With a sense of regret we admit that we have been missing all the MAMI action. Couldn't make it to the premiere, couldn't make it to the star-studded after-party, couldn't make it to the film screenings or seminars
With a sense of regret we admit that we have been missing all the MAMI action. Couldn't make it to the premiere, couldn't make it to the star-studded after-party, couldn't make it to the film screenings or seminars.
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Sooni Taraporevala and Anupama Chopra
What's worse is, when we asked Sooni Taraporewala which films she'd recommend, we learnt that she had spent the whole weekend parked at the Regal cinema feasting on all the movies. "All good films on the whole and it's always so lovely being back at Regal," she said, adding salt to our wounds with her last line: "Not to forget the frankies!!!! (her exclamation, not ours, though given how delicious the frankies are at Regal, we might have added another !) However, we are happy to note that the festival has been proceeding excellently.
"The past few days have been wonderful," said its director, film critic Anupama Chopra, adding, "From screenings of so many great films to launching our digital platform, the Movie Mandi, from my conversation with Netflix VP of International Originals Erik Barmack, to The Great Hope Session with Dulquer Salmaan and Rajkummar Rao, it's a joy to see it all come together. There is so much more in store; cinephiles should take advantage of the fantastic lineup and sessions that are yet to come." 'Frankie'philes and 'Regal'philes too, she might have said.
The dynamic duo?
Word comes in that Vedanta's Anil Agarwal has engineered a coup of sorts.
Anil Agarwal, Anu Malik and Javed Akhtar
For his upcoming Diwali party in Mumbai, the gregarious billionaire, whose mining activities have been the subject of considerable controversy in India and overseas, has managed to persuade not only Bollywood's resident poet laureate Javed Akhtar ('Sahib' as the invitation respectfully reads) to regale his guests with some choice bon mots, ('Poetries' (sic), the card reads), but this is to be followed by a performance that same evening by Bollywood's reigning music composer and Mumbai Indians' alleged lucky mascot Anu Malik ('Ji' the card reads) to trill his all-time hits 'Ek garam chai ki pyali' and 'Tan tana tan tan' to the assembled worthies.
Perhaps, the duo will come up with a song about a rich miner who lives in an 'oonchi hai building' being unfairly oppressed by the locals? Stranger things have happened.
Gulab jamuns for Mira
We are at that certain age when friends and acquaintances are hitting their big-ticket birthdays: not their 40s and 50s mind you, but their 60s and 70s, (with one notably hitting 75 recently).
Dev Benegal with Mira Nair at the dinner
From always being the youngest people in the room to the oldest is one of the results of getting older, and this week, it was the turn of internationally-celebrated director Mira Nair, whose 60th janam din was brought in with her friends in New York, including the Delhi-based photographer and activist Ram Rahman at the Big Apple's Avadh restaurant.
"It was hosted by Gauri Vishwanathan from Columbia University and followed the symposium she had organised at the University on the late Raghubir Singh, in conjunction with the retrospective on him at the Met Breur, which just opened," said Rahman, who had been invited to speak at the symposium along with Max Koxloff, the former editor of Artforum, and Glen Lowry, direc-tor of MoMa. "Koxloff, Lowry and Mira happened to be close to Raghubir, and since it was a day after Mira's 60th, I did a surprise gulab jamun and candlelit singalong," he said.
High stakes
Raj Kundra's basket of woes with the BCCI does not seem to be empty. Apparently, the businessman and flamboyant husband of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, was not permitted to participate in the cricket stars vs Bolly stars football match this Sunday, in which the likes of Virat Kohli and Ranbir Kapoor played.
Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra
The reason? Not only has Kundra's beef with the BCCI, following its suspension of his Rajasthan Royals under a cloud for alleged betting, not been sorted, but it appears that the cricket world's premier body is not in the least bit amused that Kundra has named his poker league 'Match India Poker League.'
Virat Kohli plays in the match
"The 'Match' part of it might be there now, but the board fears that it will more and more be referred to as India Poker League, whose acronym 'IPL' is in direct conflict with our interests," said a cricketing insider. But true to form, Sunday's setback has not dimmed Kundra's spirit: this week will see him and wife Shilpa throw open the doors of their sumptuous Juhu pad for a high-octane starry and upbeat Diwali bash, replete with khana, peena and, of course, gambling.
Driving his success
As anyone in Mumbai will tell you, there are two kinds of successes to be had in the city: one in which you hit the big time and attract a whole lot of unwanted and negative responses; and the other in which your success is celebrated as much by you as by your peers and the community at large. Common wisdom holds that the latter is more desirable.
Take the case of this high-flying entrepreneur, who despite being in a business that does not see such spectacular growth (at least not on the pink pages) has been declared a certified billionaire and shifted base to New York recently. Not a day passes by without one or the other of his contemporaries carping about his high-flying OTT ways.
The latest story to come in is that the high-profile gent, who is currently said to be looking for a buyer for his mid-city penthouse, would pick a different flashy limousine from his impressive fleet to drive to work each day while in Mumbai. Not entirely unheard of, we mumbled to the supplier of this piece of information.
After all, we have known a maharani, who in her good old days, used to buy her Persian carpets to match her footwear. "Well, he chose his daily car in accordance with the colours of his suit and tie," said the source. "And he has so many..." That's OTT for sure.
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