Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Delhi boy tells Mumbai's story
There could be a lot that is wrong with the world, but there are some things that are right too, and Raghvendra Rathore wants to tell those stories. An ad filmmaker by day, working under his mentor Aatish Dabral, Rathore has recently started a segment called Heroes of Humanity under the social media channel, Human Touch.

"Most of the video channels on the Internet either have a comic spin to them, rips off of AIB or are fictional web series. So I thought, why not start a space that's dedicated to these do-gooders of the city, who we know very little of," he says. Discovering Mumbai through his lenses, the 24-year-old Delhi boy, has featured a vada pav vendor in Vakola, who makes a fresh batch of vada pavs daily for beggars.

Another film is about a 21-year-old girl who has been helping blind students in the city, by recording audio lessons for them. "My next is about a transgender and my current project deals with female foeticide," says Rathod.

Farokh Engineer's cap could fetch £1,000
It's not often that Indian cricket enthusiasts of the 1960s and 1970s saw wicketkeeper-batsman Farokh Engineer under his blue India cap. Flamboyant Engineer was either seen plying his trade without any head protection or with a white hat most of the time. But that doesn't mean he didn't treasure his India blue cap.

On Friday, however, we came across an auction sale which had Engineer's blue cap for sale. The website mentioned that Engineer had gifted this cap to a former England player of the 1970s. When we got Engineer over the phone in the United Kingdom, he was surprised to know about the sale and couldn't recollect presenting the cap to an England player.

Anyway, the cap goes under the hammer under the banner of Graham Budd Auctions at Sotheby's in London's Bond Street on November 7 and it could fetch £750 to £1,000. Budd couldn't reveal the name of the England cricketer, but confirmed he had also been presented Engineer's blazer from the 1971-72 Rest of the World tour to Australia where Engineer kept wicket for Garry Sobers' band of the cream of world cricket.

Shaggy isn't about to change!
When we met Shaggy at a suburban five-star before he sang his hits for Mumbaikars on Friday evening, he didn't shy away from telling it like it is.

"These days, I work with a collaborator when am songwriting. I am not ‘with it' like I used to be, so I have a writer who keeps me updated with the young lingo. After all, I am 48!" he laughed. The hit-maker, who gave us ear worms like In the Summertime, Boombastic and It Wasn't Me, is these days promoting his new song, That Love. "I am lucky they were ‘earworms' as you say. They are not easy songs to forget."

Ask him if he has updated the style of his music and he shakes his head. "You should do what you are known for. I have a style and I am going to stick to that. I was doing the rap-reggae-pop fusion before it was all the rage! So I will just keep doing that."

Who has the right answer?
(left) Actors Anushka Sharma, (right) Aishwarya Rai and director Karan Johar share a light moment at the Jio MAMI festival in Bandra on Saturday.

Pic/Atul Kamble

Their happiness must be a spillover of the fact that their movie Ae Dil Hai Mushkil will release on time as planned.

Slaying it with love
Society girls, Nandita Mahtani, Bhavna Pandey and Dolly Sidhwani seem unstoppable with their prêt label. After launching Love Genration first in Paris and then in Mumbai, the ladies have managed to slay the Delhi runways with Amazon Fashion Week.

(From left) Bhavna Pandey, Dolly Sidhwani and Nandita Mahtani

"We wanted to create a line of clothing that not only is trendy but easy on the wallet, and has great quality," says Pandey. Sidhwani feels their individual style has also added an edge. Good going, ladies.

Refreshing change
We were totally head over heels in love with Natasha Kothari's blog (tailormadeteacher. wordpress.com), where she tells you stories of the fashion makeovers that she conducts for underprivileged children. This 19-year-old works in the development sector and also volunteers at an NGO called Spark A Change Foundation, where 25 students have been treated to the best of fashion.

Through this project, called Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder, these kids have earned several swag rights. "This was a way of making these children realise how pretty they are. We have some children modelling while others help with the attire and makeup, much like a regular fashion photoshoot," says Kothari.