So the Olympic Torch Relay in New Delhi went as planned and without incident. The Bollywood representation was provided by Aamir Khan (pictured right), Saif Ali Khan (pictured below), and Sagarika Ghatge (who played the role of a hockey player in Chak De! India). This Times of India piece discusses the event. Watch video of Aamir Khan carrying the torch at this link. This photo gallery is a good way to summarize proceedings (and is also the source for the pictures that are part of this post).

Hardly any new thoughts to add, besides appreciation for those who made this a priority, and appreciation of the logistical challenges faced in planning the trek, one that lasted less than two miles but required more than 15,000 police men and women (per this article) to secure.

Note: For background, see related posts: Aamir Khan's Resolve Inspires and An Olympics Torch Bearer India is Proud of.

Speaking of Olympics and sports, here is an interesting piece on the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the challenges it faces. I am a huge (and I mean huge) fan of football (the American kind, have been for over 15 years now), and I find it interesting that some from the Washington Redskins cheer leading squad are going to be at the inaugural game (and three others for the Bangalore team), which will offer a nice face-off of sorts for fans of former Indian captains Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. And all this is related to Bollywood, of course, because Shah Rukh Khan is kind of perplexed as to why the tickets aren't selling as fast as he had hoped. Go figure. Oh, and the cheerleaders are even expected to incorporate some Indian filmy-style dance routines into their choreography. The following from this news story:

Some Indian dance experts too provided tips to visiting cheerleaders to add some Bollywood dance style in their performance.

"This fusion of dance backgrounds has created a new amazing style. I am really looking forward to the reaction of India towards the Redskins Cheerleaders," Donald Wells, Redskins' cheerleading director, said.

Should be interesting, to say the least (aside: in all my visits to NFL games over the years, as a fan of the Miami Dolphins, I have found the Dallas Cowboys cheer leading unit to be by far the most classy. But who wants to mess around with Jerry Jones?).

As for the IPL, I am not sure of what I think of the experiment. I see shades of the XFL (Vince McMahon's answer to the NFL which did not last long) in it, but the undertone to this is that we are shifting to a commercial brand of cricket that follows the franchise-model, and I am not sure if that will ever excite me near as much as an India-Pakistan game (those Sharjah days were phenomenal). Oh, and I shall be sharing some of the cricket team advertisements starring Bollywood stars as well (they are creative).