Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; April 6, 2015)

Alia Bhatt was supposed to walk the ramp for Shabana Azmi’s annual charity fashion show, Mijwan, on Saturday along with mother Soni Razdan. Strangely, however, the actress was nowhere to be seen at the star-studded event.

A source says, “This year, several Bollywood actors had agreed to be part of the show along with their star father/mother. But Alia could not make it. So, the organisers had to skip her entry and had to hurriedly re-choreograph the catwalk. Even her costumes were ready.”

An official annoucement had also been posted online by the Mijwan Welfare Society: “@ aliaa008 will take forward the legacy of #KaifiAzmi with her beautiful mother Soni Razdan at #Mijwan2015 tomorrow! (sic).”

Another source reasons that Alia had to opt out at the last minute due to work commitments.
commitments. “She has just wrapped up her schedule of Udta Punjab a few days ago in Punjab and wanted to support this cause. But some important work came up and she had to miss it,” adds the source.

Alia was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, Arjun Kapoor, who was expected to be present for Mijwan with dad Boney Kapoor, was also missing in action. The actor’s spokesperson says, “He was scheduled to travel and the dates couldn’t be changed. Shabana Azmi was keen to have him and Boney kapoor, but unfortunately it didn’t work out this year.”

Other industry folk who were seen on the runway included Sonakshi-Shatrughan Sinha, Sonam-Anil Kapoor, Farhan-Javed Akhtar and the Bachchans — Big B with daughter Shweta Nanda and Jaya with Abhishek.