26092026-LSTC-01.qxd 9/25/2026 7:42 PM Page 1 c m y b RAJKUMMAR’S SRK MOMENT At Rajkummar Rao’s Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 18 appearance, he recalled how Shah Rukh Khan’s journey from Delhi and theatre to superstardom inspired him as an aspiring actor. Jaipur’s Rahul breaking stereotypes, one reel at a time TRIBUNE Fond memories Life When has During the grand finale of Sony Entertainment Television’s India’s Best Dancer Season 5, Karisma Kapoor shared a nostalgic memory about working alongside evergreen star Jackie Shroff in one of her earliest films, Police Officer. CHANDIGARH | SATURDAY | 26 SEPTEMBER 2026 Ghoomar no gender Ananya Verma R AHUL SHARMA was 12 years old when he first heard the words that would follow him for the next decade. Ghoomar, the traditional Rajasthani folk dance performed by veiled women in flowing ghaghras, was not for men. He heard it. He ignored it. He kept dancing. Today, in Jaipur, people recognise Rahul— the man whose Ghoomar reels stop scrollers mid-swipe. It started, he says, with Seema Mishra’s voice. “I was roughly 10 to 12 years old when I first got known to Rajasthani folk and Seema Mishra ma’am’s voice. I found it really attractive. I started listening to it and then preparing and then dancing on it.” He would come home from school, look up Rajasthani words in a dictionary, ask his mother what pomcha and kangasiyo meant, and then dance. “I found that Rajasthani music, our folk, is not just a song. It holds a conversation. It has characters. you can just vibe on it.” I found that Rajasthani music, our folk, is not just a song. It holds a conversation. It has characters. Whenever you just dance, you just vibe on it. The first reel happened by accident. One day at the gym, earphones in, a song hit him mid-dumbbell set. “I was2 getting goosebumps. I came home and I became restless. I kept my phone and started making a reel. I just made it and uploaded it. I didn’t even think about what would happen.” There were zero followers on the new account. The reel went viral. Then another. Then another. What followed surprised even him. “Raveena Tandon ma’am put up a story. Prince Narula put it up. Hardy Sandhu commented. Seema Mishra ma’am did it.” His c m y b mother, who had initially told him to stop, became the first person to like every reel the moment it went live. “She knows that the reel is posted at 6:15. She will be sitting with her phone.” His father came around when the press interviews started. “He said, ‘Okay. If you are happy with doing it, do it. We know the reality. We know you as a person. We don’t care about others.’ And that day I got real motivation.” The trolls came too. His response has never wavered. “Whoever has positivity in their life will spread it. I don’t reply to negative people. But I feel that they definitely contribute to my engagement.” The people who once criticised him hardest, he says, are now the ones telling him he changed their perspective. His message to the 12year-old boy hiding his passion today is simple. “I got late. You don’t get late. If I had started from 12 years, where would Ghoomar have taken me today? Don’t think about what those four people will say. Let them speak. You just do you.” Kem Cho Ahmedabad! …says Diljit Dosanjh as tickets for his tour go live from September 28 Punjabi singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh is super excited to bring his Aura tour to India with a grand show at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The concert is scheduled to take place on November 21. On Thursday, the GOAT hitmaker revealed the ticket booking details for the fans. Tickets will be available exclusively on BookMyShow, with a RuPay Credit Card Pre-Sale for Diljit Dosanjh’s 2026 Aura World Tour beginning September 28 at 12 noon. General On-Sale of tickets goes live at 2pm on October 1, on the platform. Commenting on his homecoming tour, Diljit said, “Duniya da sabton vadda stadium India de vich hai te gore group ne ohnu sell out kitta; respect for them. India de vich sabton vadda stadium hove te Panjabi uthe na aun eh taan phir ho nahi sakda.” Diljit announced Indian leg of the tour during his historic concert at UK’s Wembley Stadium on September 12. The Ahmedabad show will mark another milestone in Dosanjh’s career, as he becomes the first Indian artist to headline a solo concert of this magnitude at the world’s largest stadium, further marking a defining moment in the evolution of Indian artists on the global stage. — ANI