After wrapping up their next film, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh let their hair down
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 6, 2017)

As guests began pouring in around 11pm on Saturday, the street outside Deepika Padukone’s sea-facing Prabhadevi residence began to crowd with fans. Cops lined up outside the high-rise to manage the traffic and additional security was deployed in the society to escort celebrity guests to Deepika’s top-floor apartment. While the other residents are used to occasional sightings of the actress’s steady beau, Ranveer Singh, who was the first to arrive at the star-studded bash around 9pm, over 200-odd fans eagerly waited to click other B-town A-listers. And they weren’t disappointed.

A WhatsApp-invite had been circulated by Deepika herself a few days before the bash. She was keen to celebrate the success of the widely- praised “Ghoomar” song from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming period-war-romance, Padmavati, given that the chartbuster has already got over 50 million hits.

The celebration doubled up as wrap party for the Padmavati duo as well. Deepika had finished her work early last week but was waiting for Ranveer to complete his portions so that they could let their hair down together.

Everyone followed the “chic and fabulous” dress code, with the pretty hostess looking radiant in a strappy maroon gown as she posed with actors Armaan and Aadar Jain. Armaan had arrived with birthday girl and close friend Athiya Shetty. On seeing the Hero-actress, Sonakshi put an end to rumours of a supposed “cold war” between the two by lifting Athiya off her feet. “Happy birthday baby doll! This is how you shall be greeted always bcause if we girls don’t uplift each other, who will?” Sonakshi exclaimed.

Speaking of cold wars that aren’t, soon-to-be-leading ladies Jahnvi, Boney Kapoor and Sridevi’s daughter, and Sara, Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh’s daughter, were on a selfie-spree, with almost every second pic with mentor-filmmaker Karan Johar.

Also on the guest list were Alia Bhatt, Imran Khan with wife Avantika, filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani with wife Dolly, Dinesh Vijjan, who arrived with his Raabta-actress Kriti Sanon and Homi Adajania with his stylist wife Anaita.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali was busy with post-production, while Deepika’s Padmavati Maharaja Shahid Kapoor, was in London. But the surprise guest was Abhishek Bachchan, beaming in a tuxedo.

Abhishek spent a long time chatting with Deepika. His sister, Shweta Bachchan, joined them too. Buzz is, Abhishek and Deepika could be paired in Bhansali’s next — the Sahir biopic with AB playing the poet-lyricist and Deepika as his poetess muse, Amrita Pritam. Even though, SLB’s spokesperson had denied the news to Mirror earlier, the actor’s new-found camaraderie with Deepika did have eyebrows raising in speculation on Saturday evening. Is a collaboration on the cards?

The party later moved to the adjoining large terrace with the revellers binging on seekh kebabs and Deepika shaking a leg with one and all.

Ranveer discussed movies and masti with Ishaan Khatter, Shahid Kapoor’s younger brother who makes his debut with Majid Majidi’s Beyond The Clouds.

While most guests left by 3am, that’s when Shah Rukh Khan arrived with wife Gauri and stayed on till well past dawn.