It was just another day for visitors at Delhi's Summer House Café, until Coldplay frontman Chris Martin took to the stage for an “impromptu” jam and stunned them.
The singer, who is in India with the Global Poverty Project to oversee innovative projects addressing sanitation in local communities, paid a visit to the café along with actress Freida Pinto. Also present were music director Vishal Dadlani, musician Raghu Dixit and members of standup comedy collective All India Bakchod.
“Best night this year! Listened @ChrisOfColdplay sing and play my guitar and the crowd going Para Para Paradise,” Raghu posted on Twitter.
Dadlani, however, confirmed on his Twitter page that “it wasn't an event”.
“It wasn't an event. We were at a dinner together, and he just went 'let's go play somewhere'. And, boom,” he posted on the micro-blogging site.
Manish, manager at Summer House Café, said that they hadn't planned it and the Coldplay singer crooned “a couple of songs” on stage.
“They just came in and had a couple of drinks. Vishal and AIB team they offered Chris if they can play a couple of songs. I don't think that they have any shows planned here as he is the only one from the band to visit India,” he told IANS.
AIB shared a picture with Martin and Dadlani on their official Facebook page with the caption: "Hello Coldplay fans. We just introduced him (Chris Martin) on stage to do a set at Summerhouse cafe. Bizarre, fun evening."
“Delhi, actually, Summer House. More jam, less gig. Chris did all the work, though. People were going apes**t,” Dadlani wrote on Twitter.
During their trip to India, Chris Martin and Freida Pinto will meet key government leaders, non-profit partners in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) space, and participate in field visits to see innovative projects addressing sanitation in local communities throughout India.
Chris and Freida are key supporters of the organisation, and the “Slumdog Millionaire” star has previously used her voice to show her commitment to girls and women's education and empowerment.
CHRIS MARTIN'S SURPRISE DELHI GIG DISMAYS TWITTERATI
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin broke a million hearts when his impromptu performance at the Summer House Café here Wednesday night was missed by many of his fans. They were left with nothing but to outpour their feelings online.
Hollywood actress Freida Pinto, folk-rock musician Raghu Dixit and the AIB crew were at the café Wednesday night when Martin took on stage to play tracks like “Fix you”, “Viva la vida" and “Paradise”.
Coldplay fans, who were not at the venue when Martin jammed these songs, expressed their shock on the micro-blogging site Twitter -- one of them was actor Ayushmann Khurrana.
That very moment when the lucky few, including Raghu Dixit, chanced upon the performance live, Ayushmann tweeted how unfortunate he was to have missed the opportunity.
“F. You man! Whow,” the actor shared this post in a response to Dixit's tweet, where the musician mentioned that Martin played with his guitar.
Clearly celebrities were not the only ones to tweet about how sorely they missed the surprise performance.
“Chris Martin just broke up with Jlaw and then sang at a Bar in Delhi. If this isn't the definition of a mid-life crisis, I don't know what is,” tweeted Rahul, a Twitter user from Gurgaon.
Another Twitter user, Smriti Sant, tweeted: “Of course Chris Martin had to be in Delhi. Of course, because my life couldn't get more unfair.”
Twitter went abuzz with tweets pouring in from Delhi and Mumbai which gave rise to the new hashtag #ChrisMartinInDelhi wherein Delhiites were proud about him performing in Delhi but at the same time upset about how they decided to stay in that night.
On the other hand, Mumbaikars flooded their Twitter timelines expressing how they wish Chris Martin would come to Mumbai next.
#Coldplay Chris Martin was in #Delhi yesterday. @coldplay Please come to Bombay also,” Kritika Rawat posted from Mumbai.
“So, today Bombay is outraging about Chris Martin doing a private set in Delhi. And I thought townies would fly down for a gig to UK. #Tch,” posted another Twitter user.
The singer is in India as part of the Global Poverty Project to oversee innovative projects addressing sanitation in local communities along with Hollywood actress Freida Pinto.