My weekend with Barun day 1

My weekend with Barun

My name is Naeha I'm one of the cofounders and admins of TeamBarun.  You can say that I've been a fan of Barun for a number of years but never actually got the chance to meet in person. So when it was announced that Tu Hai Mera Sunday will be shown in my home city at the BFI London Film Festival I was absolutely overcome with joy. I purchased the tickets as soon as possible.

So with much excitement the week's flew by, much preparation took place, We were receiving gifts from all over the world to give to Barun,the cast and crew, and even a certain trophy from Io choice.

So as the days approached we were obviously eager to meet Barun and give him not only those gifts but the trophy that he was well over due to receive. We literally asked everyone if they could help of course we wanted to keep it a surprise for Barun and to our luck Raj Baddhan a long time friend of TB offered his assistance. 

So Friday began, somewhat nervously I got ready to go, making last minute preparations ensuring I had everyone's gifts that I had received and keeping in constant touch with Niji who had already left to get to the hotel.

So with lots and lots of butterflies I got to the hotel and met with Niji, who had already told me she had seen Barun and Shashana outside. Omg right.. Yep didn't help my nerves at all. But my friends who had met Barun kept telling me no you will be fine he puts you at ease when u meet him.

As the stations passed and I neared the hotel my mouth was parched and I was literally breathless. I was so nervous, I had missed previous opportunities to meet him and this time was special it was his first international movie premiere. 

So getting to the hotel lobby, I met up with Niji and added to her four large gift bags in the corner. Both Niji and I were spotting people from the cast in the lobby, neither of us had eaten anything or slept a wink the night before. 

So Raj, who by the way is awesome arrived and we chatted for some time. At this point Barun, Shashana and Millind had gone to London Live and I was reading tweets on my phone, thinking yeah this is not helping I'm gonna meet him in a few minutes. So attempting to call ourselves we had a coffee and gave Raj the gifts we had brought for him as a thank you for being so amazing.

So after a little while we were met by the PR guy and taken up to see Barun !! Raj, Tony and ourselves carried up our gift bags to the room where the interview was going to happen.

So we went in with the room set up with a sign and chairs, we put the bags in the corner and as we turned around there was Barun and producer Varun .

Dhak Dhaks omg he was there and guess what he looked every bit as everyone had described wearing his a jumper,blue jeans and his white converse.His hair is so unbelievably fluffy and his smile amazing.we said Hello and Raj introduced us and said they are from 'TeamBarun' to which Barun looked at us and said oh I know you guys ! He looked at me and said 'I've been surrounded by tall women the last couple days..not that it is a bad thing', never in my life have I been so happy to be tall.. That's right kids make sure you drink your milk and vitamins one day you can get complimented by your idol ! Somewhat blushing, myself and Niji told him we have all those gifts for them and the cast and his reply was 'omg how am I going to take these bag home?' He was very grateful to everyone who sent them. 

Then it was time for our surprise, we took out the trophy box and Barun said 'I'm getting an award?' Looking very surprised at us. Then we went up to him handing him the trophy and flowers and said 'this is for your influence on social media, I know you are not so active but your fans are', his reaction was priceless, 'swears.. Milind is not going to believe this'. Then we took a quick photo and Raj put the video on snapchat. He looked really happy and said thank you.

So when we went outside the room and started chatting to the PR guy Tony, he asked how long I had been a Barun fan and I replied since watching him on Baat Humari Pakhi hai and that I'm Punjabi and from Delhi like Barun so could easily identify with him as the guy next door. He asked us to rate Barun's popularity against those of Bollywood actors and we replied his popularity is close to if not higher than SRK.Then I had realised I had forgotten my iPad in the interview room ! Omg no so we quickly told him that I had left my iPad inside, they very sweetly allowed us back in and Barun was having water talking to Varun about what to eat, they had decided to have sushi. After finding my iPad even Barun helped btw we went downstairs to wait for Raj.

When we got downstairs we talked to Varun the producer and explained that we wanted to get autographs if possible. He was very kind and said sure that's no problem and took us back up himself knocked on the door and took us in. We asked Barun who was having some water if he could sign some autographs for us. He said sure no problem. He signed a few for us and said he had injured his hand climbing a tree, and I jokingly said that you were not trying to climb into Buckingham palace where you, to which he replied, oh no no I would have loved to be a convict but I live in a society with laws. Two things, one he said to us, I know your names, and when he read mine and niji's autograph and said to me 'your name has two a's' it took me a day after to realise he had in fact spoken an ipkknd dialog to me! Ahhh! 

So he signed a autograph for me and Niji really sweetly, one for TeamBarun and one for our friends at SFC and told him that they were celebrating their 1 year birthday.  

It was thankfully downstairs, with Raj guarding my iPad I had left it. So we came down and thanked Raj again it downstairs, call it the hotwa effect that I was randomly leaving my possessions around the hotel. It was an awesome experience and we stopped for a moment or two just to collect our thoughts, we had actually met Barun, I mean the BARUN Sobti, and we couldn't believe how nice and humble and easy going he was. He didn't say no for a picture or autograph and he was genuinely really happy to meet us. Outside the interview room we spoke to one of the PR people, who were absolutely fab and she was asking us if we would be at the screenings, to which we replied yes, we're actually in the second row(important detail which we found out the next day) and many of our friends will be coming tomorrow from all parts of the country,they seemed genuinely surprised and happy that our boy was well known in the UK, she was very sweet and asked if I had found my IPad and if not they would find it and return it to me the next day. 

As we left the hotel we checked our phones, of course Raj's post had gone viral and our mentions had gone crazy. 

So coming out of the hotel we ran into the rest of the cast who were coming back to the hotel, and with a injection of confidence that I had just received via Sobti, I asked 'we're coming to your screening tomorrow can we get a picture' they were very happy to take a pic, and Jay asked if we wanted him to take the picture. So we got this awesome picture and met I met Avi whom I admit I have a bit of a crush on, I mean have you seen him? 

Getting lunch, we sat down and read everyone's reactions OMG our notifications were crazy and the surprise from everyone, we had not told anyone from TB or otherwise that we were going to meet Barun. I was very touched by all those who said that they wished this for me, it was really 5 years in the making. 

As we sat in the restaurant reading messages we forgot to order so giddy and so happy that we had actually done it. How nice everyone was and that what everyone had said about him being so humble was true. It took us 30 mins to actually order anything, we were just smiling and laughing like crazy people. Walking down Oxford street people were smiling back at us, Lord knows what people must have been thinking but it was the best feeling and that we were indeed going to meet him the next day.