Friday evening saw all roads lead to a suburban five-star, where a men's glossy was celebrating its yearly award handouts
Irrfan Khan
Friday evening saw all roads lead to a suburban five-star, where a men's glossy was celebrating its yearly award handouts. The thing about awards is that they only matter if you have a Bollywood star receiving one, and often one gets the feeling that the categories are made up on the spot, depending on star attendance.
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So, while Anushka Sharma won hers for the straight forward 'Woman of the Year,' Rajkummar Rao for 'Actor of the Year', and Karan Johar for 'Producer of the Year', vastly more creative categories were invented for the truckload of other Bollywood attendees. Aamir Khan won his for 'Creative Maverick of the Year', Sridevi got the 'Excellence in Acting Award,' Ranveer Singh was awarded the 'Entertainer of the Year,' and Sidharth Malhotra got the 'Most Stylish Award' (the committee must have got tired of the whole business by then).
The most intriguing title by far though was Irrfan Khan's 'Outstanding Achievement Award'. Not being sure what that meant exactly, there were many in the audience who assumed it was for turning up in a skirt - a fact that had created such an impression on all that it even found mention in Johar's speech: "The other highlight of the night (besides Aamir Khan's presence at an award's ceremony)," said Johar, "is Irrfan Khan has actually stolen Ranveer Singh's skirt, which is the second thing I will never forget!"
Rain, two shopping extravaganzas, and a clash of cultures
Mumbai's recent unseasonal and torrential rains have played havoc with many things, but perhaps one of their most diabolical impacts was on the season's two biggest shopping extravaganzas: The Sahachari Foundation's Design One presented at the Jiyo Gardens at BKC, and the Yasmin Ali Morani-led JOYA held at the NSCI Dome.
The women behind Design One
How so? Well, because of Tuesday's downpour and the Met's warning of more inclement weather, both festivals that had earlier been carefully planned with a decorous interval ended up on the same two days. Two days of retail frenzy, two days of monster retail jamborees for more or less the same ware (embroidered jooties, costume jewellery, evening bags, designer saris), were more than what even the most veteran of the city's shopaholics could handle.
Jacqueline Fernandez, Amruta Fadnavis and others at the inauguration of JOYA
What's more, in a delicious twist of irony, the festivals highlighted Mumbai's North-South divide: Design One at Jiyo, spearheaded by the likes of Parul Choksey, Meenakshi Bajaj, Brinda Khatau, Neelima Kilachand and Lakshmi Nair, known to reflect a distinct South Mumbai understated sensibility, was showing at Bandra, while JOYA, championed by the likes of Morani and Jacqueline Fernandez, known to draw its inspiration from showbiz and glamour, was being held at the NSCI, the very entrance to SoBo.
The result? A clash of cultures, much to-ing and fro-ing up and down the sea link, traffic jams, air-kissing, back-biting, selfies, and polite and not-so-polite bitch fests over-priced objects with thousands of prime Mumbai women chanting JIO-JOYA-JOYA-JIO, not knowing if they were coming or going! Blame it on the rains.
Hot-line fling
A few weeks ago, a long-legged young Bolly actress is said to have made quite an impact on one of the world's most famous international hip-hop artists, from Canada. "They both happened to be dining (on separate tables) at the same high-end Chinese restaurant in London, when the pretty actress caught the eye of the international musician and his entourage by chance," says a source.
"He found her exotic looking and asked the server who she was, and was informed that she was a Bollywood star. One thing led to another and they ended up partying together and have got quite close, managing to stay away from the paparazzi until now. And how did he know it was more than a passing fling? "He has over 30 million followers on social media," said the source, "but has started following her." That settles it then, we suppose.
Moon-lit safari
It is celebrated as the heart of Boho chic and the capital of the United Kingdom of BoBo (bohemian bourgeoisie), which is why when Anita and Simran Lal, the women behind a leading luxury design house, invited friends and admirers of their seminal brand to celebrate 21 years of its existence at a moonlit safari last week, it was a veritable houseful at their mid-city flagship store.
Anita Lal and Aarti Surendranath
Spotted on the occasion were Greg Foster, Sabina and A D Singh, Ashiesh Shah, Divya Thakur, Anuradha Parikh, Kailash and Aarti Surendranath amongst others, enjoying Suman Sridhar's rendition of old Bolly hits. Incidentally, Anita who presided over the evening, resplendent on the 'schezade zenana diwan' she'd designed, amidst a gaggle of women, was the subject of a hilarious video featuring Ranveer Singh shortly after.
Siddhartha Lal and A D Singh
Apparently, when her son Siddhartha Lal, widely credited as the man responsible for the turnaround and revival of his company's cult motorcycle brand, had run into the actor the very next evening at an award ceremony (they were fellow awardees), he got Singh to record a selfie for his mother who was a huge fan. The result? A long-haired Ranveer Singh hamming it up for the camera exclaiming, "Mummy!! Anita!! Tey are troubling me over here. Save me from this man!" Sid who posted the video wrote, "Mummy loved the vid by the way!"
'Talking of Bhupen and Co'
The champagne and canapés launch of an international auction house's imminent Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art Sale over the weekend saw many a city art lover in attendance. We spotted interior designer Kavita Singh, Goa-based industrialist Raj Salgaocar, and businessman Munna Zaveri, listening to former director of the NGMA Dr Rajiv Lochan's talk on the late Bhupen Khakhar's works, with a showing of two canvasses of the artist from the estate of British painter Howard Hodgkin.
Parmesh Shahani
While Lochan touched upon Khakhar's interest in the underdog, his affinity towards the weaker and the broken, and "his nature of embracing the ones on the fringes," it was Lochan's reference to homosexuality - both, that of Khakhar's and Hodgkin's (both had been out and proud) - which saw many in the audience roll their eyeballs heavenwards.
"Bhupen spent a long time in Hodgkin's company during his early visits to England, which brought about a bond that went far beyond creative and intellectual pursuits…" said Lochan, adding, "Both shared common interests of collecting objects and mutual intimate sharing of desire." This prompted Parmesh Shahani to later comment, "In this day and age to speak that way about homosexuality… Jeeze…"
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