Fun day with Trump

Would you pay $29 to see Shahid Kapoor, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Malaika Khan and er...Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump together on stage? The Republican Hindu Coalition of America has advertised the aforementioned names as performers at their song and dance show to be held in New Jersey next month.

Donald Trump. Pic/AFP and (below) the poster for the show

What's got the Internet giggling are the words ‘Meet and greet with stars and Donald Trump. Great family fun all day' on its poster with the legend ‘free for kids under ten'. Oh dear. The things candidates get up to in election year.

Shahid Kapoor and Malaika Arora Khan

High powered pow-wow
Sanjaya Baru's latest book release, at Delhi's hallowed ground for policy wonks and intellects at the IIC last evening saw some of the Capital's best and brightest gather for the release of our friend and former editor's latest tome, ‘India and the World: essays in Geo-economics and Foreign Policy.' With chief guest, Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman, speakers on the occasion included Shyam Saran former foreign secretary, and Raghav Bahl, founder of TV 18.

Sanjaya Baru and Nirmala Sitharaman

When we spoke to Baru, a consulting fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, who'd been media advisor to Manmohan Singh in the PMO, a few hours before the event, he said, "I'm most looking forward to the presence of Nirmala Sitharaman - my favourite minister in Narendra Modi's cabinet and a fellow Hyderabadi and JNU alumnus." As for his next book, Baru says it's already in the works. "I'm writing about 1991 - not just the economics. It was a landmark year for India."

Designer's Paradise
"Chakraview brings together a multitude of facets that capture India's design landscape ranging from celebrating its unique cultural heritage, capturing the sustainability of rural crafts and innovation, and extending to the creation of Indian consumer products that can be marketed both locally and internationally," says design maven, the Coimbatore-based sugar baroness Rajeshree Pathy about her Indian Design Forum's installation for the upcoming London Design Biennale, titled ‘Chakraview.'

Rajashree Pathy

With Sumant Jayakrishnan, leading scenographer and head of the project, Pathy says she wanted to create a representation of mythology as not a separate form, but in dialogue with design innovations. "Mythological stories are a foundation for utopia because they represent how ancient communities tried to reach a perfect ideal," she says. The London Design Biennale is being held 7-27th September at the Somerset House, London and will see a gathering of some of the world's top design names congregate to exchange news and views.

Sunshine Music Tours and Travels
Word comes in that Percept' Shailendra Singh has been busy directing his first feature film, the road movie ‘Sunshine Music Tours and Travels,' which we hear, is a subject close to him, and is about a group of youngsters who travel to the Sunburn music festival (of which he is the inceptor) and their experiences.

Shailendra Singh and Sunny Kaushal

"I am debuting 170 new talents in this film, including Sham Kaushal's youngest son, Sunny Kaushal," says Singh who is busy preparing for the films premier next week. Watch this space for more.

A call for the new
When we ran into Anil Chopra, the man who'd started the whole fashion week phenomena in India way back in 1999, at this year's installment of the extravaganza, we said to him half in admiration half in reproach, "Look what you started," because of course, the bi-annual show with its hyper emphasis on hemlines, sleeve cuts and pant lengths, delights as well as exasperates in equal measure.

Sabina Chopra and Sabyasachi

What is the relevance of fashion week beyond the fact that they generate employment and content for a host of industries like textiles, retail, media, and beauty and hair?

Wife Sabina Chopra, former muse of Sabyasachi before a high-profile parting of ways, who had curated The GenNext show which had featured bright sparks like Dming Rubu, had an interesting take :

"The fashion week was so much more than just shows this season. There were some great presentations by young designers using alternative platforms," she said, adding, "What is most interesting for me is the fearlessness of young talent as they are not bogged down by the constraints of their more established peers. This brings the edge and innovation that is so desperately needed in design." Constraints of established peers? Edge and innovation? Is that another way of saying ‘move over ye same old same old?' Nice!

From the mouths of nephews
We were introduced to director of ‘Student of The Year II,' Puneet Malhotra at his uncle - Manish Malhotra's - show last week at the fashion week. The handsome young man has obviously inherited his Punjabi good looks from the family gene pool and had even made his debut as an actor in ‘Unnoticed Love' a year before he directed ‘I Hate Love Stories'.

Puneet and Manish Malhotra

When commended on his striking resemblance to his swashbuckling uncle, Malhotra acknowledged the general consensus that one of India's most successful designers and the man who got the style quotient rolling in Bollywood, possessed uncanny good looks. "What's more, he doesn't dye his hair. It's naturally jet black," he offered apropos of nothing whatsoever. The things you hear from the mouths of nephews...