Kolkata : It will be a glorious occasion on January 12 when the City of Joy will witness a rare evening at the Victoria Memorial where the Sehenshah of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan and the Prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly will share the stage on the occasion of the crystal celebration of Dona Ganguly’s school,’Diksha Manjari’. The programme will be jointly organized by Diksha Manjari and Victoria Memorial Trust .
Amitabh Bachchan has kept his 10 year old promise to Dona and Sourav by finally agreeing to be present as the chief guest in the ‘Dhrupadi’ dance show to promote the traditional arts of India. ”As a Bengali I am feeling very fortunate to have a personality like Amitabh Bachchan gracing my schools programme . His presence will no doubt add glamour to the evening . It is priceless to get the mega star even for a single minute . So it was very sweet of him to agree. I am grateful to him.” said an elated Dona Ganguly.
Diksha Manjari , who had earlier presented Lata Mangeshkar will have another icon lighting up the stage . ” Yes , we still remember inviting Lata Mangeshkar for our school function 15 years back . Few years ago when we first met Amitji , we requested him to attend a function of my dance school . Both me and Sourav also went to the sets of Piku , when he was in Kolkata . It was during an ISL match last year , Mr Bachchan himself reminded me of attending the function .” said an exited Dona.
An Odissi-style dance will be perormed by her students on the courtyard of the Victoria Memorial. The students will dance to the tunes of baritone voice of of Big B, ”Jodi tor daak shuney keu na ashey” as a tribute to Amitabh Bachchan. According to Dona, Victoria Memorial is an ideal setting for such an event.
As the vice president of the school Saurav Ganguly will be present on stage. And what exactly will Amitji do? ”The traditional dance forms of India are becoming extinct in the modern day. Hopefully Amitji’s presence will raise the event to a new cultural standard.”