Rock & Roll with Amit Paul

When I found out that Amit Paul was coming to Atlanta for a concert. I was sooo excited. I actually watched *most* of Indian Idol - Season 3. Hey, it was mostly spoken in Hindi and very different from American Idol, even though I don't watch much of it either, so I didn't know what to expect. Funny thing is I only have seen season 3. Mainly watched it for Meiyang Chang, Prashant Tamang, and Amit Paul. Now, I like Prashant too (the winner of Indian Idol 3) and would've went to his concert but I found out after he came. I wasn't going to miss my chance to see Amit Paul. He's so talented and cute!

So I bought my tickets two months in advance online. The prices were reasonable. I decided to get VIP. Hey, why not? A few more extra dollars and I get to be closer to the stage and have a meet/greet with Amit Paul. Plus it is not far from my house at all!

I tweeted about watching Luck By Chance. That was such a good movie! (Should I blog about it? And make lots of caps?) Forget the "Baaware" song. Yes, Hrithik is cute and can dance. But the best song on the soundtrack is sung by Amit Paul - "Pyaar Ki Daastan."



Did the concert start "Indian Standard Time"?
Well, it did *not* start on time. However, I didn't have to wait that long.

I'm an early bird. Blame it on my parents. When they say 3 pm, what they meant is be there before 3 pm, not be there at 3 pm. So I got to the venue around 2:20 pm. Early, huh? I was okay. I was waiting for one of my friends.

Originally, I bought two VIP tickets for the concert. One for me; the other one for my daughter. However, my daughter's friend had a birthday party that day. The friend's party had to be re-scheduled for the day of the concert. The week before, there were floods in Atlanta. It was sooo hard for my daughter to choose but I told her that I know she wants to go to the birthday party so go ahead. I will find someone else. And I did.

My friend is not a hardcore movie bluff like me. She watches some, ranging from Thai and Bollywood films. Plus she is an aspiring photographer so these pictures will be great for her portfolio.

When it got closer to 3 pm, we walked inside and waited. I asked someone about the Amit Paul concert because looks like everyone was busy with Durga Puja. Then I learn that Amit hasn't even arrived yet.

We just waited and took pictures of the lovely ceremonial traditional. The women were dressed beautifully with their colorful sarees paying tribute.



Once the ceremony was over, it was 3:30 pm. We saw Amit arrive. Then 5 minutes afterwards, we went to the theater. We had second row seats! Yah! And we sat in the middle too!

The Atlanta Bengali Form introduced Amit Paul.



He performed for 2.5 hours. Ranging from Bengali songs to Bollywood classics to Bollywood hits. In addition, he asked the audience what they wanted to hear.

A few songs I am able to remember are Om Shanti Om songs - "Om Shanti Om" & "Dard-E- Disco," Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar - "Pehla Nasha," Mann - "Nasha Yeh Pyar Ka Nasha Hai," Saawariya - "Saawariya," Jab We Met - "Tum Se Hi," and of course his song from Luck By Chance - "Pyaar Ki Dastan."



Besides Amit's amazing voice, what I love about Amit is his interaction with the audience. He would ask the audience what they wanted to hear. If he didn't have the music, he sang acapella to at least the chorus. He brought people on the stage to dance with him.

People just got up and started dancing from their seats. A few times he said he was done for the night, but the audience wanted him to continue. And he did. He sang more songs for them. How sweet is that!



Since my friend is an aspiring photographer, she definitely had a much better camera than me. The following two are pictures from camera.



Told you it looks better than my pictures, lol.



After the concert was over, we were able to meet/greet with Amit. We went backstage and waited in line. The sponsers were nice and let us go to the front and told us to go ahead.

I told my friend to go ahead and take the picture first with Amit. Once it was my turn and before taking pictures, I brought two photos of Amit I wanted him to sign.

Ever since I met Jay Sean, I just have to stars' autograph. Hey, it has worked so far. Autographs I received - Jay Sean, Arjun Rampal, Amisha Patel, John Abraham, Salman Khan, Dev Anand.

One photo, I got from the Internet. I don't know who to credit but thanks so much. It was Amit's Indian Idol picture. When Amit saw it, he blushed and chuckled. He couldn't believe I actually watch Indian Idol. He asked where we were from.

My friend answered, "Laos." My friend I are both Hmong. I usually tell people that I am from Thailand because I was born there. But since it's so complicated explaining to people who Hmong people are, I left it at that.

Then he saw the other photo that I just put together. It was simple but I absolutely love the outfit he had one. I told him that that outfit is similar to my culture. He then asked what my ethnicity was and I told him HMONG. He was impressed and sweet.



I debated and debated to share my picture with Amit. I look horrible. But Amit looked adorable. Now, just don't be scared off with my pic.



After my friend and I got our meet/greet with Amit, we walked to the parking lot. Since we took separate cars, we just stood outside and started chatting about how much fun we had. Even though we kept seeing so many people come by and leave, we didn't realize the time.

All of a sudden we saw Amit pass by us with the sponsors. He was sweet enough to talk to us! He asked why we were still there and said it was great meeting us. Aaaawwwww! Love him even more.

I took several videos of Amit singing. However, I'm having problems with them. On my desktop computer, the videos won't play. I even tried on my laptop, the videos play but the audio doesn't work. Whenever I get it working, I will share with everyone. He is awesome, sweet, good-looking, and talented. Gotta love that!

Dev Anand - the most recent star encounter I had

Since I love Indian cinema so much, I get excited when I have a chance to meet any of the stars. Dev Anand is on that list. Admittedly, I have never seen a Dev Anand film! I know he's a legendary Bollywood actor but I couldn't miss out on a chance to meet him!! Come on, it's free!



He was coming to Atlanta to promote, sell, and sign autographs for his autobiography book - "Romancing with Life."



I was very disappointed with the turnout. We weren't allowed to take our cameras in to take any pictures. All these photos unless otherwise specify were taken by photographer, Mahadev Desai. It was RSVP with an e-mail but apparently, there were not enough space for everyone. When everything was finally situated, we saw a video montage of Dev Anand's life and career achievements. Then afterwards, he answered fans' questions.



Everyone who bought a book and got Dev Anand to sign did take pictures with them. However, it was their own photographer since we weren't able to bring cameras in. We weren't able to get the photo until a few days. But guess what??? Since it was a FREE event, the sponsors wanted you to open up a savings or checkings account with the bank. I was fine with that because I wanted the picture I took with Dev Anand. I was planning to close the account in a month or two. But.....the minimum to start an account is $500. WTH???


And my friend did sneak her camera to take this picture....not as good since it wasn't permitted....




I was just disappointed in the whole experience. But I did get the book autograph and he signed with my name.....

Rockstars concert 2006 - first Bollywood concert ever for me!

Finally – here are my experience with with the Rockstars Concert 2006 – Salman Khan, John Abraham, Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapur, Zayed Khan, Esha Deol, Mallika Sherawat. I wrote all this after the event happened. Just saved it and recovered it.

MEETING WITH THE STARS AT GLOBAL MALL – Thursday afternoon, May 11, 2006

Since the Rockstars didn’t arrive in Atlanta on Wednesday as expected, they were going to be at Global Mall aka the Indian Mall on Thursday instead. Because of flight delays, Salman was going to be there to greet fans and sign autographs. Since I made posters of Salman and John, I figured I would get autographs there instead of bothering them at dinner or at the concert. Yes, I am having dinner with the Rockstars later that night. A few of us were selected to meet and have dinner with the Rockstars!!! Heck yeah! My friend was already there waiting for me and called to tell me that Salman, Kareena, Shahid, and Esha just got there. They arrived 15 minutes before I did. The crowd was crazy. The entrance and view to see the stars was blocked. It was ridiculous. I couldn’t take a pic of Salman - it happened so fast. While heading down the escalator, after Salman left, Esha, Shahid, and Kareena come down it so took a pic of them coming down the escalator. Esha is so gorgeous without makeup. She seemed to keep her bronze tan complexion. Kareena looks great too. I love her style and skin. She has smooth and fair skin complexion. Shahid is just so adorable. Salman is Salman. Hot!!

So went to talk to the promoter, I asked him where Zayed, Mallika, and John were. He said that Zayed and Mallika were at the hotel, just decided not to show up. John still hasn’t come to Atlanta yet but he will tomorrow, the night of the concert. I was so sad!! He just laughed and said, “I’m so sorry! I knew you were looking forward to see him too.”

Here are pics of them at the mall...got permission from promoters to use them so I tagged them.

Click on images to view larger

This one I took myself when they were heading down the escalator

Okay, the following pics are from a buddy of mine. She said I could do whatever I want with the pics as long as I credit her hubby Matt. He took these pics in NY but I'm using them on this blog for just for entertainment purposes. I didn't tag them because he didn't care to distribute his work. Whoever uses them, please credit MATT SMITH -
again, click on images to view larger

DINNER WITH THE ROCKSTARS – Thursday evening, May 11, 2006

Then my friend and I decided to go to the dinner function. I couldn’t wait. It was suppose to start at 8:30 pm but of course, we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited and waited. We were all hungry. I didn’t eat anything all day cause I was looking forward to the dinner. I was thinking at least give us appetizers!! LOL 10:30 pm came, we ate finally. It was Indian-buffet style. Then waited another hour. 11:30 pm. Heard that the Rockstars were suppose to come down soon. 12 midnight. We got the news that they aren’t coming down after all. Very very disappointing. I was so looking forward to this dinner.

ROCKSTARS CONCERT – FRIDAY, MAY 12, 2008

Let me start off first by saying the show is awesome. It is non-stop dancing and very fast paced. Never felt like 3.5 hours went by so quickly. The show only started 30 minutes later. Not too bad since I heard that Bollywood concerts are famous for starting late. The concert wasn’t that loud because my friend and I were both able to understand each other. We were a bit disappointed in our seats because we were shown a different diagram of the venue. Sucks!! No one had center view of the concert either!! The arena was probably 75% full. It’s a pretty big arena too. The floor section areas - the VVIP, VIP, were full so no one could move up. I had VIP tickets and okay seats. Next time I need VVIP tickets. One of my friend in NJ went to the Rockstars concert there and seems that Salman wasn’t getting much love there. In my opinion, I have to say that Atlanta had more fan interaction and gave Salman more love. I even met this girl who sat behind and told me she loves my John website (note - I don't own the website anymore, read here why) and goes on there every day. Aaaawwwww, made my night!!

Honestly, I didn’t really pay attention much to which songs they were performing because it was a crazy concert for my friend and me. In Atlanta, we have rude people and lying promoters. It really pissed us off. We were promised “backstage passes” but were not given a wristband. After much bitching and complaining, we finally got them.

My friend and I made mini-posters for the concert. Mine was bright neon green & hers was bright neon orange/red. We put on one side a message for John, and the other side, a message for Salman. It’ll be easier to flip cause we love both of them. LOL. We made a little bet who will be on stage with John, hahaha. Because I told her the spoiler about the concert and she was so psyched. John was to select a female from the audience and sing to her.

Since we both knew Esha was going to be up first and the show hasn’t started yet, we waited to go backstage to see the stars. We didn’t even enjoy Esha’s performance much for that reason. By checking sneak peeks of her dancing, she is great. She is such a great performer. I just remembered her intro coming out reminded me of some classical Thai dancing. We were standing in line waiting and waiting. The guards told us to come back.

Zayed was next. Goofy yet very good looking. He’s growing his hair out. Again, still trying to get the situation with the backstage situated so for that dumb reason - didn’t get to enjoy his performance either. We were told finally that no one will be able to go backstage right now until after the show. Although they lied and said earlier that no one would be able to go backstage after the show. Even though I didn’t watch Zayed’s performance because of the backstage hassle. I do remember his sword showoff. I was telling my friend I have an Arjun Rampal flashback of the Temptation Concert 2004, LOL.

Mallika is up. She didn’t really dance because her two songs (that I could remember) were from Murder – “Kaho Na Kaho” & “Bheegey Hont” were not dance songs. She sparkled and looked very sexy but didn’t danced long.

Shahid comes on stage. This guy can dance! He is great. So much energy and passion. Definitely very adorable! I love the way he just takes charge on stage. He, alone, is worth the watch. I believe he performed some songs from Fida and definitely Ishq Vishk.

Kareena up next. She looks so glamorous. Amazing. Gorgeous outfits too. My friend is a die-hard Kareena fan so she was screaming and shouting for her. She wanted me to do the same but I told her that I’m saving my voice for John & Salman, LOL.

Now up is John!!! We just saw his intro with his back turned, we couldn’t even see his face yet and we went crazy!!!! We stood up but realized we were blocking the people behind us. So we apologized to the people behind us for blocking their view. They said it was okay and for us to enjoy the show and hope we’ll get picked to go on stage with John. Now John is on stage sitting down with the song from Zinda. The dialogues that were spoken were from the song “Yeh Meri Kahani” It seemed like only I knew that cause everyone around me was asking me where that song is from. Since I am a die-hard John fan, I told them the answer – Zinda. It is a song sung by a Pakistani band called Strings. The song isn’t from the movie but a music video. I honestly don’t remember any other songs. Oh my goodness, all I remember and staring at John and yelling and screaming my lungs out, hahaha. Wow, I feel like a fangirl teenager.

Intro to Salman started with a video footage (mrs k helped out with the Salman descriptions - I actually took down a lot of what she said so here I am giving her credit) that looked like it was from his perspective leaving prison - you saw some guards and lots of fans lined up; then there was footage of the fans who had their heads shaved and painted in support of him; then there was footage of the scene from outside his house after he returned from prison and his taking off his shirt and throwing it to the crowd. Then there was an overview of his schools, some of his hits, then some personal data. Then he came out and did a mix medley from a variety of songs from his films such as "O O Jaana Jaana" from Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya (this is one of my fave Salman songs ever!!), "Chori Chori" from Lucky, "Aisa Pehle Baar Hua" - Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega, "Mere Rang Mein" - Maine Pyar Kiya, Janam Samjha Karo, and so much more that I can't even remember.

So after the individual acts, Salman came on stage. Someone showed the posters that my friend and I made for Salman! It was on the big screen!!!! We were so excited. Mine has “ SALMAN, your Hmong fan here. Maine Pyar Kiya.” My friend’s have “ SALMAN, your biggest non desi fan. She’s Persian, BTW. Then one of the sponser, I guess, walked up to us and asked us, what do you want to ask? Honestly, our minds were blank right now. We didn’t realize what was going on. We honestly didn’t know what to ask Salman (I had many questions for John cause of the dinner but none for Salman cause I didn’t want to ask him anything personal). My friend just blurted, could we ask John something? She messed it up! Hahahaha, LOL.

First this girl who also had a big white poster wrote “I came over 2000 miles to come see you.” She asked Salman if she could come on stage and get a hug and kiss. Salman told her to come up. She went on stage and told him she loved him since Maine Pyar Kiya. Salman just laughed and told her that it was so long ago. She said she had been his fan and will always.

Then next a little girl, probably 10 years old, told Salman that she loves him and he’s the best looking actor ever. Salman said that was so sweet and joked with her when she gets older she’s going to like the other guys like John Abraham because he’s younger and hotter than he is. The little girl just told him, no way, she will always love him. She got to go on stage and he gave her a kiss and hug.

The next question came from a girl who says she wants to go on stage and ask Salman her question. Salman allowed her to come on stage. She got a hug from him and then asked him when he was going to get married. He just chuckled and looked at everyone and said that he’s going to be a bachelor for a very long time.

Next question came from people who weren’t on the floor, a white girl dressed in a desi outfit told Salman that she loves him and could he come home with her. Salman was a bit surprise by the question and said when she is ready, he’ll come. She says, “I’m ready now.” Hahahaha, LOL. Then she asked him to take off his black tank top and give it to her. All of us in the audience, including my friend and me chanted “TAKE IT OFF TAKE IT OFF”. We said it for a few seconds until Salman responded with, “I’ll tell you what, I’m sticky, sweaty and I’ll come back later and give you a clean black tank top after the show and give it to you.”

Then another question came from the other side of the arena, away from the floor section. This girl asked Salman if she could come on stage and get a kiss and hug for her baby in her stomach. Salman told her to come on but didn’t want her to come that far because she was pregnant. She told him she was only 20 weeks. So she walked to the stage. Salman said, “okay, I don’t have enough kisses and hugs for everyone.” We all responded with “AAWW” in the audience. The girl finally went on the stage and Salman kneeled down and kissed her stomach, then he hugged her. Someone gave her a mic and she told him how much she loved him since Maine Pyar Kiya. Salman joked about everyone keeps reminding him about Maine Pyar Kiya. She told him that she wants her son to be as hot as him! Salman smiled and said he does not want that baby to be anything like him especially if it turns out to be a girl instead, LOL. Once she left stage, Salman told everyone he’ll be back again.

Esha and Zayed came out next and mrs k had it right again what happened with the music and tee shirt throwing in the audience. Except with the Atlanta show, Zayed said it’s so cool how we Atlanta have this A town sign. Then we in the audience started to do it with him. It’s an A sign, kinda like the Q in Sign Language. He was so goofy and funny. Then he said he would sing to a girl from the audience and he’s been practicing. He picked out a girl from the audience. He sang to her the title song of Main Hoon Na. This is just him singing no background vocals, just plain acappella. He had a great voice!! Then Esha says a guy will sing for her. Unfortunately, this guy misunderstood, he thought he was able to go on stage and Esha sing for him. Finally a guy wanted to sing to Esha so badly! I’m not sure what song he sang but it sounded like an upbeat Punjabi dance song. Esha told him he was wonderful.

Next Shahid & Kareena came out and performed. What I could remember which stood out was Kareena came out first dancing and then later we heard a guy sing and Shahid was standing on the right side of the arena on the ramp above from the floor. It was the cutest!! Then he came on stage and joined Kareena. They later passed out more tee shirts and there was a little crowd by the stage while Shahid tagged their hands.

John is up next. My friend ran up to the stage with her bright neon orange/red poster. She wrote on there “ FARHAN (I told her it was John’s Persian name) You’re biggest non-desi fan.” I went towards the stage (I knew he was going to pick someone to go on stage). John came closer to the stage and walked down to where the fenced area to touch his fans’ hands. There were so many girls up there!! I was towards the back so didn’t get to see him as close as I wanted to. John saw my friend’s poster and touched her face. She was melting, LOL. Then John said that everyone wonders about his favorite heroine. The girls in the front and we all said, “it’s BIPASHA!” He just smiled and chuckled a bit. He said that he’s yet to find his favorite one and wanted a girl to come on stage with him so she may possibly be the next heroine. He picked this girl who had a huge poster, I’m not sure what it says but she got to go on stage. We watched as he serenades her to the song “Jadu Hai Nasha Hai” from Jism. He then picked her up and put her on the bed on stage. My friend just looked at me and said, “now I realize why he picked her.” We joked and said he wouldn’t be able to pick us upbe cause we were too fat, LOL. He then danced to “Maine Suna Hai” from Taxi No 9211 and picked two girls from the audience to do that dance with him at the end. He gave them t-shirtsl Taking the mic, John said, “I saw my other name - my Persian name Farhan.” my friend held her poster up and we were on the big screen - I had my poster up too! John just waved to us.

The rest of the concert was a blur. When we felt that it was closer to the finale, we went to stand by the area for the backstage. We wanted be first in line. We were! A lot of girls tried to get in front of us but the guard remembered us and let us in first. We waited for about 10 minutes. There was a lot of security. I remember talking to one sponsor a while ago. He says that for the high-demand Indian concerts, such as this one, there was going to be only white security guards and people in charge because they said they don’t want to have people running every where. There were a lot of people waiting in line. I couldn’t believe the amount of people who had backstage passes. Of course the promoters, sponsors, and their families got to see the stars first even though they didn’t have to wait in line as long as we did. It was a bit upsetting but understandable.

When we finally got to go in, we saw the Rockstars sitting down side by side all six of them. It was pretty lame. Really lame. It was from left to right “Shahid, Kareena, Salman, Malika, Zayed, Esha, and then John. I was going to take their picture but the sponser said, “NO cameras allowed.” Of course I was pretty upset. They said six people will get behind each Rockstars and then THEY, the sponsors, will take the pic with THEIR camera. Gosh, I was so upset. How ridiculous is this! That is pretty disappointed. I was watching them take pictures of the fans with the Rockstars. A couple of pictures will be taken and that’s it. You move on.

So it was getting closer for our turn to stand behind the Rockstars to have our pictures taken. While waiting in line to take pictures with the Rockstars, Esha saw me and told John about my t-shirt. I made a t-shirt with John’s name on it. I stood behind Shahid while the cameras clicked. John signaled me to go talk to him. It must have been the t-shirt! LOL. I was so enchanted with him and kept staring at him!! He asked how I was doing. I asked him if I could get an autograph from him and showed him my poster I made of him. He said it was great. He asked for my name and signed “Dear Nicki, Hugs & Kisses, John.” The sponsor and promoters were trying to kick me out. I was upset. Salman was signing autographs for these little kids. I waited until he finished. When he looked up, then I showed him the poster I made of him if he could sign. He looked at me in the eyes (I still remember that look!! So hot!!). He said sure, come here. He just signed, Love Salman Khan….but the rest, I have no idea what he wrote!! I wanted to get Zayed to sign next but got kicked out. My friend got more autographs than I did but she nearly fought with the sponsors. Disappointed in not getting more autographs, I think I was too intoxicated when John signaled for me to come to him. I could’ve gotten the other stars to sign while John and Salman were signing for me. But I didn’t think of anything else and because I had to get Salman’s signature before I got kicked out!!!!!

Here is the pic of us behind the Rockstars. I look so bad but wanted to share

Here are the autographs....

So that was my little adventure from three years ago!!! It was highly anticipating but highly disappointing with the dinner and not being able to take pictures with the star. Otherwise, the show, itself, was awesome.