‘D.D.L.J.’ team felicitated by Swiss Consulate 
By Taran Adarsh, October 4, 2006 - 04:37 IST
The Switzerland-DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE formal dinner held at Hotel Taj Lands End on 3rd October witnessed the who’s who of Bollywood in full attendance. The reception, graced by Amitabh Bachchan as chief guest, and Marco Solari, Switzerland Tourism Board Member, as guest of honour, was to felicitate the D.D.L.J. unit for the successful running of their film for over 500 weeks.
It was hosted by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Mumbai and Switzerland Tourism and saw mementos being presented by the two luminaries to Yash and Pamela Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. Mandira Bedi, Farida Jalal, Anupam Kher, Satish Shah, Parmeet Sethi and Achala Sachdev completed the awardees’ list. A moment of poignancy reigned when the award for the late Amrish Puri was collected by his son.
The guests were welcomed by the Ambassador of Switzerland in India, Dominique Dreyer and the Consul General in Mumbai, Josef W. Eisele. Delegates from Switzerland Tourism, Urs Eberhard, Executive VP, and Federico Sommaruga, Director-India, were the other hosts.
Later, ‘Yash Chopra’s Romance with Switzerland’, a short film reminiscing the producer-director’s love affair with the scenic country, set the tone of the evening, followed by Shiamak Davar leading his troupe to set the stage on fire with a high-energy interpretation of the musical hits of D.D.L.J. The next surprise of the evening, following the Swiss fine dining, was a huge cake in the shape of a cow bell, specially flown in from Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse’s renowned confisserie Sprungli.
The grand finale of the Swiss evening, however, was a touching dedication to D.D.L.J.: a 3-metre long Alphorn was presented to Yash Chopra.
Besides the D.D.L.J. awardees, other personalities spotted at this event included Mukesh Bhatt, Vashu Bhagnani and Boney Kapoor accompanied with his wife Sridevi. While Bipasha Basu provided the glamour quotient, surprise guests included Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu, Nitin Mukesh and veteran Mumtaz.
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