Deepika Padukone at Piku success party in Mumbai.
It's party season for
Piku. The Shoojit Sircar-directed film opened two Fridays ago to tremendous reviews and packed theatres. The cast and crew celebrated at a party last week and one last night as well. Lead actress Deepika Padukone, slim and lovely in a white Nikhil Thampi dress, played hostess at a swish soiree held in a Mumbai eatery. She invited what looked like everyone she knows in Bollywood with two notable exceptions - ex-boyfriend and
Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani co-star Ranbir Kapoor and his girlfriend Katrina Kaif. Neither were at the party even though Katrina is back from Cannes and Ranbir spent his weekend playing football with best friend Ayan Mukerji who did make it to the bash.
Other guests who were at the party included actor Shah Rukh Khan - Deepika's first hero in
Om Shanti Om and then again in
Chennai Express and
Happy New Year.
After the party, SRK tweeted:
Actress Kangana Ranaut was invited to the party, an upwards progression in the barometer of Bollywood 'friendships.' After Kangana mentioned publicly that Deepika was among the few celebs who hadn't called her about her performance in
Queen, the
Piku actress reportedly spoke to her on the phone and explained that she didn't know Kangana in person and so hadn't called before. She clearly knows her now.
Deepika's rumoured boyfriend Ranveer Singh showed up dressed in typically maverick fashion and with his arm in a cast. Which didn't prevent him from playing the fool.
Actresses Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Dia Mirza and Huma Qureshi all showed up, looking very festive and in high spirits.
Deepika's
Piku director Shoojit and co-star Irrfan Khan were spotted together.
Malaika Arora Khan and Sophie Choudry posed for a photo with Deepika.
Sushant Singh Rajput brought girlfriend Ankita Lokhande. Sidharth Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur and Deepika's
Finding Fanny co-star Arjun Kapoor were all invited.
Happy New Year co-star Sonu Sood came, as did Huma's brother Saquib Saleem, Dino Morea and Armaan Jain.
There was a whole board of directors at the party - Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who directed Deepika in
Ram-Leela and is now making
Bajirao Mastani with her; Homi Adajania of
Cocktail and
Finding Fanny;
Happy New Year director Farah Khan.
Ayan Mukerji, who directed Deepika in
Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, showed up. Danish Aslam, Deepika's
Break Ke Baad director, came with wife Shruti Seth and actress Shahana Goswami who had a role in the film.
Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Raju Hirani, Vishal Bhardwaj and Vikas Bahl were all there.
Malaika's husband Arbaaz and his brother Sohail represented the other Khans. Sanjay and Maheep Kapoor were invited and so were Chunky and Bhavna Pandey.
Piku, also starring Amitabh Bachchan who did not appear to be at the party, has been declared a smash hit by trade analysts and is also this year's biggest Bollywood earner abroad.