were from the neighbouring slums, mostly voters who were paid to vote, besides a trickle from the high rises. This year, I am pleasantly surprised and re-assured after seeing the profile of voters who turned out despite the merciless mercury levels – there were lots of first-time voters around me when I went to vote, including my youngest daughter Anandita,” said Shobhaa De.
Agrees Rahul Bose, “I’ll be surprised if we don’t surpass last year's voting figures this time. It's been a concerted effort by NGOs, celebrities and the media to sensitize voters and urge them to vote. The turnout in the rest of the city is also definitely much better than compared to last time.”
For now, at least, that's all that counts.
Voter’s list
The Bachchans
Shobhaa De
Shah Rukh Khan
Sonam Kapoor
Sushma Reddy
Rahul Bose
Amrita Rao
Sonali Bendre
(With inputs from Soumyadipta Banerjee and Prithwish Ganguly)
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