Mumbai Diary: Wednesday Dossier

Varun Dhawan for a shoot at Goregaon

Child's play

Varun Dhawan pulls off a balancing act while shooting for an advertisement at a Goregaon studio on Tuesday. Pic /Satej Shinde

Taking the mobile route

A matchmaking service for Maharashtrians recently studied the demographics of over 2.5 lakh registered users and revealed that 86 per cent of the entire user base did their life partner search on the mobile. And there was data on buzzworthy professions, too. While business owners/entrepreneurs were the top professions for men, the women were mainly software professionals followed by academicians. But contrary to parents and siblings making profiles on matrimony sites, the study revealed that Maharashtrians have taken up the task themselves with 73 per cent individuals creating profiles on their own. That sounds like a much-needed change.

From India to Croatia

Filmmaker Aditya Kripalani may be just two films old, but he has already created quite a stir with both. While Tikli And Laxmi Bomb was about the dark underbelly of Mumbai, Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal (TPIM) is a unique take on eve teasing, where the female protagonists refuse to take the behaviour lying down. Having already done the rounds of the festival circuit - including being the official selection in the feature film category at the 17th Garden State Film Festival in New Jersey - the film is now the official selection of the 24th Split Film Festival in Croatia, the country's largest. Our congratulations.

Look who's on Instagram

"Classic Irani Cafe near Opera House, Bombay," the bio of Café Dela Paix - one of the 10 winners in The Surviving Irani Café category of The Guide Restaurant Awards 2019 - reads, on Instagram. The cafe that currently in the middle of sprucing up its interiors made its debut three days ago and yesterday posted a picture of its proud display of The Guide Awards plate below a framed drawing of the Eiffel Tower. Talking about what catalysed this move, owner Gustad Dinshaw Irani told this diarist, "I realised that social media needed to be taken into cognizance so that it can be frequented by people who can appreciate old taste and charm and not only its menu."

Get a slice of the pie

There has been a lot of brouhaha in the recent past about food aggregator apps and the discounts they offer. The National Restaurant Association of India is dead against the practice, and this paper has documented in the detail the way in which this battle is playing out. But now, there is another development that is aligned to this issue. A chain, 1441 Pizzeria, has launched its own app that customers can use to get customised wood-fired pizzas from any branch across the city. Not just that, they also get discounts that the eatery is willing to offer itself, apart from rewards based on loyalty points. Partner Krishna Gupta said, "The app helps us improve customer engagement, quality of service and adds value to the patrons." All that, at no cost to anyone else apart from the eatery itself.

Baking new ground

Touted as the pastry queen of India, Sanjana Patel, who started La Folie, her patisserie, a few years ago, was kind of off the scene the whole of last year. That she was spending her time travelling the world and learning more about her passion, explains her absence. Now, Patel is ready to launch a new project, due opening in September, which will house a bean-to-bar cafe, and a classroom, which Patel hopes will serve as an educational space for enthusiasts to learn more about the art of chocolate making. Speaking about her new endeavour, she told this diarist, "As people are becoming increasingly aware of what they consume, the chocolate micro factory allows us to educate the customer on the journey of chocolate, right from its origin - the cacao pod. The Classroom (her studio's name) is an extension of that goal. The space has been thoughtfully designed to create a cheerful vibe, and is equipped with the finest professional appliances."

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