So remember Shah Rukh Khan’s televised hunt for the Kolkata Knight Riders cheerleaders? Well the relocation of the Indian Premier League to South Africa made Shah Rukh Khan’s angels unable to perform since the rule is that all umpires and cheerleaders had to be hired locally. But before you launch into the collective awww-ing get this, the magnanimous SRK took the girls to Cape Town anyway for an all-expense paid trip!
King Khan was apologetic that due to the change in venue the six cheerleaders selected through the NDTV reality show Knights and Angels could not be his team’s cheerleaders and since the girls were upset that they could not perform, he gifted them a trip to South Africa to compensate! Sunanda Hiroo, Sana Chirawala, Rupali Kanth-aria, Ritika Chhibber (all Mumbai-based) Samyukta Surendra (Bangalore) and Ananya Bera (Kolkata) were on the holiday of a lifetime from April 15-27.
The girls were even part of the carnival road show prior to the opening ceremony. They watched the matches from the VIP box, along with SRK and his family. The girls also accompanied the team to the after-match dinner party and interacted with most of the KKR players. Ananya who is a class 12 student (eeks) said, “This trip made us forget all the despair we had. Shah Rukh has told us that we will be the cheerleaders for KKR when the IPL will be held next year in India.” Ok, everyone together now, “Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”
Cape Town Tourism’s IPL photographer Greg Beadle has collated his top ten shots of IPL cheerleaders.
