The non profit Global Citizen Festival 2016 kicked off in grand style in New York's Central Park on Saturday, 24 September. Quantico actress Priyanka Chopra and Member of Parliament Poonam Mahajan introduced the India chapter of the festival. Giving them company, and an accidental gaffe to laugh about, was Coldplay lead singer, Chris Martin.
The Global Citizen Festival is a peace movement aimed at the attempt to end poverty across the world. The festival was headlined by some powerful names and celebrities including Kendrick Lamar, Metallica, Eddie Vedder, Rihanna, Ellie Goulding, Chris Martin, among others
Chopra, who was the host for the night along with Hugh Jackman and Neil Patrick Harris, introduced the India chapter of the festival with a reminder that India, with its majoritarian youth population, is on the verge of change. She announced the debut of the festival in India on 19 November this year. MP Mahajan welcomed the intitiative's attempts to remove poverty, while welcoming the festival to Mumbai.
However, the best part of the speech was left to Martin. He welcomed the crowd by announcing, "I'm so happy to see all of you. We're so excited about going to India on November, the 19th."
This was followed by the awkward moment, when the singer innocently added a Kapoor to Katrina Kaif's surname. "We've Jay-Z and lots of people who I have on the list...Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif Kapoor, AR Rahman, Farhan Akhtar."
If you thought that went unnoticed in New York, you forgot about Chopra. The actress had an instinctive 'Oh!' to which Martin asked if he got something wrong. Witty as ever, Chopra replied "Oh no. It was close. It was close."
Sadly, Chris Martin has no idea how close that was.
Watch full video of Priyanka hosting the Global Citizen Festival 2016 in New York.