West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will confer the state's prestigious ‘Vishes Sangeet Mahasamman' award on eminent playback singer Manna Dey in Bangalore today. The CM would bestow the honour to him at his residence in Bangalore and return to Kolkata tomorrow, state secretariat sources have said. This gesture comes in the wake of the inability of the 94-year old Dey to attend the state-sponsored Sangeet Mela that begins on Kolkata on 6 April because of his illness. Dey currently lives in Bangalore in the township of Kalyannagar after spending more than fifty years in Mumbai.

On Monday at the Phoenix Mall in Bangalore excited crowds broke free of the barricades separating them from the three stars of the evening, Priyanka Chopra, Ileana D’Cruz and Ranbir Kapoor, and nearly swooped down on them before Ranbir formed a protective cordon around the two ladies and fled—literally fled—with them through the back entrance of the mall.