Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, AR Rahman and much more – the ISL 2015 Opening Ceremony promises to be the perfect hors d'oeuvre to the main course that is the first match of the new season between Chennaiyin FC and Atletico de Kolkata at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.

ISL has been billed, and successfully it must be said, as a tournament that merges entertainment with its bread and butter – the sport of football – and with the star-studded lineup that the ISL has to offer, expect another big-time Opening Ceremony to mark the league's second year.

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ISL 2014 was a great success, marched towards superstardom by an Opening Ceremony to remember, and with Aishwarya Rai headlining the list of acts for ISL 2015 Opening Ceremony, there is little doubt that this one will be something for the audience to remember for a long time again as well.

Aishwarya Rai already has a pretty big stake in the ISL, considering her husband Abhishek Bachchan is one of the co-owners of Chennaiyin FC.

With the Bollywood star already expected to be in Chennai to cheer her husband's team on for the opening match of ISL 2015, drafting in the 41-year-old to perform a medley of her hits was a no-brainer.

As if a dance performance to remember form Aishwarya Rai wasn't enough, we will also have the music maestro AR Rahman performing, and with the music director quite popular in Chennai, expect the crowd to give him a huge ovation.

There will be several other performances as well, with lights, colours and fireworks set to go off on Saturday in Chennai, in more ways than one.

Where to Watch Live

Get the Opening ceremony Report HERE

The IPL 2015 Opening Ceremony is scheduled to start at around 6 pm IST (1.30 pm BST, 8.30 am ET) with the first match between Chennaiyin FC and Atletico de Kolkata, set to begin at 7 pm IST (2.30 pm BST, 9.30 am ET).

Live coverage of the entire Opening Ceremony will be on the Star Sports network in India and the rest of the sub-continent. Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3 and its HD channels, as well as Star Gold, Star Utsav (both Hindi), Jalsha Movies (Bengali), Suvarna TV (Kannada), Jaya Max (Tamil) and Asianet Movies (Malayalam) will show the performance live.

The live streaming online option for the ISL 2015 Opening Ceremony is on Hotstar and Starsports.com.