The 'Me and Ranveer' series

This appears to be the start of a long running, 'Selfie with Ranveer Singh series.' Alert readers might recall a recent picture we'd carried on this page, featuring the putative mustachioed star, with the Indophile academic Rachel Dwyer, shot on the day before his screen test (a historic pic if there was one).

Not only had Dwyer sportingly allowed us to carry it post his Bajirao success, but had campaigned quite valiantly to have her young friend's modesty protected, by requesting some nifty cropping of the dangerously low slung boxers. Now we present more in that line, this time with artist, model and wife of Sunil, Tanuja Padwal, who bumped into the star recently at the Marriott in Juhu.

Tanuja Padwal and Ranveer Singh

"We were celebrating my close friend - Ravi Udyawar, the TVC director's birthday and we bumped into Ranveer at the Marriott, Juhu," said Padwal, adding, "Ravi, who is making his first feature film with Sridevi knows him well" she said with a smile about Picture No 2 in the 'Me and RS series.'

The obvious question to ask the recently converted red head was to ask if the zany star liked her hair. "He loved it," she replied. Incidentally, for those who want to know if RS' modesty was protected the last time around, it is yes - the picture had been cropped. And further, no one's modesty had to be protected with picture No 2!

Manish goes ethnic
"It's been two successful years of my diffusion store," said designer Manish Malhotra. "And I'm now launching my textile handloom collection 'Regal Threads,' an ode to Make In India, with weaves from Benares, and Bandhani from Gujarat as the first event at my store with the NGO Sahachari Foundation," texted the beatific designer, adding, "Please drop in next week to support the weavers and Indian textiles."

Manish Malhotra

We had dropped into Malhotra's fashion show, with the same foundation a few weeks ago and found his collaboration with Indian handlooms, a radical departure from his usual oeuvre. After all, Malhotra, along with YRF and KJO, had been the one to usher in the pastel chiffon era of Bollywood, and had more or less invented the look. Now, with deep hues of purple and maroon, and the rustle of tussar, and silks, and linens, he was attempting something brave and worthy.

Interestingly, Malhotra had managed to make this new avatar of his, a departure from that other collaboration he has with Shabana Azmi's Azamgarh weavers. Can there be a thing as too ethnic and worthy? A visit to his diffusing store will answer that one!

A twist of the ear and a pat on the back
There's no doubt about it. Our PM has a thing about tweaking ears. We've seen him do it to various hapless kids before, but this time, the fact that it happens to be the son of Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Mrs Funnybones, and the grandson of Dimple and Rajesh Khanna, and the Bhatias, makes it all the more special.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulls Aarav's ear in jest

'Proud moment in a father's life, when the Prime Minister pulls your son's ear in jest & calls him a good boy,' tweeted the proud as punch dad about this pic. Er, yes enquired a concerned friend in response, "but do you twist some one's ear and call them a good boy?" Indeed.

A fest for people like us
The Sula Fest, known as 'India's biggest music festival in the vineyards,' began on a cheery note, with wine tastings of the house produce at the Hardy's Lounge, a fashion show. It included wine pairings with food, and some truly boppable music curated by Jehaan Johar, which had the crowd on its feet and moving. Besides the action at the Atmaspehere, the amphitheatre at the centre of the festival, where the organisers had managed to gather a cornucopia of festival mandatories, such as Anjuna, Goa style stalls selling great food and beverages and helpful staff around, to guide those a bit carried away by it all - to safer environs.

Arjun Khanna and Kim Sharma

Spotted on the occasion were the newly-wedded Yashwant Rao Holkar with bride Nyrika Godrej, actress Kim Sharma with designer Arjun Khanna, impressario Ravi Krishnan with his lovely daughter, and designer Nari Kumar, amongst others. We couldn't make it to the after party, but from what we heard, it was a big, long and cheery one at Rajiv Samant's rambling home overlooking the vineyards. The Sula gang has managed to put together a festival for PLU. Whether this is good thing or intended is unclear, but as far as we're concerned: Nice!

Bungalow 8 and Sonam
To be honest, the lines between promotion and social media are getting so blurred, that we have no idea if the fact that actress Sonam Kapoor, who has recently been spotted wearing multiple outfits from Maithili Ahluwalia's SoBo concept store, Bungalow 8, is a spontaneous sartorial coupling, or a promotional engagement arrived at to coincide with the actress' soon to be released biopic Neerja.

Sonam in Bungalow 8 outfits

"She Instagrammed an image yesterday of her wearing a Bungalow 8 look for Neerja promotions and her caption mentioned how she loves their clothes and she's always adding them to her closet," said a spokesperson for the store, helpfully adding a screenshot of the Instagram photo that the fashionista had uploaded.

What gives us hope is this fact - an endorsement unrelated to commercial interest is that a few images of SK in various other easy, chic and relaxed ensembles from Bungalow 8 (namely returning from the Maldives, where she went for her New Year holiday with friends and family. And at the St. Xavier's college) amongst others, have also been attached.

Celebrity endorsement or genuine thumbs up? The jury's out on that one - however Anil and Sunita's daughter looks pretty good in them!