Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

King khan's handi work
Shah Rukh Khan gets into the spirit of Janmashtami by breaking a dahi handi at his home, in Bandra on Monday. Pic/Satej Shinde

Breathe easy
We remember starting many of our mornings with Telepopmusik's Breathe when it released at the turn of this millennium. It remains a perfect pick-me-up track, and also boasts a Grammy nomination. So you can understand our elation when we heard that Christophe Hetier aka Antipop, who founded the three-man outfit, will kick off his maiden tour of India next month. He'll be playing back-to-back DJ sets at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune, with his appearance in the city scheduled for October 5. We'll be there at the Khar venue for sure, and suggest that you make your way there as well if you, too, are a fan like us.

Celebrating a milestone with his best buds
Allow us to unleash some trivia on you, dear reader, that might make you feel a little old: Dil Chahta Hai, the movie that redefined the genre of films on friendship, is completing 17 years this month. In time for the milestone, Farhan Akhtar, who made his directorial debut with the film, and is currently touring the US and Canada with musician friends Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, recreated a Dil Chahta Hai moment on stage. The foursome performed the hit college anthem, Koi kahe kehta rahe, as the audience sang along and grooved to it. Like they say, some things never get old.

This festival will put hip-hop on top
The more we move closer to the release of Gully Boy, early next year's Bollywood offering based on hip-hop in the city, the more we find events related to the genre. The latest sign of this is news of Gully Fest, a one-day hip-hop festival on September 22 that will feature the biggest names in the country. They include Delhi Sultanate and Begum X, Enkore and Major C. And not so coincidentally, the event is being helmed by DIVINE (in pic), the poster boy for gully rap, on whose life Zoya Akhtar's Bollywood film is based. We are not sure if this is a savvy marketing gimmick to generate buzz about the genre. But either way, we aren't complaining if the festival gives hip-hop a further leg-up in India.

New York in Bandra
Soul Fry's owner Meldan D'Cunha is opening a new eatery in Bandra. Called NYCD, short for New York City Diner, D'Cunha got inspired by the street food on his trip to the Big Apple, and decided to open a café based on it. Located near Lilavati Hospital, the 24-seater will have an open kitchen and even a keyboard for musicians. "We plan to open early October. The menu will include gyros, southern fried chicken, Philly cheese steak made of chicken, sloppy joe, shrimps and grit, and pizza slices," shares D'Cunha.

Why Bhagat's a fully filmy author
We'll leave it to you to decide how good or bad Chetan Bhagat is as an author. But we have to say that when it comes to marketing his books, no one does it better than him, at least in this country. Further proof of this arrived yesterday when Bhagat used a unique method to reveal the title of his new book and the name of its main characters - he did so thanks to a full-blown Bollywood-style trailer that had actors representing the book's characters. So, now we know that The Girl in Room 105 is an "unlove story" about Keshav - whose father is a senior member in the RSS - and Zara, who's a Muslim girl from Kashmir. This trailer follows a series of clues that Bhagat had been leaving on Twitter, hinting at the book's title. Now, we'll have to wait and read before we judge the book on its merit. But if we had to judge Bhagat as a marketing genius, we'd already give him top marks.

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