What goes on inside Bollywood's lavish Diwali parties? Pooja Hegde reveals

Pooja Hegde

The past week has seen Bollywood celebrities attend one grand Diwali party after another. Most of the parties saw the same celebrities day after day attending events hosted by different members of the industry. While fans get to see pictures of the celebrities wearing gorgeous traditional outfits and posing for the paparazzi, actress Pooja Hegde has now revealed what goes on inside these parties.

Pooja Hegde was recently in a conversation with BBC Asian where she spoke about her experience of attending lavish Bollywood parties The first question that the host posed before her was whether they run out of topics to chat about when they meet the same people at every party in the same week?' Pooja laughed and said that it does happen and they usually just pass greetings to each other when that happens.

"Sometimes they have like these card parties. I love to eat I am a foodie I am munching on something," she said.

Party or work?

Further when asked if being seen at these Bollywood parties is also part of their work so as to network with people who can provide with potential work opportunities. Time and again actors have spoken about how work opportunities get discussed at such parties. Pooja said that for her, who is an outsider parties are also like work.

"At least for me, it is also work. I don't know about people who have grown up (in the industry). What do you do if like your school friends are actors or like you are a star kid, I am sure it must be different. I am definitely the outsider who has come into this house maybe," she shared.

So, what's the ideal amount of time to spend at such parties? An hour, says Pooja Hegde. "Sometimes I have a lot of fun. Manish Malhotra is a great host. He really makes you feel welcome. That party I stayed much longer."

Manish Malhotra, ace fashion designer, hosts a Diwali party annually. This year too, he was the first to host a grand lavish Diwali party at his home. Celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Karan Johar, Ananya Panday, Shahid Kapoor, Riteish Deshmukh, Genelia Deshmukh and many more were in attendance at the party.