Bollywood Diwali: How Bollywood stars celebrated the festival

Celebrities talk about their celebrations for the Diwali season
Bollywood Diwali: How Bollywood stars celebrated the festival

Jackie Shroff (Actor)

As a kid, Diwali was scary for me as the sound of crackers evoked memories of war sirens that I had heard as an eight-year old. I would hide under the bed on Diwali night. But once I came to terms with my fears, I gazed at the sky on a Diwali night and felt happy to see the colourful display.

I lived in a chawl next to a swanky building. The rich kids would burn crackers and the next morning I would collect the crackers that were left unignited and burn them. Sweets would come from the house of Karanjia, because my father wrote an astrology column for their newspaper, and Natubhai Ambani, as my dad was his astrologer.

These days, my wife gives gifts to shelters. This year we planted trees on Diwali. And in all the forthcoming years, we want to grow at least ten Tulsi plants so that we compensate for the toxicity that we are creating by burning crackers.

Rohan Mehra (Actor, film Bazaar)

Diwali brings everyone together. My fondest memories revolve around celebrating Diwali as a child. This Diwali, I had family dinner with close friends and performed Laxmi Pooja. Unfortunately, I didn’t play cards in Diwali because I’m not very good at it! 

The house scrubbing is a beautiful ritual. I visited my friends from school, and exchanged gifts with them; it’s a tradition we have maintained. I am not in favour of burning crackers as we can have a great environmental-friendly Diwali. 

Ronit Roy (Actor)

Diwali for me signifies the victory of light over darkness, which means the victory of knowledge over ignorance, and that I think is the path of everybody's life.

We celebrated Diwali in our house by performing Laxmi Pooja. We painted our house and lit it up outside as well as inside. Over the past few years, I have been teaching my children to be away from crackers as they contribute to noise pollution and smoke pollution. We light diyas and burn some phooljaris for the shagun.  

I played cards at Ekta Kapoor's house with Jeetu and Chintuji and this has been a tradition for a decade. We also dropped in on Aamir, Shilpa-Raj Kundra, and Amitji.

 Shankar Mahadevan (Music composer)

We must celebrate each and every festival in India. It’s very easy to say that I will not celebrate, but I feel it's extremely important to celebrate as it brings everyone together; and when we meet, we spread a lot of happiness and positivity. In times of stress, these festivities bring happiness.

We did Laxmi Pooja on the first day of Diwali and prayed for everyone's prosperity. My wife Sangita made sure that our entire house was scrubbed, cleaned and vacuumed. The Diwali cleaning is always special for us.

I totally believe in gifting; it's just a great way of showing love and affection to one’s near and dear ones. The monetary value of the gift is incidental; the gift makes the person who is receiving it feel very special and loved 

When I was a child, the family members would gather to burn crackers and enjoy the fireworks and the colourful lights. But now, due to rising levels of pollution, we decided not to burn crackers. 

Pritam (music composer)

Diwali for me means the brightness of hope and joy which leads to a happy life.  I celebrated Diwali by lighting lamps. I accompanied the kids while they burnt crackers. For Bengalis, Diwali is synonymous with Kali Pooja. We went to Bangurnagar Kali Pujo, offered prayers and ate bhog

Related Stories

No stories found.
Cinema Express
www.cinemaexpress.com