Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

hahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif

Watching the stars
While the rest of the world watches them as they gear up for their upcoming Christmas release, Anushka Sharma seems to have seen something up above, as the actress joins Shahrukh Khan and Katrina Kaif for a media interaction at a Bandra five-star on Wednesday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Hue's who of art
Astaguru is hosting an online auction this weekend that will feature the works of some of the biggest names in Indian art. The highlights include a self-portrait by Amrita Sher-Gil, which is part of a series of such paintings that the legendary artist created. Other big-name artists include VS Gaitonde and MF Husain whose 1954 painting called Passage of Time will be up for grabs.

Then there's Bikash Bhattacharjee's painting titled Bisarjan and a rare terracotta Buddha sculpture created by Jamini Roy. The starting bids must be at least '20,000 and can be placed at the online auction house's website. This, incidentally, has been a memorable year for the firm, which celebrated its 10th anniversary sale in March this year.

A master chef whips up a meal fit for a king
Twenty-five underprivileged children were in for a treat at a city restaurant recently. Ben Ungermann, runner-up of Masterchef Australia 2017, was in the city recently to launch a food show he's hosting for television.

The event involved Ungermann and a host of city chefs - including Vicky Ratnani - pledging to raise 1 lakh meals on behalf of a charitable foundation, as part of which these 25 kids were the first few lucky ones. All the chefs were divided into four teams and had to pick options from a mystery box before deciding on the dishes they cooked.

Chew on this
An online food aggregator has released its statistics for the year, and they throw up some interesting observations.

For instance, the earliest meal on the app was ordered from Coimbatore at 6 am, while Delhi was on the other end of the spectrum with an order placed at 4.37 am. Also, the lowest-priced order was for Rs 10, and the most expensive one was worth a whopping Rs 38,000.

Akhtar's day at the museum
Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla is hosting a special exhibition at present, which had a high-profile visitor dropping in. Titled Connecting Threads: Textiles in Contemporary Practice, the show involves a whole range of documents and images that give a perspective on the subject.

And Bollywood legend Javed Akhtar soaked in all the information when he paid a visit, with Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, the museum's director and the exhibition's curator, and co-curator Puja Vaish explaining the nitty gritties to him.

This photographer is keeping mum
Did he or did he not? That seems to be the question that people are asking of Karnataka-based photographer Vivek Sequeira, after he posted a picture on social media with a cryptic caption that read, "Just finished covering India's biggest-ever wedding." Later, a news outlet posted an interview with the 47-year-old, who runs an agency called Luxe Captures, in which Sequeira reportedly revealed that the wedding he was referring to was that of Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal's.

He also reportedly said that when he got the contract in July, the name of the client was kept a secret, and he had to sign a strict confidentiality agreement. He added that his team of 17 members took an astonishing 1.2 lakh photographs over a fortnight, which amounted to 30 TB of hard disks being filled with photos. But later, Sequeira distanced himself from this interview, putting up another social media post that read, "Hi all, my sincere request to all! Please don't spread the rumours about the wedding people are talking about [sic]." Has he been given further gag orders now that the festivities are over? It's a mystery that needs an answer.

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