Stars come together for 'Rebel Star'

The last time the Kannada film industry saw such excitement was during the Amrutha Mahotsava.

The entire industry had come together to celebrate 75 years of the its existence. The buzz and excitement is back. The industry has decided to join hands this time for ‘Rebel Star’ Ambarish, who is completing 40 years in the industry.

And what better way to celebrate this than on his 60th birthday? The film industry has invited the people of Karnataka to join them in celebrating the occasion in the form of Ambi Sambrama at Palace Grounds on May 29, 6.30 pm.

Preparations have been going strong for the last one month. The rehearsals have been going on in full swing for the last three days. There will also be a special photography exhibition called Ambi Bimba from May 29 to 31.

Actress Ramya, who will be performing a skit with Darshan, and dancing for a song with Puneeth Rajkumar, describes Ambarish as an individual with a good heart. “He is a jovial person and has always lent a helping hand to those in need. This is surely going to be one of those rare moments,” she adds. The evening will see performances by Sudeep, Upendra, Puneeth Rajkumar, Shivarajkumar, Srinagara Kitty, Yogi, Darshan,Yash, Aditya, Aindrita Ray among many others. Singer S P Balasubramaniam will render four songs of which one song is written by film-maker S Narayan for the occasion.

“Ambarish has completed four decades in the Kannada film industry and acted in over 200 films. Hence, we are leaving no stone unturned to celebrate the occasion. The evening will see very good dance performances and skits revolving around the actor’s life,” he adds.

Close friends of the actor like Rajnikanth, Shatrughan Sinha and Chiranjeevi, among others, are expected to grace the evening. Ask ‘Crazy Star’ Ravichandran, whose  birthday falls on May 30, about his celebration plans and he says, “I am not celebrating my birthday this year. I will be focussing on Ambi Sambrama. It’s a joyous event and we hope that it will bring him great joy as well.” 

This is the first time that actress Radhika Pandit will be a part of an event like this. “When
Amrutha Mahotsava took place, I was not part of it. Hence I’m extremely excited about the evening. I am looking forward to many of the performances as everyone has put in so much of hard work. It’s great that everyone is coming together as a family,” says Radhika, who will be dancing with Shivarajkumar and Ganesh.

But one can’t forget the chaos that took place during Amrutha Mahotsava. The actors are hoping for a better arrangement this time. “What happened during Amrutha Mahotsava was unfortunate. But I am sure that things are going to be different this time  and people must remember that the evening is to honour a very respectable and admired actor in our industry,” says Puneeth. As for the security, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) T Sunil Kumar says that close to 400 officers will be on duty. “We have also asked the organisers to have barricades to control the crowd and to depute as many volunteers as possible,” he says.