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April 2), with American rapper Pitbull and superstar Shah Rukh Khan stealing the limelight. The city let its hair down with SRK, Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone grooving to the desi moves, leaving the healthy turnout at the Salt Lake Stadium enthralled. The nine captains line up after signing the MCC Spirit of Cricket board during the IPL opening ceremony at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Tuesday. PTI (Photo courtesy BCCI) It reached a crescendo when the evening's biggest attraction of them all, Pitbull, took to the stage. The 120,000 capacity football stadium transformed into a magical kaleidoscope of Rabindra Sangeet, Bollywood dance, songs and, above all, unfettered enthusiasm as the 2013 leg formally opened with all the nine team captains taking the ICC Spirit of Cricket Pledge, 'Play hard, play fair'. Flying drummers, Chinese percussionists, fireworks were the some of the other attractions that were on offer for the event. After that a collection of balloons rose slowly and smoothly into the hot air above to the sound of drums, music and the cheers of people, with a performer carrying the winner's trophy.
The 1 hour and 45 minute extravaganza, which was high on entertainment, have surely made the 60,000-plus turnout forget the controversial build up cash-rich T20 league. The opening though, at times, appeared to have fallen short of the standards Khan had promised prior to the event. Divided into six segments, the evening began with Khan doing a poetic rendition of popular Rabindra Sangeet Aguner Paroshmani with the popular poetry 'Where the mind is without fear " being played in the background. As is the tournament's wont, the build-up to this edition, too, had been blighted by controversies, but the gala opening has has put to rest all apprehensions.The evening started with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lighting the ceremonial lamp in the presence of a host of dignitaries, which included BCCI president N Srinivasan, vice-president Arun Jaitley, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, Cricket Association of Bengal president Jagmohan Dalmiya, besides the cricketers. Khan, who is also the brand ambassador of the state besides being a co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, thanked Banerjee for her support and said, "I've always said our performances are in the periphery before the real show (cricket) begins." It was a flying female performer's acrobatic descend on the dais with the trophy that stunned everybody.
The performer handed the trophy to defending champions KKR's skipper Gautam Gambhir. All the captains beginning with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, skipper of the most successful franchise Chennai Super Kings, signed on the ICC Fair Play pledge. Padukone made an appearance on the stage from the cutout of her mask as she danced to the tunes of the 'tumi ho tumi ho shakha'. Katrina made an entry on a chariot as the crowd roared to the tunes of her popular dance numbers in the long Bollywood segment. Khan kept everybody waiting before making his entry after 45 minutes into the ceremony with the popular 'main hoon don' number. "The IPL is not only about excitement, it brings the happiness wherever we go. I am not going to stop now but will continue to dance to the party," Khan said while dancing to the tunes of 'main hoon naa', 'kuch kuch hota hai', and 'baazigar' among others. Khan then invited veteran artists Bappi Lahiri and Usha Utthup, who added to the euphoria with yesteryear hit songs such as 'hari om hari' and 'rambha ho'. The show concluded with American rapper Pitbull making the youngsters in the audience groove to some of his peppy numbers.
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