Opening ceremony London 2012 celebrated with a doodle!

As the world's greatest sporting event is all set to go underway, the search engine giant celebrates it with a doodle.

The much-awaited opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics will begin On July 27 at 9pm GMT.

Directed by Danny Boyle, a lot is riding on the opening ceremony especially after the spectacular one thrown by the folks at Beijing in 2008.

It is interesting to note that the director of the Beijing opening ceremony was also a filmmaker, the great Zhang Yimou whose films include masterpieces such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers among others.

The ceremony will be a three-hour affair and will be watched across the world by over a billion people.

Back in 2005 when the bidding process for the venue was underway, Paris was touted to be the favourite. However as days passed London emerged as a promising venue and it became clearer that it would be a closely fought battle.

Finally on July 6, 2005 London beat Paris in the right to host the Games by a mere four votes (54 for London, 50 for Paris).

Less than 24 hours after Britons celebrated the success, terrorists bombed the London metro.

All of this however is now a thing of the past as London is gearing up to host a spectacular opening ceremony and indeed the games.

The ceremony itself is said to have cost about $42 million and will be attended by thousands of VIPs including guests such as Angelina Jolie and US First Lady Michelle Obama among many others.

Opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics will be aired in India on ESPN on July 28 at 1am IST.