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How Oprah charmed Bollywood

January 19, 2012 15:31 IST

Here's what happened at the party socialite Parmeshwar Godraj threw for Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah Winfrey made quite an impression on the Bollywood stars, who gathered at socialite Parmeshwar Godrej's home for a dinner party on Monday night.

Before she made her stop at Godrej's home, Oprah visited the Bachchans. The chat show host had already met and interviewed Aishwarya and Abhishek, so she wanted to meet the oldest and youngest in the family -- Amitabh Bachchan and Beti B!

At home, Aishwarya apparently helped Oprah drape her orange sari. After that, all of them drove down to the Godrej residence.

Oprah was already familiar with some of the guests like A R Rahman, Anil Kapoor and Shabana Azmi, and Deepak Chopra, her Indian host.

When Shabana was introduced to Oprah by Deepak Chopra, Oprah turned around and said, "Of course, you are the Meryl Streep of India!"

A curious eavesdropper overheard Oprah asking Shabana to be on her new chat show. Oprah apparently wants Amitabh Bachchan on her show too.

Anil Kapoor, seen in a serious tete-a-tete with Oprah, was soon joined by Javed Akhtar. "Oprah wanted an overview of Bollywood and Javedsaab provided it, with additional inputs by Anil Kapoor," says a guest.

"Oprah was attentive and personable to everyone," the guest added. "She didn't know who Kangna Ranaut, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, Neha Dhupia and Sameera Reddy were. But she made sure she spent time with everyone."

A R Rahman seemed to be in an uncharacteristically effusive mood. He was witty and talkative.

Says an invitee, "We heard a familiar voice telling Oprah loudly that he admires three women greatly -- Oprah, Michelle Obama and Shabana Azmi. When we turned around, we were surprised to see it was Rahman charming Oprah with his compliments. He even got two pupils from his music academy to sing two songs for Oprah. She insisted on being photographed with them."

Says the guest, "Oprah seemed very curious to know about the Hindi film industry. She mingled with the entire film fraternity present there."

However, she did not dig into any of the culinary delights on the table.

Katrina Kaif missed out on the party, as she was in Orcha for a shoot. Salman Khan and Aamir Khan were the other stars who were missing from the party.

Subhash K Jha in Patna