Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 13, 2017)

Boney Kapoor brought in his 62nd birthday at his Chennai residence on Saturday with actress-wife Sridevi micromanaging the party. “It was a special day thanks to my wife. We brought in the birthday with family on the night of November 10, followed by a lunch in the afternoon. In the evening, a group of around 30 close friends from Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai joined us and we partied till past 3 am,” informs the filmmaker.

Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi, filmmaker couple Gauri Shinde and R Balki, Ravi Udyawar, the director of Sridevi’s last film Mom, Kamal Haasan, Priyadarshan, A R Rahman with wife Saira, designer Manish Malhotra, Zee Entertainment honcho Punit Goenka, businessman Sanjay Reddy with wife Pinky Reddy and politician Amar Singh were also present. “Sri had left two days early and decorated the house with everything I liked, my favourite flowers and colours to the dishes I love, with our cook from Mumbai being flown down to prepare them. She has collected art from all over the world and these were brilliantly showcased. Her sister and my brother-in-law helped her set it up,” says the elated producer.

They sang old songs with Javed and Amar Singh at their vocal best. “I can’t sing but others did. When everyone was crooning “Happy Birthday” Javed saab joked, ‘how can so many besuras sing in front of a maestro like Rahman who didn’t sing himself’. Rahman was wondering how besurars we are,” laughs Boney, adding he was glad Haasan, an old friend who has worked with Sridevi in a number of films, including Sadma, could make it. “She has lost count but Kamal insists they have worked in around 25-26 films. Punit and his wife had an early morning flight but stayed back late.”

Balki was shooting and despite packing up late, took a late flight to Chennai. “My daughter Khushi’s birthday was on November 5 but unfortunately she was away on a school trip then so we celebrated both birthdays and doubled our happiness,” adds an emotional Boney, admitting he received a special gift from Sridevi but refused to divulge details.