Can there be anything more glamorous, thrilling and glitzy than the promotion of a star-studded, big- budget Bollywood film? And even by those standards, the SRK Red Chillies- produced, Farah Khan-directed, Happy New Year defies expectation. Starring a swathe of top stars (SRK, Deepika Padukone, Jackie Shroff, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood and the delectable Vivaan Shah), the trailer launch of the Diwali release, held last evening at the Sahara Star, was exhilarating. A witty welcome by SRK and Boman, a high-voltage dance performance, a fashion show by Manish Malhotra, featuring lissome models as well as the film’s cast, a live performance by Vishal and Shekhar, a stunning fireworks display (not for nothing are the Moranis co-producers) two riveting back-to-back runs of the trailer, followed by a lengthy press conference, and all this, mind you, peppered by SRK’s peerless one liners and it’s no surprise that even veteran film critics like Rajeev Masand, whom we met on our way out, were gob struck. “This was right up there,” he said, “no one does trailer launches with such style.”

The Happy New Year team at Sahara Star