Popkorn's first birthday bash last night was a dampener of sorts! With most prominent stars giving the event a miss, the show lacked the glamour quotient that's generally been its on air USP. Here's an ankho dekhi of what happened!

Narayani Shastri: Early bird!

Missing!
Prominent faces like Rajeev Khandelwal (who has been on the show more than once), Anuj Saxena, Ronit Roy, Rohit Roy, Shweta Tiwari, Cezanne Khan, Smriti Irani, Saakshi Tanwar, Poonam Dhillon, Mihir and Manini Misra, Sachin-Supriya, Parmeet- Archana, Juhi Parmar, Amaar Upadhyay, Tassnim Sheikh, Mona Vasu, Urvashi Dholakia, Hussain, Kunika Lal, Manav-Shweta, Nausheen Ali Sardar and regular party hopper, Swetta Keswani chose to stay away! Moulli Ganguly wasn’t invited. Pooja Bedi was the surprise absentee!

Spotted!
Om aka Kiran Karmarkar came with his wife, Rinku Dhawan. Rajesh Kumar too was accompanied by his better half. Other attendees were Vikas Sethi, Shveta Salve, Deepshikha, Kanika Maheshwari, Shonali Nagrani, Mini Mathur, VJ Salil, Maria Gouretti, Sachin Sharma, Rupali Ganguly, Naseer, Mona Singh, Gaurav Gera, Sandeep Rajora, Aakashdeep Sehgal, Komolika Guha, Gauri-Hiten, Achint Kaur and Mohan Kapoor. Shabir Ahluwalia walked in with Ekta Kapoor well past midnight. Present also was Times managing director, Vineet Jain. Karishma Tanna who was the first/ original choice to anchor Popkorn was also present and had come directly from a shoot.

Couple capers! Apoorva and Shilpa

Achint and Mohan Kapoor looked perfect together. Achint seems to have lost weight and was heard saying that she wants to get back in shape. Moonmoon and Shweta Tiwari had planned to come together for the party but both didn’t turn up. Chaitanya Choudhary was present sans Surveen Chawla. Snigdha Akolkar looked really beautiful and very different from her on screen persona. Indian Idol Abhijeet Sawant and his mates, Amit Sana and Rahul Vaidya also turned up but not many people seemed to notice their presence. Tanaaz and Bhaktiar came late and were stuck to each other for the rest of the evening!

Just posing! Bhaktiar, Tanaz, Rupali and Naseer

The party scene!
The action started with the cake cutting ceremony, when hostess, Mini Mathur took centre stage with Shonali Nagrani. The ladies opened champagne bottles.
Shutterbugs had a field day as all the actors present, posed for the cameras without throwing any starry tantrums. They smiled and crooned for the cameras as they clicked away! All those photographers who gave this bash a miss, will be rueing their decision.
The actors let their hair down on the dance floor. Aakashdeep Saigal made an entry sporting his usual long haired look. Amit Sareen looked the funniest, wearing Govinda type goggles and a small pony tail. Kulraj Kaur (who must have had a sleepless night due to the misdirected condolence calls coming her way) appeared understandbly lost.

Three's company! Rupali and Naseer with Shveta Salve

Producer Manish Goswami was seen hugging Sandeep Rajora and asking about his well being. Narayani Shastri was among the first to arrive and hit the bar soon after. Kiran Karmarkar was heard saying he now was a free bird. His wife Rinku was in full party mood. Harsh Chhaya, who was wearing a nice red kurta, made an entry with his wife. The only film personality was Anuuj Sawhney ( of Chingari fame). Eijaz Khan too made a late entry.
Few people talked about Kuljeet's suicide but it was apparent that the industry had

moved on. Deepak Parashar was seen with his Kahiin toh Hoga colleagues. Vikas Sethi was seen hugging Gurpreet Singh, who had come with girlfriend, Kanishka. Apoorva Agnihotri and Shilpa looked like a designer couple. Manish Goyal was his usual self with hair falling all over his face and looked endearing with his wife by his side.

Matters of the heart...errr height! Sandeep Rajora with Kanika Maheshwari

Freebies!
Booze and food was available in plenty. But most actors were unaware that dinner was being served and when at 1.30 am the place shut as per hotel rules, they went home a trifle hungry, we presume! Paper caps and whistles were given out to all at the entrance. The actors were quick to dump these in the nearest place in sight!

Sighting of the evening!
Sandeep Rajora was seen talking to Kanika Maheshwari. It was a sight to see the tall actor standing with his short and petite colleague.

PS: The party was a strictly entry by invitation only event. But people, isn't brandishing an invite enough to gain entry???? Most of the time it is, but, we guess, Popkorn begs to differ!