When I was a little kid, film premieres used to be about fancy red carpets, glittering gowns, suit-clad men and celebrities who were beyond the reach of the audiences. There was a certain air of exclusivity in them, which made it extremely desirable to those who couldn't be a part of it. With just about a single film releasing in a week, the entire film industry used to gather at these premieres and the after-parties used to be a grand get-together.

Of-late with multiple films releasing on a single Friday, plus with almost every star juggling shoots (mostly outdoors), endorsements, photo-ops and many such commitments, it's increasingly tough to chalk out a date to get them attend a screening together. Such was also the case on Thursday, 21st April, at the Dum Maaro Dum premiere in Mumbai, where the turnout was quite slim and the event was rather low-key with select known faces joining the cast and crew for the late-night screening.

Being a BollySpice movie reviewer, I attended the press show earlier that evening. With a small-gathering of around 50-other critics, we were intently watching the show, making mental notes for the reviews that some of us were going to be putting up soon after. What we didn't know was the cast comprising of Abhishek Bachchan, Rana Daggubati, Prateik Babbar and director Rohan Sippy had snuck into the auditorium after lights out and were watching the show quietly standing by the doorway. While we headed out during interval, the four-some caught their audience by pleasant surprise, greeting, cheering et al. Having been travelling continuously through the country for the promotions, signs of fatigue (if any) cleverly camouflaged with excitement, they made small-talk greeting the journos they knew, making acquaintances with the newbies and just generally taking all the feedback, good and bad, in their stride and eventually making a quick exit (whilst gorging on chicken rolls), allowing us to get back to the rest of the show.

When I arrived later in the night for the premiere, the invitees count was a lot more. Though not a lot of celebs were spotted, it was a general gathering of friends, family, and associates. No one was there to analyze the movie this time, but just to have a good time, so the mood was more comparatively more jovial and relaxed. Once again the male leads Abhishek, Rana, Prateik were in attendance whilst leading lady Bipasha as well as the movie’s special guest Deepika were missing. Others spotted were Genelia Dsouza, Ritesh Deshmukh, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Konkana Sen, Ranvir Shorey, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Amole Gupte and Sudhir Mishra.