by Ranjit Rodricks
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...???
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