’83’ gets a grand opening with Kapil’s Devils in attendance

IANS-

Sporting a ponytail, and looking very much the man of the occasion in his white tuxedo and black bowtie, Ranveer Singh greeted his ’83’ co-stars and the beaming members of the 1983 World Cup-winning cricket team — known in their time as Kapil’s Devils — as they walked the red carpet with their wives for the special screening of the year’s most-anticipated film in Mumbai on Wednesday night.

Deepika Padukone, Ranveer’s wife and the film’s co-producer who also plays Romi Dev, wife of the 1983 team’s skipper Kapil Dev, stunned the paparazzi with her pouty look, wavy hair, off-shoulder black gown and diamond necklace.

Giving her (and their son-in-law) company were her father, the badminton legend Prakash Padukone, mother Ujjala, and sister Anisha, who heads the Live Laugh Love Foundation, which Deepika set up to promote awareness about mental health issues.

Others seen on the red carpet were the film’s director Kabir Khan and his wife Mini Mathur, cricket icons Sunil Gavaskar (with wife Marshneil) and Kapil Dev (with the real-life Romi Dev), and their team-mates Dilip Vengsarkar, Krishnamachari Srikanth, Sandeep Patil (whose son and Marathi star Chirag, looking very much his mirror image, plays his father in ’83’). Madan Lal, Syed Kirmani, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Kirti Azad and Balwinder Singh Sandhu.

The film’s cast members in attendance included Pankaj Tripathi (team manager P.R. Mansingh), Harrdy Sandhu (Madan Lal), Sahil Khattar (Syed Kirmani), Saqib Saleem (Mohinder ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath; he was given full-on support by his star sister Huma Quraishi and their parents), Ammy Virk (Balwinder Sandhu), Jiiva (Krish Srikanth), Jatin Sarna (Yashpal Sharma), and Dhairya Karwa (Ravi Shastri).

Upping the celebrity quotient were Karan Johar, Ayushmann Khurana and wife Tahira Kashyap, Pooja Hegde, Vaani Kapoor, and the rarely-seen-at-Bollywood-dos ‘Family Man 2’ star, Priya Mani.