Rani and family kept their date with tradition despite the family patriarch being in the hospital

Despite a personal crisis, Rani Mukerji along with her mother Krishna and brother Raaja did not break away from the family's age-old tradition of personally serving food to the thousands who throng to the Durga Puja celebrations organised by the Mukerjis.

The star's father Ram Mukerji is unwell. A heart patient, he has a nurse attending to him 24/7, as he is mostly bedridden. In the past, he has also been hospitalised.

During the puja week, he suffered from a cold and flu. As a result, the family could not take any chances.

Says Raaja, "He was still extremely keen to visit the pandal. We did take him for a very short while on one of the days."

The Mukerjis attended the celebrations of the North Bombay Sarbojanin Durga Puja Committee at Santa Cruz.

Every year the family including Rani serves food during the bhog.

Family custom

"This has been the family custom for years, " says Rajaa who is in the midst of the production of his first Hindi film Life Isse Gala Laga Le, a youthcentric film about the various pressures in life.

Written and directed by Yogesh Pagare, it features Adhyayan Suman, Divya Dutta, Rahul Dev, Anita Hasanandani, Aushima Sawhney, Himani Shivpuri and newbie Vaibhavi Upadhyay.

Rani's brother had earlier directed the Bengali film, Bidhata Lekha.

Like sis, like bro!

Taking Rani's example who lost oodles of weight through yoga, Raaja Mukerji too has shed the kilos. "The difference is noticeable as people are noticing it.

I must have knocked off at least 10 kilos. I have been doing yoga besides controlled eating. I have also turned vegetarian. As my wife Jyoti is also a vegetarian I, too, decided for health reasons."