Cream of Bollywood visits Darbar Sahib
Harimander Sahib welcomed a host of celebrities today, proving that the four doors of Darbar Sahib continue to welcome worshippers of all faiths and not just Sikhs.
Amongst those celebs paying homage were Shakti Kapoor, Aditya Pancholi, Mukesh Rishi, Ekta Kapoor with her parents – Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor, Prem Chopra, Anand Raj Anand, Jaspinder Narula, Monica Bedi, Abhijeet, Gurdeep and Arjun Punj, Hiten Paintal with his father Paintal, Poonam Dhillon and Anita, Pankaj and Niketan Dheer, among others.
They all took advantage of the generosity of a flight that had been chartered specially by Shilpa’s friend Kiran Bawa and her dad GS Bawa, so that they could all visit the famous Gurdwara.
The plane landed at Amritsar airport in the afternoon. Shilpa was dressed simply in a yellow salwar-kameez, and was accompanied by Raj. Shamita wore a pink suit, and walked alongside their parents Sunanda and Surender Shetty, TOI has reported..
The airport was buzzing – a huge crowd was waiting to welcome the guests with garlands and flowers.
The party reached the Gurdwara around 3.30 pm. Shilpa immediately covered her head with her duppatta.
Inside the Gurdwara, again, there was a huge crowd waiting for a glimpse of all the stars. “Just the fact that I’m here is wonderful. I’m happy that my entire family and friends from Bollywood are here with me to do the sewa too,” Shilpa told reported in India.
Her mother added, “We actually wanted to do some sewa, but looking at the rush here, we couldn’t.” Shamita, protecting her mother from getting pushed around by the crowd, said, “It’s been a great experience, but the rush was maddening and it spoilt our mood.”
Playback singer Abhijeet, who had come with his wife said, “This is the first time I am here and it feels very good.” Monica Bedi looked rather demure in a white kurta and she said, “I just love coming to the Golden Temple... It refreshes my mind body and soul.”
“We basically wanted to create an awareness amongst the people about doing sewa at the Golden Temple and so, we brought all our friends from Bollywood. It was my father's initiative. He organised this function and brought all his friends to do sewa.”
Raj patiently waiting for Shilpa and her family to be escorted to the car. He said, “I loved the experience of coming here. This is my first time and that too with Shilpa and her family members – that made it all the more special. I hope and pray that my team wins the IPL this year too.”

Comments
you getting wrong idea Tejpaul
Get a reality check Theodorus!!
My reality check?
KHALSA MaNNN ji,
I'm not from North America but from Europe (the Netherlands to be precise). I'm not quite sure what you mean to say to me with that first sentence though? I do realise that my reality is very different from yours but I cannot help it to be limited to my reality. I'm willing to exand that ............
I never said you should give preference to anybody and I never said anything about selling a product or even spreading Sikhism but to create awareness (that is something entirely different). I also didn't say you need actors to do that but since they come to the temple anyway (and they are welcome I presume as anybody is) why not use that fact?
It is up to them if they want to sit with the sangat at the langar and it is up to them also if they want to wash dishes isn't it? You call 'their' movies and films ignorant. That might be true (to be honest I cannot recall having ever seen a bollywood production) but do not blame them as they are just the actors not the producers or writers.
Actors did not come for
Tejpal you do not get it...
Absolutely disgusting!
Turn it to your advantage.
Nihal Singh ji,
On the one hand I do understand your disgust on the other hand we should turn such an event to our advantage by using it to create awareness of the Sikh faith and situation in India.
I agree with you when you say that all visitors should be given the same treatment (so there shouldn't be a VIP treatment) but in order to enable people like them to just visit the temple does require some speacial measures regarding crowd management and safety I think.
Theodorus where do we draw a line...
Misuse the press attention to create awareness
kanwarjeet ji,
In my country famous people are 24/7 watched by journalists. The attention for them has little to do with special treatment or not. I agree when it is announced they go somewhere they will attract a crowd if not they will at least be followed by a string of jounalists. Some of them have to go through greath length to go somewhere and stay anonymous. Most of them have a hate-love relations with the press (they hate intrusion into their private life but the love the press as they need it to promote their work). It is this journalists attention that we should 'misuse' in this case to create awareness for Sikhism.
Problem with we Indians is
Gurudwara special plans for special people