While a gregarious Ghai strode around Djinns, mingling with the chatterati, Taal's star cast (Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna and Aishwarya Rai) trooped in much later, with Sonali Bendre, who's in town shooting, and perched themselves on one corner of the pub-club. Rai, lovely in a black lace sari, soon announced flashbulb-fatigue, but willingly signed autographs and smiled politely at the rainstorm of compliments on her performance in Taal.

Kapoor might soon upstage Ghai as regards the number of times he surfaces in town for some do or the other: He was spotted just four days ago at another Delhi disco, with producer-brother Boney Kapoor, who was also present at Djinns. Meanwhile, Akshaye, who still hasn't had a true-blue hit to his credit, was conspicuous by his silence, and the perpetually pained expression. Only later did he confess to this reporter that he couldn't talk ``because of cavities'', though he did manage to say how happy he was about Taal's ``phenomenal success''. To which, Ghai, in between escorting Ash and directing Kapoor to ``go for that TV interview first'', popped open a bottle of champagne, in a well-rehearsed media exercise.

And no, Ghai had no time for arguments that Taal hasn't done well. Obviously, he was referring to the Indian diaspora's reception to his film, which has sold very well abroad. Instead, he let his actions do the talking -- on the dance floor, cutting the celebratory cake (by which time, the cast had ascended to their rooms in a cloud of star dust leaving behind aggrieved fans) -- though he said he'd be ``the last man to walk out of Djinns''. Taal order, and Ghai kept his word, almost.