Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's name missing in WKS's guests list

The name of Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been omitted in the list of guests for the inaugural ceremony of World Kannada Summit (WKS), which is set to take place in Belgaum on March 11. Sources claim that the reason behind dropping her name is her presence will create undue importance to one individual than the event.

On the occasion of the WKS, the Karnataka Government has planned to honour the people those who are made Kannadigas proud in National and international level. Since Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is born, brought up and educated in Karnataka, everyone was hoping that she would be honoured on the occasion.

Earlier, it was even reported that along with Infosys founder Narayan Murthy, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will grace the occasion. But her name was not figured in the list of guests released by Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa on Thursday. Talking to the Times of India about omitting her name, an organiser said, "We have decided not to include the Bollywood star in the opening ceremony as it is likely to give undue importance to one individual than the event."

However, the guest list of the WKS includes the names of some bigwigs like Syed Kirmani, Anil Kumble, J Srinath, Aswini Nachappa, Aswini Shetty, Ambareesh, B Sarojadevi, Jayanthi and Bharathi Vishnuvardhan. Around 500 artists and technicians from Kannada film industry will take part in the event to entertain the gathering on the opening day with a variety of cultural programmes. Music director Hamsalekha is in charge of the cultural events.