Rachana Dubey & Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 25, 2014)

While some B-town stars were away in the US for an award function or stuck at a shoot, others made a special effort to make their vote count.


AAMIR KHAN AND KIRAN RAO
He was reportedly in Istanbul with wife Kiran but the couple flew down to Mumbai a day earlier and were at a Bandra booth by 8 am.



PREITY ZINTA
The actress who was in Abu Dhabi, took a day off from her IPL schedule to air-dash to Mumbai and cast her vote at St. Ann’s School in Bandra. She is expected to fly back to root for her team in a few days. 


JUHI CHAWLA
Another franchise owner, Juhi Chawla also flew down from Abu Dhabi to cast her vote in a general election for the first time. After doing her duty, she’ll be back to cheer for her team.


DIA MIRZA
The actress-producer delayed her trip to the US for the awards by a day so that she could vote.


VIDYA BALAN
The Padma Shri awardee who is supposed to host a workshop in Florida also delayed her trip for the ballot. She was one of the first voters to show up at a polling booth in Chembur.


FARHAN AKHTAR
The actor-director who is hosting and performing at the awards show, cast his vote before heading to Florida.


KIRRON KHER
The actress-turned-politician who is contesting the election from Chandigarh, drove straight to the polling booth from the airport. She was accompanied by son Sikander. However, husband Anupam Kher is in Florida where his short film I Went Shopping for Robert De Niro is being premiered. “I don’t blame the ones at Florida as the award date was confirmed well before the election dates were announced so they were contractually bound,” she reasoned.


SONAM KAPOOR
Delhi had to wait for the politically-aware fashionista for 24 hours.


JAYA BACHCHAN
The actor-politician who has been extensively campaigning in UP flew down to cast her vote with husband Amitabh Bachchan, son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai.


RANVEER SINGH
The actor shot at Film City for an upcoming film till 2 am on Wednesday. Once he was home, he stayed up watching a movie and was one of the first voters to turn up at Bandra’s polling booth at 7 am. Only then did he catch up on his sleep.


RAHUL BOSE
He was at a SoBo election booth at 7 am, third in queue, and was inked by 7.15 am. He left for Kolkata for a film shoot later in the day.


ESHA DEOL AND BHARAT TAKHTANI
The couple was busy campaigning for Esha’s mother Hema Malini in Mathura but flew back to vote. Esha’s sister, Ahana who recently married Delhi-based businessman Vaibhav Vora, did not turn up.


TARUN MANSUKHANI
The Dostana director pushed forward his Manali holiday so that he could vote.  

MISSING IN ACTION!  

SHOOTING STARS
Anushka Sharma is filming NH10 in Jodhpur and Salman Khan is shooting for Kick in Poland.

HELLO UNCLE SAM!
Shabana Azmi and Rajya Sabha MP Javed Akhtar were in the US for a fashion show for Mijwan. Anil Kapoor, who campaigned for Kirron Kher, is away in the US for work. Deepika Padukone and Sonakshi Sinha who urged youngsters to vote, left Mumbai a day before the polls. Ditto Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan. Vivek Oberoi whose mother-in-law Nandini Alva is a contestant herself, gave the voting machine a miss. Priyanka Chopra too was among those who stuck to Tampa.

NOT ELIGIBLE, NOT ALLOWED
Alia Bhatt holds a British passport, Katrina Kaif is in India on work visa, Nargis Fakhri has spent her formative years in different parts of the world. Imran Khan is an American citizen and Jacqueline Fernandez is from Sri Lanka. Tiger Shroff was sent back from two poll booths because his name didn’t feature on the voter list.

ON LEAVE
Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra, Rani Mukerji and Uday Chopra were in Italy for Aditya and Rani’s wedding, along with their families.
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Gaurav Dubey & Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; April 25, 2014)

Even as the city went to polls yesterday, Bollywood’s turnout at the polling booth was a mixed bag. While some made it a point to exercise their right in the world’s largest democracy and even posted selfies in keeping with the latest fad, some others appeared upset over their names missing from the voters’ list. And then there were some who pleaded others to vote but didn’t turn up on D-day. hitlist gives you the lowdown…

A close look at celeb voters, their selfies, the dilemmas of stars whose names were missing from the electoral rolls and the indifference of those who decided to not vote

Even the city went to polls yesterday, Bollywood’s turnout at the polling booth was a mixed bag. While some made it a point to exercise their right in the world’s largest democracy and even posted selfies in keeping with the latest fad, some others appeared upset over their names missing from the voters’ list. And then there were some who pleaded others to vote but didn’t turn up on D-day. We give you the lowdown…


Vivek Oberoi
Vivek Oberoi recently reached out to his fans on a social networking site, where he appealed to them to cast their votes. In fact, he also showed his support to Bhartiya Janta Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi; never mind that he then went on to campaign for his mother-in-law, Nadini Alva – who represents Janata Dal Secular — in Bangalore. What’s more, he chose to attend an awards gala in US; thus skipping his date with the voting booth.



Anushka Sharma
Anushka Sharma urged her followers on Twitter to go and vote. However, she also admitted that she wasn’t doing so due to her shooting schedule. Her tweet read: “I urge everyone to cast your vote today. Every vote counts and matters! Take the responsibility towards a better tomorrow. I am shooting in Rajasthan so wouldn’t be able to vote. But everyone who can, please do. And post pictures typing -#ivotedyo. It’ll be fun, come on.”

A posse of stars such as Sonakshi Sinha, Hrithik Roshan, Anil Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone and Madhuri Dixit, among many others, have flown to the US to take part in the IFFA awards that are taking place this weekend.

Those who missed out