Amitabh Bachchan celebrates wedding anniversary with family

Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan with (centre) Hemant Oberoi

A frisson of excitement is said to have passed around the room, when the Bachchans - Amitabh, Jaya and family - had walked in to Chef Hemant Oberoi's newly opened eponymous eatery at BKC to bring in their 44th wedding anniversary this weekend. "There was definitely a lot of excitement," said Oberoi when we spoke to him on Sunday afternoon. "After all who else has the personality of Big B?" According to sources, the party had ordered off the menu, even granddaughter Aradhya who is said to have had bite-sized portions, including from the celebratory cake at the end of the meal. Was it difficult to cater to vegetarians, we enquired, in reference to the iconic star famous for his vegetarianism. "Not at all. In any case, 50 per cent of my menu is vegetarian," Oberoi said adding, "Most of the city's older foodies are vegetarian." And what was the piece de resistance of the evening? "The camembert soufflé," said Oberoi. "They used to always order it when they came to my Chef's Studio."

Amiruddin Shah. Pic/Sooni Taraporevala

A leap of faith
Sunday lunch with philanthropist Yusuf (Yuku) Hamied, pharma honcho, best known for defying large Western pharmaceutical companies in order to provide generic AIDS drugs, thus being at the forefront of its eradication, is always a pleasure. The Cambridge-educated scientist, son of the nationalist and freedom fighter KA Hamied, is a fount of fascinating stories. From world leaders to domestic policy to scientific breakthroughs, Yuku spoke on, until the Indo-Pak cricket match which he was avidly interested in watching, had almost begun. However, one story from yesterday's repast, bears immediate retelling: a large-hearted intervention that he mentioned almost in passing, concerning a young Mumbai boy named Amiruddin Shah, from a low-income background with an astonishing acumen as a ballet dancer, whose talent had been discovered and nurtured by an Israeli-American named Yehuda Maor, who teaches classical ballet at Ashley Lobo's danceworx academy.

Yusuf Hamied

Sooni Taraporevala

Recently, Shah had been the subject of a crowd-funding exercise, as he required support to fund his studies at the American Ballet Theatre school in New York City. And, it turns out, Yuku had committed to doing through the Yusuf and Farida Hamied Foundation the previous evening. "He was so, so amazingly generous," says award-winning writer and photographer Sooni Taroporevala, who has directed a VR film on Shah, which will premiere in Sheffield next week. "I sent him an email, and in less than an hour, he called to say he would sponsor Amir's entire expenses for the year, which come to $25,000!" says Taraporevala. "We do what we can," said Yuku, when asked. And then, he changed the topic to an altogether different subject.

Ranveer Singh

Ranveer's hat-trick!
On account of the injury he sustained while shooting for his upcoming Padmavati, Ranveer Singh is indulging in his one abiding passion: sports. The star, known for his hyper energy and outré style, has been in England the whole of the past week, and has achieved the ultimate jock's dream: first, as part of the audience at Wembley attending the FA cup football final between Arsenal and Chelsea (he supports Arsenal, which won) last week, and then, as part of a brand commitment, dropping into Wales, to attend the UEFA Champions League final, which saw Real Madrid win.

At the FA cup finals in Wembley

With Bunty Walia at the India-Pakistan cricket match in Birmingham

"Ranveer was given an all-access pass as he is the brand ambassador of one of the tournament partners," says a spokesperson. "He got to hold the trophy and step on the pitch before the match began." And as if this wasn't enough, yesterday, while all of India's eyeballs were glued to TV sets watching the India vs Pakistan cricket match in Birmingham, Singh once again popped up in the stands, cheering, along with other celebs, namely Sachin Tendulkar and actor Dhanush. Three major sporting events in a week! Only Singh could have managed this.

Rita Vaswani (the bride's mother) and Poonam Dhillon

Destination Vienna
This past weekend, Vienna was witness to a fair share of private jets, as family and friends flew in for the much awaited destination wedding of the Vaswani-Fabiani families, described as a match made in 'billionaire heaven'.

Manish Malhotra, Kajal Fabiani, and Sophie Chaudhry

Sonam, the London-based daughter of Dubai business tycoon Sunil and Rita Vaswani, is marrying Naveen, son of Kamal Fabiani. And sources say, going by the first-day celebrations, which were kicked off with a grand ball at the Palais Ferstel, it doesn't get much bigger than this.

Sid Mallya and a friend

"Sid Mallya, Nandita Mahtani, Surily Goel, Manish Malhotra, Sophie Chaudhry and Poonam Dhillon are all here," said a guest, as are multiple music talents, including Punjabi singing sensation Sukhbir who is already in Vienna.

Karan Johar talks to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

Journeys within and without
As reported earlier, Sunday morning witnessed a conversation between Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and Karan Johar, on the subject of Love and Life, which approximatly 7,000 people are estimated to have attended. Many of these, including Johar's mother Hiroo, were drawn from the film industry, including Sidharth Malhotra, Juhi Chawla, and
Lali Dhawan.

Lali Dhawan

Speaking to Lali a few hours after the lecture, she appeared to still be experiencing the afterglow of the morning's talk. What had taken the Juhu-residing star mom (of Varun Dhawan) and wife of a blockbuster producer (David) all the way across the city's north-south axis, that too on a Sunday morning, to listen to a spiritual discourse?

"Sadhguru had taken me there. I really like the philosophy he expounds," said Lali, who'd been a liberal arts student at Elphinstone College, and hails from a large clan of art lovers. "I have watched him over the years and really like what he says," she said, adding, "I've never been one for very traditional religions and rituals; I'm much more into spiritually. And in any case, the world needs less of religion and something more universal." And then, the call dropped, just when we wanted to ask Lali more about her spiritual journey and what accounted for her approach.

The reason for the call drop? As she told us later, it had been the city's single most democratic and eternal nightmare: Mumbai's eternal roadworks: this time, the digging up of cables right outside the Dhawan residence, endangering life and communications. Mercifully, spiritual journeys still remain unhampered.