It's an experience Sameera would never forget. Neither would her anxious and frightened parents in Mumbai who until she boarded her flight back to Mumbai the next afternoon kept calling anxiously to make sure their daughter was all right.
Shaken but not defeated Sameera said on the morning after the trauma, “You can't blame my parents for being scared for me. I was thoroughly shaken by what I happened. I played it down for my parents' sake. But I'd never like anyone to go through what me and my troupe dancers went through.”
So what exactly happened at the venue? According to Sameera, “I flew down excitedly to Patna on Saturday to perform at the channel's show. I had never been to the city. And I must say I loved the people and the place, no matter what happened later...
At the venue of the performance me and my troupe were backstage all charged to do a medley of chartbusters when suddenly pandemonium broke out in the open-air venue.We at first thought it was just the audience getting excited. And I quelled by troupe dancers' anxieties arguing that it is the publics excitement for which we artistes crave when we go on stage.”
But then the “excitement” got out of hand. Reliving those nightmarish moments Sameera says, “I was determined to go on stage, no matter how excitable the audience. But the next thing I heard backstage was the public from the back in the audience had broken the barricade in the secluded section because they wanteda closer look at the stage. They were breaking chairs, pelting stones and setting the barricades on fire.”
That's when Sameera realized the show was over. “The organizers came backstage and told me I've to leave immediately. But there was no way to get out!
The entire place was on a rampage. In a panic I was given a veil to cover my head and we pushed through the crowd. Believe me, that walk from backstage to my care of three minutes was the longest journey of my life.
Anything could've happened if I was recognized.I was put in one of the managing committee's small cars and I hid in backseat. Though my hotel was five minutes away from the venue it took me a good thirty minutes to reach the hotel. There were mobs pounding on the car.”
Her ordeal over Sameera then sat in the relative safety of her room agonizing over the fate of her troupe dancers. “Those twelve girls were still in the middle of the chaos. They were hysterical. I was on the phone with them until they got out.”
The car carrying Sameera's chorus dancers was smashed. “The windshield of the Sumo was broken. The girls were hysterical. They somehow managed to reach the hotel. We spent the night huddled together in my room not having slept a wink.”
Incredibly Sameera is not put off from Bihar because of the experience. “What happened would happen anywhere. I am not a stranger to mob mentality. I've performed at other volatile places.
That is why I always go in a large entourage and with at least two dozen security guards. Nowadays we girls from Bollywood perform at live shows constantly. There's no harm in that. But yes, there's an elment of risk. We need to be well-protected.”
But Sameera is game to return to Patna. “Oh anytime! I love the place. But next time I'd make sure the security bandobast is impeccable.”
Tanushree Dutta who accompanied Sameera to perform at the venue escaped the mob fury by a hair's breadth.
Says Tanushree, “I'm no stranger to Patna. I've been here before and there's always that lurking fear of mobs getting out of control. So I always travel my with own security from Mumbai. My performance was over when the mobs went berserk.
Poor Sameera got the brunt of it. I had seen the size of the venue the Gandhi Maidan and I knew the number of people it could accommodate. I was trembling in apprehension the whole day. My worst fears came true. But I escaped the chaos.”
