Two nights ago, in churches across the world, bells pealed joyfully and choirs sang ‘Silent Night’ to welcome in Christmas Day. It was something of a silent night at Salim Khan’s farmhouse in Panvel, too, last night as the family and Bollywood’s best gathered to bring in Salman Khan’s 49th birthday.
Silent night because the mobile network in Panvel, patchy and dismal at best of times, has been non-functional for the last two days. And calls, SMSes, Whatsapp messages to Salman wishing him Happy Birthday from friends and Bollywood associates in Mumbai and elsewhere, didn’t make it to the 150 acre farmhouse in Raigad district’s most populated city.
“There is no landline at the farmhouse,†complained a member of Salman Khan’s team, “and the bad network has resulted in frustration all around because calls to Bhai aren’t getting through, or if by some miracle they do – then the connection is weak and inaudible and gets cut almost immediately. It’s as good as having no phone there.â€
Media photographers staking the farmhouse last night had to periodically scramble to Panvel city proper to catch internet network and upload pictures of the stars arriving for Salman’s birthday bash. But the birthday boy wasn’t complaining about lack of connectivity.
Among those who braved the horrific Mumbai-Pune traffic to get to Panvel for the party were Aja
Ajay Devgn, Priyanka Chopra, Sonakshi Sinha, Vidya Balan with husband Sidharth Roy Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Imran Khan, Neil Nitin Mukesh with his wife, Riteish Deshmukh among others.
Interestingly, a lot of Bigg Boss ex andcurrent season contestants too arrived at the venue that included Diandra Soares, Sushant Divgikar, Elli Avram among others. Also Gauahar Khan came along with Kushal Tandon quashing all the rumours about their break up.
