Asira Tarannum (MID-DAY; November 3, 2014)

Two days, two stars, two big bashes. The weekend gone by was, undoubtedly, an eventful one for B-Town as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan bringing in their birthdays in a style befitting their respective persona. Aishwarya, who stepped into the 41st spring of her life, chose to spend the day with her family and friends, both from within the industry and outside of it.

Sources said her three-year-old daughter, Aaradhya had made a hand-written card for mommy dearest while hubby Abhishek Bachchan had bought her a fancy gift from Dubai where he along with the Happy New Year star cast attended their film premiere.

Karan Johar and Manish Malhotra were among the close friends present at Aishwarya’s bash which went on till the wee hours of Sunday. In the evening, she stepped out in a black suit to celebrate her big day with mediapersons.

If the industry grapevine is to be believed, filmmaker Sanjay Gupta presented her with the trailer of Jazbaa, billed as Aishwarya’s comeback film. On getting a hand-made greeting card from Aaradhya, Ash said, “Last year it was all about her singing which happened this year too and with a lot of clarity. She also knows that her birthday is coming (November 16).”

Her birthday coincided with the success party of Happy New Year and built up to Shah Rukh Khan’s 49th birthday. Sources said that it was Gauri Khan’s idea to host the success bash and birthday party for SRK together. “The party started around 10pm and went on till 6am. His house was buzzing with revelry,” said a source.

The guest list at SRK’s bash included the Bachchans — Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya, Karan Johar, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah, Farah Khan, Boman Irani, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Varun Dhawan, Malaika Arora Khan and Shilpa Shetty amongst others. Sood and Bachchan Jr are said to have danced to the Happy New Year songs at the party with their costars joining them one after the other on the dance floor.

The songs, especially Sharabi and Nonsense ki Night, were played on a loop and composers, Shekhar Ravjiani and Vishal Dadlani, who had scored the music for the film, had to give the party a miss as they were in Bhopal for a concert. There were performances by Mika Singh and Ali Zafar, too, said our source. “Among other guests, Madhuri Dixit danced on Ek Do Teen while Hrithik Roshan settled for the title song of his debut film, Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai,” said another source.

A little before midnight, a sea of fans swarmed outside Mannat eager to get a glimpse of King Khan and they were not to be disappointed as their matinee idol appeared on his terrace to thank the crowds for their love and wishes.