Actors are "Reel" people...!!!

by Ranjit Rodricks

Those who know me well will know that I have been writing on fashion for about fifteen years. And over this decade and a half, a number of models have become Bolywood actors - like Dino Morea, John Abraham, Upen Patel and so many others. 

One actor-turned-model I have known for long is Aryan Vaid (red t-shirt in the pix). He's acted in a number of movies, posed for a number of advertisements and to top it all, he's also the first Mr. India to win the Mr. International title in the year 2000. 

Of course, with so much going for him one could well expect Aryan to be riding a high horse and be snooty like some B-Town folks are known to be.

However, Aryan is probably the exact opposite and actually goes out of his way to help people and makes them feel like they are his old buddies. 

Today, I had an experience with Aryan and another B-Towner (we'll come to him later) which left me thinking that Bollywood actos are real people too - just like you and me.

A week ago I called Aryan to be a judge for the Show Reel Film Festival to be held at Cinemax in Versova and he readily agreed - "as long as I can bring my wife, Alexandra along," he joked. 

This morning (the day of the event) I got a text message frm Aryan an hour before the event saying that he was down with a bad bout of food poisoning and had to drop out of the judging. 

My heart sank - because I had only four judges on my list - and one less would have meant an empty seat on the dias, and uncomfortable questions from the press. Not to mention the fact that I had already informed the press that he would be a celebrity judge.

So I frantically texted him back and "bullied" him into making an apperance - at least for a while. To my relief, (and probably his discomfort) he agreed and managed to sit through half the number of films that were being screened. 

And that's when I realised what a professional he was and why all his titles are duly deserved. Even though Aryan was unwell, he he made it a point to attend the festival and support the young directors and producers with his presence.   

The other young actor I called to be a judge was Mimoh Chakraborty - the son of legendary actors Mithun Chakraborty and Yogeeta Bali. I have never met Mimoh before but over the past few months, we have been conversing on-and-off over Facebook.

Mimoh (in the black shirt) is soon making his acting debut in India's first 3-D film called HAUNTED and is currently shooting extensively for it. Yet, he made time to be a judge at the Show Reel Festival and to everybody's surprise, was humility personified. He addressed everybody he met as Sir and Ma'am - regardless of their stature - and to my terrible discomfort, kept calling me Sir as well.

Well-groomed, well-spoken and well-poised, Mimoh came across as being a real person, just another boy-next-door and not like a Bollywood brat whose father was once rumoured to be India's hightest tax payer from Bollywood. 

In an industry where ego's are bigger than the National Income of our country and where tantrums can be on the scale of a full-fleged battle, it's nice to interact with two gentlemen who made me believe that actor's are - at the end of the day - real people too....!!!

 

SHOW STOPPERS or DOOR STOPPERS (who is to decide)...???

by Ranjit Rodricks

As I log on to the net this morning, the very first image that catches my eye on the DNAINDIA.COMwebsite is a very serene-yet-gothic lookingAishwarya Rai Bachchan walking arm-in-arm on the catwalk with designer Manish Malhotra at the couture week in Bombay.

The younger Mrs. Bachchan - who has not graced the ramp in a few years - must have decided to capitalise on this opportunity to be Malhotra's show-stopper only because her latest movie, Robot, is currently being screened all across the country. This is a super opportunity for the lovely lass to get much needed additional publicity and we're not going to grudge her that.

Show-stoppers at the various fashion weeks that take place in our country are probably more sought after than the clothes one sees on the ramp. After all, a dose of Bollywood glamour is what India thrives on and really, who wants to see jaded, coked-out models walk the ramp when a vivacious vamp or a screen siren can add that extra dash of glitz...!!!

Even as I write this, young designer Arati Vijay Gupta calls me to fix up a "show-stopper"for her collection to be shown in a fortnight at Dubai Fashion Week.

Everybody now knows this - if you don't have a show-stopper to end your show, you might as well kiss your career as a designer goodbye. The papparazzi will ignore you and potential clients will not be bothered if you don't have a few Bollywood stars as your personal clients.

And all this talk about show-stoppers brings me to this question: What differentiates a show-stopper from a door-stopper...???

In the past, we've had superstars like Shah Rukh Khan walk for Manish Malhotra, John Abraham walk for Rocky S, Lara Datta walk for Raakesh Agarvwal, Sushmita Sen forVikram Phadnisand even Olympic medalist Vijendra Singh walk for Rohit Bal.

Lately however, anybody and everybody (even remotely famous or related to someone famous) are being roped in to walk the ramp.

For instance, designer Digvijay Singh had actress Nandana Sen (daughter of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen) walk the ramp for his Bhusattva label at a recent fashion week in Mumbai. A look at her filmography on Wikipedia lists a number of films she's acted in - yet only one or two ring a bell. Hence, it came as no surprise that no one knew who she was when she walked on to the ramp. Unfortunately for the poor girl, even the outfit the designer gave her could hardly be considered "show-stopping!"

At the very same fashion week, designer Neeta Lulla chose to have former star Sridevi walk the ramp for her. When the spotlight fell on the lovely maiden, there was a collective gasp in the air and loud applause because she looked stunning in a body-fitting, mermaid-style gown. However, after taking just a step or two forward, Sridevi nearly fell.....then she tried to walk forward on the ramp again.....and again nearly fell.....!!

Reason: the outfit was too tight and had too many ruffles at the ankles which prevented her from walking properly.

Finally, the gracious lady lifted the gown a bit higher and managed to walk all the way to head-ramp.

If that was bad, debutante actress Sonakshi Sinha actually fell flat on the ramp - with a loudDabangg - in Bangalore, recently. Designer Gavin Miguel had designed her long outfit and maybe it got caught in her stilettos.

In fact, Sonakshi was also the show-stopper for Narendra Kumar's line for Killer Jeans at the recent Lakme Fashion Week. The designer had squeezed this plus-sized girl into skinny jeans which made her look fat and frumpy. Adding to the overall look (???), Narendra had her wear a top with ruffles around the neck, thus making her look more bulky. And if you look closely at her picture above, you'll see the buttons of the jeans stretching at her waist. I'm sure if she took a deep breath, the buttons would have popped off and hit someone in the eye...!!

Putting all this into perspective, does it make any sense to have a show-stopper at all..??

What do you think...???

By RANJIT RODRICKS (for StyleKandy on-site print edition, Lakme Fashion Week, Sept. 2010)

Fashion Weeks around the world see the most celebrated stylish and eclectic people sitting pretty in the much-coveted front row seats and living it up at the various lounges in-between showings. Among them, you’d spot the hottest Hollywood glamazons (like Scarlet Johannsen), society divas (like Jemima Goldsmith) and pedigreed party-girls (like Paris Hilton). In fact so loyal are these fashionistas to their designer, that, if it’s a Versace show, most of the label’s glamorous devotees (like Liz Hurley) will only wear Versace to the showing.

This time around at Lakme Fashion Week, I was pleasantly surprised to see our Indian stars take this style-tip from their firang counterparts by wearing clothes by the designer whose show they came to watch.

Sultry seductress Mallika Sherawat made a dazzling appearance for designer Anita Dongreand sported a sensual, strappy dress in buttercup yellow from Anita’s Fall-Winter line. Expectedly, the outfit emphasized her ample bust and clinched in her waist, making this sexy lady look like Barbie Doll ever boy would want to play with.

Another stunner to pay tribute to the designer whose show she came to watch (Nachiket Barve) was singer / actress Sophie Choudhury.

Sophie looked resplendent in a top made from triangular cutouts in different colours, resembling a stained-glass window from an ancient chapel. She teamed it with a dual-layered skirt, also by Nachiket.

However, even though Sophie looked like she’d dropped out from the pages of a fashion bible, all eyes were on Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who came along with wife Jaya (wearing a black saree with a red and gold border) to cheer Nachiket. Of course, since this relatively reclusive designer does not dabble in men’s wear, Mr. Bachchan played safeit safe by wearing a pin-striped double breasted suit.

But it was Shazahn Padamsee (the female lead in the film Rocket Singh) who did the most justice to her talented designer friend Swapnil Shinde by wearing one of his elaborately engineered bandage dresses on the forth day of LFW.

Shazahn’s peaches and cream complexion had a luminous glow while her hour-glass figure was sculpted to perfection in this lime-green ensemble.

However, it was Manish Malhotra’s showing on Day 4 of LFW that had an expectedly lavish line-up of lovelies in the front row.

Gossip and whispers in the Kingfisher Lounge (where all the celebs and party-hearty people hung-out between shows) had us believe that Malhotra wanted to be one-up on the Bachchan appearance for Nachiket, and hence he called in as many of his glamour gals as he possibly could to fill-up his front row seats.

If that was really his plan, the maverick designer succeeded pretty well for the shutterbugs went into a frenzy when his loyal followers like Preity Zinta, Sangeeta Bijlani, Urmila Matondkar, Rani Mukherjee, Sameera Reddy and Priyanka Chopra turned-up for his showing.

We don’t know if any of them wore his creations but Piggy Chops played it painfully safe in a little black dress with cut-work at the neckline while Sangeeta Bijlani wore an extremely uninspiring black gown. Was she mourning Azhar’s alleged link-up with a younger woman..???

Preity Zinta (dimples firmly in place) looked candy-floss fresh in a pink one-shoulder dress in three tiers and Urmila wore a colourful slim-fit ensemble which emphasized her svelte figure.

Probably the only person who looked out of place at Manish’s show was actress Poonam Dhillon. The star of yester years wore an outfit which fitted badly and made her look frumpy. Clearly not a Manish original!

And so, as yet another fashion week comes to a close, we discover fashion’s newest trend –Designer Loyalty.

And in the front row at your local fashion week is where you’ll find it…..!!!!