Deepika Padukone's night out at Olive in Mumbai

Three of Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB)’s heroines Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra (working with SLB on a biopic of Olympian Mary Kom)  made their presence felt  at  Olive on Sunday night to bring in the filmmaker’s 50th birthday. His fourth heroine Rani Mukherjee was conspicuous by her absence in the dazzling turnout of stars and filmmakers. But it was Deepika who won SLB’s heart by driving for five hours from Wai outside Mumbai (from her shooting of Chennai Express) to wish the birthday boy.

The actress was at the party and then left for Wai again to report for her shooting with Shah Rukh and Rohit Shetty’s unit. Says an eyewitness, “Deepika was in her element, mixing and having herself a ball.”
Not sure how much that had to do with the presence of rumoured beau Ranveer Singh. She was also seen bonding with Priyanka Chopra. Curiously both Dippy and PC maintained a distance from Aishwarya.” Karan Johar showed with up UTV’s Siddharth Roy Kapoor (minus wife Vidya Balan). Farah Khan came with a cake which had the names of all of SLB’s films on it.

The surprise guests were singer Kavita Krishnamurthy who rarely makes an appearance anywhere and composer Ismail Durbar with whom SLB had a fall-out some time ago.

Says an insider, “At midnight when the party had to wrap up at Olive a select group of friends which included Abhishek and Aishwarya, Deepika and Ranveer proceeded to Shrishti Behl’s residence to continue the party.” Says a guest, “It was a surprise party. SLB was told there would be no birthday party.

He felt no one would have the time to come  for it. In fact, he was not told about the party until 9 pm on Sunday. His sister Bela and his company’s CEO Sandeep Singh had arranged everything. They had personally invited all the guests.” Other guests included Rekha, Hrithik Roshan, and Shatrughan Sinha.