Bollywood's old and new get together on Phalke's birth anniv

Mumbai, May 1 (UNI) Bollywood veterans shared the dias with promising talent of today to mark the 137th birth anniversary of the father of Indian cinema Dadasaheb Phalke here yesterday.

Manoj ''Mr Bharat'' Kumar, King of Action Dharmendra, hip hop music veteran Bappi Lahiri, ''Badshahs'' of Indian culture Kamal Kumar Barjatya and Rajkumar Barjatya of Rajshris, showman Subhash Ghai and the ilk shared the dais with other yester-year veterans like Sujit Kumar, Nimmi, and Chandrashekhar. They came together with promising talent of today, Vidya Balan and Shreyas Talpade. They were presented the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards.

The evening was an emotional one with the veterans from not just the acting fraternity, but also make-up, hair, editing, camera and action fraternity among others speaking of their experiences, with the screen bringing to light their moment of glory.

Raza Murad with his witty repartees was the perfect Master of Ceremonies. Subhash Ghai spoke about how he wanted to contribute back to the industry with Whistling Woods which is his film institute.

Dharmendra, who followed, talked about how his emotions and his following the heart has never enabled him to create any institute to keep Bollywood on forever. ''Whistling Woods is a wonderful name,'' he said. ''If I had known of this name, I would have named myself Whistling Woods,'' he remarked.

Veteran music director Bappi Lahiri offered his services as a music-maker for ''any event for the benefit of workers'', while distributor R V Vidhani talked about how most functions never reach the beneficiaries and ''that was why the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was so different''.

Manoj Kumar got emotional ''at the love of the people'', while Kamalkumar Barjartya and Rajkumar Barjatya of Rajshris were ''touched by the honour.'' Vidya Balan, clad in a simple salwar suit, also got emotional at the welcome, ''I am honoured and want to live up to the expectations of my elders,'' she stated. Shreyas Talpade was equally touched and expressed his feelings in a similar manner.

UNI MR MAZ LS ND2110