Hey, these are stars

It's 9am on the first day and there's nothing but a few pleasant PR executives and steaming coffee waiting for the media.

It takes about an hour for the first real celebrity sighting and turns out it's little Ayesha Kapur of Black fame, who sprinted in comfortable summer clothes and beach slippers along with what whispers said were her mother and brother.

The shining black Range Rovers started arriving soon after and guests walked the red carpet that was laid out for them.

Turns out not all of Bollywood is instantly recognisable. The first of the coloured hair, white beard brigade, Vinod Khanna - identified by a photographer - arrived with his wife and went largely unnoticed until a group of men came running towards him to welcome him.

With tons of broadcast cameras and many dressed-up young men and women around, the younger celebrities often found themselves walking in unattended.

Riteish Deshmukh, for one passed by cameras and photographers, who were busy with the ever-affable Shabana Azmi and her approachable husband, Javed Akhtar.

Close brush with the Big B

The loudest screams were reserved for the Big B, who was hidden by a towering bodyguard.

A group of 15 girls from Pakistan were ecstatic to have crossed paths with him.

Moments after their close encounter of the celebrity kind, they were visibly shaken in joy and couldn't stop pinching themselves.

"We've specially flown in from Lahore and haven't slept for three nights thinking about meeting Amitabh," said Pashmina, the spokesgirl of the group.

Everyone's a special invitee

At the not-so-true-to-its-name press conference (there was no Q&A) with Amitabh Bachchan, the hall was packed with people standing by the aisles.

Not sticking to the much-talked-about Bachchan punctuality, the conference started 40 minutes late.

Probably due to Dubai's traffic situation. But no questions were asked at the "press conference". Because many of the "journalists" at the event were special invitees, who came to rubberneck the stars.

At the post-conference lunch, many South Indian stars were spotted relaxedly chatting up with the media sans the presence of intimidating bodyguards.

Apparently, this is the first time that South Indian movie stars have been invited to the IIFA event, taking into account the huge population in Dubai from Kerala and other South Indian cities.

The stars included Mammootty, Ram Kumar, Madhavan and Prabhu.

Vikram has recently released his hit film Anniyan (screening at the IIFA film festival) in Hindi. He appeared to be quite pleased to be here. "It feels good to know that our industries are being recognised by IIFA," he said. A step away from Vikram, was Ramesh Sippy, the man behind Sholay, who looked to be enjoying some Arabic salad.