Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Chef or bouncer?
Kelvin Cheung protects his patrons Disha Patani and Tiger Shroff as they head out after lunch at his Bandra restaurant. Pic/Shadab Khan

Ralph Lauren. Pic/AFP

Ralph says namaste
Anna Wintour, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Anne Hathaway, Robert De Niro, Priyanka Chopra, Kanye West and Hillary Clinton. Last week, all these celebrities showed up for an event for fashion guru Ralph Lauren. While the industry celebrated the design genius at a glitzy 50th anniversary show held at Central Park as part of New York Fashion Week, Lauren will be coming to Delhi later this month for the launch of two of his labels. While Delhi might have won this round of the capital vs Mumbai fashion debate, the city's high-heeled fashionistas will be there to schmooze in full force, we hear.

Writers Vinitha Ramchandani (centre), Manasi Choksi (left), and Shriti Das (right) of the People Place Project at a book reading session

Mumbai for the moppets
Our city never runs out of stories, but some often go unheard in the chaos. In Bandra yesterday, writer Vinitha Ramchandani conducted a reading session of her book People Called Mumbai (children's edition), along with writers Shriti Das and Manasi Choksi of the People Place Project, an organisation that maps places through stories. Ramchandani's book curates the experiences of everyday heroes - the newspaper vendor, policeman, or domestic help. And in order to bring this into the hands of young children, they are now raising funds to disburse 5,000 copies of the book, to be used as an English reader, to students across municipal schools. The campaign, called The Empathy Project, will be in collaboration with NGO Apanalay.

The future is female
With her directorial venture Manto making waves around the globe even before it hits city screens, Nandita Das has also voiced her opinion and participated in rallies surrounding the issue of gender parity in the film industry. Only last week, she was invited to speak on the topic at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where the film had its North American premiere. In a tweet, the actor shared a picture with TIFF's artistic director Cameron Bailey who started the Share Her Journey rally addressing gender equality before allegations against Harvey Weinstein sprung up in the media leading to the #MeToo movement.

Eco warriors hit a century
Good habits are best inculcated in childhood. In an effort to curb pollution caused during Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, more than 100 students from BKC's Mount Litera School International pledged to go green with their celebrations and each of them created eco-friendly idols for their homes with clay, tulsi seeds, and moong. They will plant them post immersion. We'd love to see more schools follow suit, now that they've set the bar.

Vishal Bhardwaj

Sanya has a special request for Vishal
Sanya Malhotra seems to have a penchant for films where sibling bonding has a key role to play. The actor who made her Bollywood debut with the film Dangal (2016), where she played the younger wrestler sister, is now ready with her next.

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, it revolves on the story of two sisters who cannot see eye to eye. The film includes a wedding sequence crucial to the plot, where Malhotra's character dons the attire of a Rajasthani bride. Now that the shoot is wrapped up and the film is ready for release, we hear Malhotra has made a special request to Bhardwaj. She is keen on retaining the wedding outfit as a keepsake. Incidentally, this isn't the first time Malhotra has done such a thing. She still retains her wrestling gloves and a couple of wrestling costumes from Dangal.

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