A pall of gloom was cast over the Tampa Bay festivities during the weekend as stars were forced to defend their decision to sacrifice their votes. Shabana Azmi touted the excuse of her NGO, Javed Akhtar wished he was as lucky as his son who got to vote, Ritesh Deshmukh defended his colleagues after managing to vote himself, Anupam Kher chose to talk about his film instead while Abhay Deol stayed clear of the press.