For the love of Kolkata

It was the love for Kolkata that came alive on Valentine’s Day at The Calcutta Club lawns through an award function titled Celebrating Kolkata. The event was organised by Jyotee Khaitan, Spandan, Patton and The Calcutta Club.
Anjan Dutt, accompanied by Amyt Dutta, kickstarted the show by belting out his all-time hits. This was followed by a fashion tribute where Kolkata’s Who’s Who walked the ramp in Jyotee Khaitan’s creations.Interestingly, the show was unrehearsed and the guests and awardees were asked to flaunt their style as they liked it. The loudest cheers were for actor Rituparna Sengupta and film-maker Rituparno Ghosh, the two showstoppers.
Once the show was over, it was time to award some extraordinary talents like Tanushree Shankar, Harsh Neotia, Rituparna Sengupta, Aparna Sen, Konkona SenSharma, Wasim Kapoor, Indrani Halder, Rituparno Ghosh, Anjan Dutt, Sourav Ganguly and Sabyasachi Chakraborty to name a few.
An elated Rituparna said, “It’s overwhelming to be part of such an evening. After all, whatever I am today is because of Kolkata.” Rituparno, on his part, added, “When I go to international film festivals, I come across many film-makers who were born at a certain place, grew up somewhere and had professional training from a different place altogether. But in my case, everything begins and ends at the same place — Tollygunge. I was born there and even started my career in Tollygunge.”
In between the award function, Rituparna invited the four organisers, Jyotee Khaitan, Sanjay Budhia, Prodipto Banerjea and Renu Roy to come on stage. They even walked the ramp and posed for shutterbugs.
Some of the awardees like Aparna Sen, Konkona Sen Sharma and Sourav Ganguly, who couldn’t make it to the function, had sent across their recorded messages.