Sandalwood too celebrates Christmas. And where? Banashankari III stage, at composer-comedian-director Sadhu Kokila’s house.
And it has been an annual event with more than 1000 members from the industry toasting and embracing the spirit of the festival.
“Christmas is always celebrated in a very grand manner at our house. We make the crib and attend the mass two times. Later we continue the celebrations with traditional lunch that includes wine, cake and non-vegetarian biryani. My wife, Celine is behind all these grand celebrations that takes place at our house every year,” says Sadhu.
According to him, Celine waits for Christmas mainly because she gets to meet the industry folks under one roof. “The festival is not only for Sadhu, but my two sons -Suraag and Srujan also. We celebrate the festival with the industry like one family who join us to share their joy,” she says.
The family start their celebrations by attending the mid-night mass at St. Joseph’s Church. The highlight of the midnight mass is also that Sadhu is always present with his keyboard, singing carols. “It is very interesting to see most of them wait for the midnight mass only to listen to Sadhu’s carol singing while playing the keyboard. Even non-Christians attend the mass to listen to his songs. We attend one more mass in the morning after which the celebrations continues at our house,” she says.
With wine and biryani a hit at his house during every Christmas, Celine ensures that there is enough stock of homemade wine. “I start my preparations from October as the wine needs to get fermented and there is a long process to get that good taste. On demand, I also serve old wine that’s been in stock from past three to four years,” says Celine, who equally takes the effort in preparing the biryani.
“I prepare food for at least 1000 people and at least 300 to 400 parcels go out of our house to actors who are not able to attend our party. Usually stars like Puneeth, Darshan and Sudeep are always packed with busy schedule. So we make it a point that they at least have our biryani at lunch. I also prepare biriyani for vegetarians too. Malashree is a big fan of the wine and biryani that is prepared in our house and so are some of our other celebrities,” she explains.
According to her, Christmas is one among the few occasions when the actor takes time to be with his family. “This is the only day when he gives us his call-sheet. His next date with us will only be during next Christmas season,” she says.