CHENNAI:T Nagar, the shopping centre of the city came to a glitzy standstill with the inauguration of the Kalyan Jewellers showroom on Friday. The first showroom of the Kalyan brand in the city witnessed a 1,000-strong crowd which grew by the hour to catch a glimpse of top stars in the Indian film industry at a function that was like the release of a magnum opus.
By noon, the streets surrounding the showroom spanning 40,000 sq feet, located near Kasi Arcade was greeted by loud cheer ahead of their appointed date with the stars. Traffic moving from T Nagar towards Pondy Bazaar was rerouted as numbers kept growing by the hour, even as police streamlined crowd movement.
This rush was not restricted to the streets alone with #kalyanjewellers trending in Chennai with over 250 tweets around the inauguration.
However, the public was also vocal on their displeasure about the traffic snarls which hit other parts of T Nagar like South Boag Road. Proprietor of Kalyan Jewellers TS Kalyanaraman took to the stage along with his sons Rajesh and Ramesh Kalyanaraman got an overwhelming response from the Chennai audience for the effort of bringing a gamut of 24 carat personalities of the Southern film industry.
It was 12.20 pm when Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Manju Warrier, Prabhu, Vikram
Prabhu, Shivrajkumar and Nagarjuna reached the store and interacted with the 1,000-strong crowd.
‘Okay va’ said Amitabh Bachchan when he addressed the public gathered there. He got the loudest response from the public when he spoke and thanked the Kalyan family for taking the effort of getting so many stars who he has worked with on the big screen.
Aishwarya Bachchan and Manju Warrier kept the massive crowd engaged with their Tamil, while Nagarjuna, Prabhu and Shivrajkumar voiced their pleasure at being part of a family function like this.
The stars took a selfie before inaugurating the showroom which was be thrown open to the public from 5 pm on Friday.