13 August,2015 06:01 AM IST | | Malavika Sangghvi
Word comes in that Priyanka Chopra, who is all set to make her big television debut in ABC Network's American show Quantico is currently in Montreal, where according to her spokesperson, she has rented a swanky, plush villa and has been living it up and killing it with her team
A poster of Quantico on a bus
And such has been the response to the teaser of the show's pilot episode that we are informed that television giant, ABC Network has been putting their money on Priyanka and backing the show with big spends.
Fans wait for Priyanka
This means that to her great delight, the actress finds herself on hoardings, and posters, that have made their way to several upmarket locations in the USA and Canada, including Times Square in NYC, and the biggest hoarding in LA, (where A-league superhero franchises like Avengers and X-Men have featured before.)
Fans meet Priyanka Chopra in Canada
And because of this, we're told her fans are going crazy, thronging to her shoots and compelling her to skip meals, so that she could meet them. "The actress was in for a shock recently to find an endless line of fans waiting outside the set since 5 am in the morning to meet her." You go, girl.
Party times
He's the kings of good times - the flamboyant Vijay Mallya - and so it comes as no surprise, that he's busy planning to give himself the mother of all birthday parties in Goa this December, to mark his 60th birthday ('I'm turning 20, three times' said his witty save-the-date missive).
enrique Iglesias. Pic/Getty Images and Vijay Mallya
And now word comes in that Mallya's bash will be featuring enrique Iglesias and Sonu Nigam - his 50th had Lionel Richie remember? Meanwhile we hear that another King Of Good Times is planning his own big birthday (his fiftieth) this September - flying 150 couples to a resort up North!
Anand's social media smarts
You could say that out of all his board room peers, Anand Mahindra is one of the few who 'gets' social media. 'I didn't quite like the sound track proposed for the new TV ad of @MahindraXUV500, so now the team has come up with 3 options!" tweeted Mahindra yesterday, following it up with 'Help me choose which soundtrack works the best,' along with a link to the said ad with three different sound tracks.
Anand Mahindra
"With a bit of clever thinking, not only has he got people to watch his ad three times, but to also give him much valued feedback and - what's most of all - build up a dialogue about the car," said a marketing whizz in admiration. "earlier this kind of interaction with consumers would cost millions - and he's done it with a few tweets!"
Modern-day epic love story
The much-hyped engagement between the billionaire heir to an infrastructure fortune, and the equally wealthy daughter of a Dubai-based clan, seems to have been finally called off. Our friend, the Oolong tea-sipping SoBo hostess, gave it to us straight.
"Darling, being from different communities, the girl's parents had agreed to the match if the boy converted to their religion which he was willing to do," she said. "Imagine how deeply he must have loved her," she sighed.
"But when his uncle requested the same from the girl, as a courtesy, her family dug their heels in," she said. "It could have been the great Romeo-Juliet epic of its time, but once again, religion conversion and traditions have come in the way of true love," she said. Sad.
At last, closure
You could say it's something of a closure. After his much awaited Bombay Velvet was released and for some reason became a lightening rod for all kinds of abuse and criticism, much of it spurious and motivated, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap appears to have found his audience at Italy's historic Piazza Grande. "8,600 people at Piazza Grande saw Bombay Velvet and they loved it," he posted on his FB timeline yesterday.
A scene from Bombay Velvet
"I know so many back home that didn't see it and the so many that trashed it. Maybe here no one knew me, and came with a blank mind, and a clean slate, and I was just another filmmaker." he said. "The detractors will still say what they want to, but for me it came a full circle," he wrote with endearing candour. "Now on to the next." That's the way...
Shhh... project under wraps
Our restaurant snoop informs that Gauri Devidayal and husband Jay Yousuf, whose Table at Apollo Bunder, has carved a delicious niche for itself in Mumbai's food utopia, have got something up their sleeve.
Gauri Devidayal and Jay Yousuf
Under wraps for the moment, all we could extract from the vacation-bound Devidayal yesterday was that it was a new 'project' in SoBo, but it isn't a restaurant - more like a culinary space which will open in October this year. An art gallery, a cafe, a cooking school? Watch this space.
