The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
ADVERTISEMENT
Paint the town orange
The UN’s ongoing global campaign, Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender Violence, marked its presence in Mumbai yesterday with an event organised by UN Women and Indian Merchants’ Chamber.
The conference, aiming to highlight the link between women’s economic empowerment and ending violence against them, was attended by Phumzile Mlambo, executive director of UN Women, actress Katrina Kaif, ICICI’s Chanda Kochhar (in pic), entrepreneur-philanthropist Zarina Screwvala and educationist Dr Indu Shahani among others.
As part of the campaign’s tagline, Orange the World, the Gateway of Mumbai was illuminated in orange yesterday.
Student tabloids and a cause
A starry start to Metamorphosis, a two-day festival organised by Bandra’s MET Institute of Mass Media (IMM) saw Javed Akhtar wow the audience, mostly filled with media students who applauded each sher from the Bollywood icon.
The cover of the launch edition of the students’ tabloid; Javed Akhar interacts with a student from ADAPT at the MET institute yesterday. Pic/Poonam Bathija
On a day where talent flowed in the form of music, dance and drama, the journalism students weren’t far behind. Touted as India’s first student tabloid, the talented bunch released Friday — a publication that had stories about gritty survivors like chef Vikas Khanna as well as engaging reads on vanity vans of stars, and travelogues. What caught this diarist’s attention in particular was a report on the batch’s interaction with kids from ADAPT on Children’s Day.
The tabloid release was extra special since some of them were invited to be a part of the launch. “We were keen to involve them in a mainstream activitiy. That engagement was important because media students should understand that this is important; their hidden talent must be appreciated. I wanted the batch to look beyond the ordinary,” shared Shamali Gupta, Principal, METIMM. From what we saw, they seemed to be going in the right direction.
Bollywood diaries
You can trust a film critic who’s been in the field for over 30 years to give you the choicest facts on Bollywood.
Bhawana Somaaya
And what if they span a century of Indian cinema and are presented in a capsule format? Bhawana Somaaya’s soon to release title, Once Upon a Time in India, celebrates the country’s cinema in an unusual format with diary pages featuring iconic dialogues and fun trivia.
An illustration of a scene from the film Deewar in the book
With 53 original illustrations in Bollywood poster art style, depicting some of the most memorable scenes from iconic films, we are sure this one is for keeps.
Ants in the pants, Karan?
Pic/Shadab Khan
Filmmaker Karan Johar looks a tad uncomfortable at a press conference for a reality show in Juhu yesterday as singer Shalmali Kholgade looks on.
Happy birthday, Shekhar
Well-known filmmaker Shekhar Kapur turned 71 yesterday, and as wishes poured in celebrating Kapur’s memorable films like Masoom and Mr India, there was one wish that warmed our hearts.
Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, the director’s former wife, shared an adorable picture of the couple’s daughter, Kaveri, with her father. The proud parents are also super excited about young Kaveri’s new single, Half a Heart, launching on Friday. Now, isn’t that the perfect birthday gift for daddy?
As good as gold
The Global Vipassana Pagoda near Gorai will soon complete eight years, but now we know what keeps the golden structure as sparkling as it was on the day of its inauguration.
This diarist recently spotted a team of painters patiently touching up the red and golden hues of the pagoda. The structure’s design is meant to make it last a thousand years. Good to see how we are already working towards that.