MAMI party: Here's what transpired at Ambanis' big Bollywood bash

MAMI after-party: Here's what transpired at Ambanis' big Bollywood bash

Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita during the opening ceremony of 18th edition of Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival at The Royal Opera House, Charni Road in Mumbai. Pic/Shadab Khan

Nita Ambani excused herself to catch a flight to Amsterdam for son Akash's 25th birthday, but not before treating Bollywood to her famed hospitality at the film fest's after-party.

Speaking in chaste Hindi - and one wonders how many of the foreign delegates at the city's premier Mumbai Academy of Movie Image (MAMI) film festival understood it - Amitabh Bachchan recounted how he had "first come to Mumbai in 1950, and lived with the grandparents of industrialist Gautam Singhania (also present in the audience)." They had taken him along to see his first film in the city at the Royal Opera House, and he was "stunned to find there was such a thing as a ‘box' in a cinema hall."

Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh. Pics/Atul Kamble

Bachachan was speaking last night at the 100-year-old live performance venue opened its doors after over two decades with the MAMI film festival's launch. In its new avatar, it isn't a cinema hall, but last night it was full of cinephiles nonetheless, while various juries of the fest got introduced, culminating with a performance by Shankar Mahadevan, and lifetime achievement awards presented to director Sai Paranjpye ("maybe it's a gentle hint to say you've done enough"), and the Chinese master auteur Jia Zhanke ("I saw Awaara as a kid, and remained one for the film industry forever").

Considering the 18-year-old film fest once held press conferences in the parking lot of Wadala's IMAX theatre, the Opera House venue gave it a grand face-lift (although renovation wise, it's still a work-in-progress). As festival director Anupama Chopra put it, "How does one even top this?"

Diana Penty

The after-party moved to the ground floor, fully-chandeliered banquet hall at the Ambani residence, Antilia. Aamir Khan and wife Kiran (chairperson, MAMI), local and international delegates, and the Bollywood brigade that included Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Dia Mirza, Kalki Koechlin, Kunal Kapoor hung out. Harshvardhan Kapoor arrived in a crisp suit; Ritesh Deshmukh and Genelia were inseparable through the night.

Among a key group that steered the festival's fabulous facelift, and host for the evening Nita Ambani told us in passing she had to slip out to catch a flight to Amsterdam for her son's 25th birthday. We're guessing that's Akash, who was at the fest looking dapper in a suit.

Arjun Kapoor

"One kid is in Stanford, the other in Brown; we decided to meet somewhere in the middle," she said, referring to daughter Isha, who is pursuing an MBA, and Anant who is a junior at Brown.