Vidyut Jamwal - The FORCE Factor!

My friend Vidyut Jamwal has been one of my favourite models since the past decade or so. He's been the face of many brands and numerous girls across the country send him fan-mail by the truckloads. Most of all, I like him because he's a deeply spiritual human-being, he has a wicked sense of humour and frankly, he's one of the last of the "good guys"left on the planet. This was reason enough for me to trek from my residence in Malad West to Bandra's Mehboob Studio to cheer him on as he makes his debut in Bollywood.

Vidyut was kind enough to invite me for a special cast and crew interaction of his movie - FORCE - with the  media. Dressed all dapper in a white shirt and neatly ironed trousers, he cut a dashing figure as he sat on stage and fielded questions galore from the inquisitive press.

In the film, Vidyut plays the villain and quite frankly, as far as I can remember, he is the hottest guy ever to play a villain in a Bollywood film. Trained extensively in Martial Arts, Vidyut gives his character a twist with his raw sex-appeal. Like honestly, if you think of the bad guys who made being a villain fashionable, the first names that come to mind are Ranjeet, Amrish Puri and Shakti Kapoor - and none of them were even remotely good-looking.

 
FORCE also stars John Abraham in the lead and this is being touted as his come-back vehicle. Others in the film include Sandhya Mridul and Genelia D'Souza (the only two girls in the film, among six guys) and model Amit Gaur.

By the way, Amit was with me in school, many years ago, and it's nice to see a school buddy get into the big world of Bollywood.

  

India Bridal Week - Day 2

24th Sept. 2011: I have known the super hot, sensuous and sizzling Malaika Arora Khan ever since she was a ramp model in the mid-Nineties. Even though she was not too tall, her oomph factor on the ramp made her a much sought-after supermodel. 

Then, came the famous MR Coffee advertisement (which oozed sexuality) with Arbaaz Khan and with it followed love and marriage. Taking a back-seat to regular ramp-walking after her marriage and having her first child, Malaika hit Bollywood big-time with the Chhaiya-Chhaiya item number where she danced with Shah Rukh Khan on top of a train to Farah Khan's choreography. Lately, her Munni Badnaam Hui item-number from the Salman Khan starrer Dabang, catapulted her to super-stardom.

Tonight, I met her at a fashion show in Mumbai by designer Bhairavi Jaikishan. Malaika was the show-stopper and dazzled in a heavily embroidered lehenga-choli ensemble. 

Later in the evening, I was fortunate to bump into another stunner and a National Award winning actress - Kangana Ranaut. She was watching a jewelry fashion show with my friend Rajat Tangri, who is her stylist and designer. Kangana wore a grey Versace dress with green bling detailing. She will also walk the ramp at a fashion show tomorrow so I shall post a few of those OFF THE RAMP pix tomorrow night. 

India Bridal Week in Mumbai - Day 1

23rd Sept. 2011: Today I had the pleasure of meeting India's sweetheart of yesteryears - actress Juhi Chawla Mehta. Juhi was crowned Miss India in 1984 and just a few years later, she wowed India in her debut film, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (with Aamir Khan as her co-star). The nation fell in love with this dimpled beauty and ever since then, she's acted in over 70 films.

Juhi was a guest of Bollywood costume designer Vikram Phadnis at his bridal fashion show at a Five Star Hotel in Mumbai. Vikram personally escorted her to the first row and after it was over, the lovely lady posed for pix with her fans and obliged the media with a few sound-bytes.

My friend - designer Rocky Singhvi - also had his bridal fashion show tonight and he had the stunningly gorgeous Amisha Patel walk the ramp in his show-stopping finale outfit. Amisha is another dimpled lass who set hearts afire with her roles in films like Kaho Na...Pyaar Hai (2000) and Gadar - Ek Prem Katha (2001).

Decked out in Indian bridal finery, Amisha looked like a million bucks and her mega-watt smile only added to the fabulous creation by Rocky S.

 And finally.....actor Neil Nitin Mukesh walked the ramp for Vikram Phadnis and wore a long sherwani, accessorised with a gold chain. His parents were in the audience and beamed proudly as their son - no stranger to being a celebrity model on the ramp - took to the catwalk with ease and elan.

Quite an eventful Bollywood evening this was!

Dolly Bindra is a doll!

I love Dolly Bindra's intrinsic joie-de-vivre! There....I've said it! Most of you out there must be having images of her in your mind that correspond to the fiesty and fiery nature which she displayed on Bigg Boss. Yet, each time I have met her, Dolly has been a....well....doll!

I met her yet again last night at the opening of the Sheesha Sky Lounge Gold in Mumbai and Dolly was the centre of attention at her table. Her larger-than-life persona was emphasised with her hearty laughter and eagerness to heat up the dance floor with her friends.

Most off all, she enjoyed being complimented on her black outfit with gold embroidery which she ordered from a designer in Pakistan! I like!

Lady Gaga does SEX like Madonna

Lady Gaga has always been heavily inspired by Madonna. So it was only a matter of time before nude pictures of her would surface on the internet - much like Madonna's.

In the mid Nineties, Madonna brought out a coffee-table book called SEX to promote her album EROTICA. It had a collection of photos (all graphic, leaving nothing to the imagination) which were inspired by her sexual fantasies. In fact, she even roped in stars like Isabella Rossellini, Vanilla Ice and Naomi Campbell to pose with her in various sexually compromising positions which had a lot of kinky S&M.

Now, photos of Lady Gaga have surfaced on the net - all of which look heavily inspired by Madonna's SEX book. The pictures were apparently shot a year ago when she modeled for the Japanese Men's Vogue, but they were never used. All the pictures have Gaga tied-up and ready for a super session of bondage. Was she inspired by Madonna? These pictures certainly seem to imply that.

  

TAPORIS & TAMASHA MEET 'THE COMMON MAN' ON THE SNDT RAMP

You could be forgiven for thinking you were at a rock concert if you were at The Leela Kempinski Hotel at Sahar on Monday night as crowds of fashionably dressed girls – screaming and cheering with gusto - could be heard almost a mile away.

The reason? It was the annual fashion show of the Premlila Vithaldas Polytechnic SNDT Women’s University and the graduating students cheered-on as their batch-mates showed off fantastic designs that could easily be mistaken for being straight off the Paris catwalks.

“The sheer amount of talent these young girls displayed tells us just how forward India will be on the world-wide fashion map in the years to come,” said critically acclaimed designer, Babita Malkani, who was amongst the special celebrity invitees.

Designer Hemant Trevedi, who mentored the girls, was “Awed by the array of ideas” while actress Shama Sikandar wanted to “Wear each and every outfit for my TV shows and when I go out with friends!”

As the Head Of Department – Jasmine Sarupria – beamed with pride at her protégées while ace choreographer Achla Sachdev directed the showing with sequences that redefined glamour and fun.

From having the models act like ‘taporis’ on stage for a sequence called “Mumbai to mum-bhai” to getting R.K. Laxman’s famous ‘The Common Man’ to walk on the ramp, the show was as entertaining as it was glamorous.

One sequence had famous models like Carol Gracias, Anchal Kumar and Bhavna Sharma acting like puppets on stage while another sequence saw them all dressed up and ready for a cook-out in the kitchen with spices dangling from the ears and clothes in the hues of mustard, chilli, saffron and turmeric.

The front row was choc-a-bloc with celebrities – right from the young and dynamic Masaba Gupta (who is an ex student of this college) to the legendary and reclusive designer Shahab Durazi (who, true to his temperament, preferred not to socialize or pose too much for the photographers).

Also spotted were designers Amy Billimoria, Malini Aggarwal (of Malaga), Anita Dongre, Riyaz Gangji, Lina Tipnis, Pradeep and Neha Hirani of Kimaya, actress Swaroop Sampat and ex-model Anna Bredmeyer.         

From almost a dozen collections, designed by students in groups of twos and threes, few collections were obvious favourites among the audience and judges. 

However, it was the KATPUTLI  IN CANNES collection (byKhushboo Karnawat, Rishita Kansara and Ruchika Gododia) which garnered the most prestigious Collection Of The Year Award.

With colours and motifs borrowed from Rajasthani puppets, this trio used colours of dry, arid sand to create a sensual collection of resort wear that promises to enliven your holiday experience with and easy and effortless charm

Lakme Fashion Week Summer Resort 2011 -- a round-up

And so, yet another edition of the Lakme Fashion Week (summer resort collections) concluded last week in Mumbai (March 2011). And yet again, sundry people were groveling for passes for the shows, flaunting their Sunday best (of the worst), net-working  like Mark Zuckerberg could never imagine and striking a pose every time a flash-bulb popped.

If it all sounds a bit too sordid.....IT IS...!!!

However, what really stood out this season was the lack of quality wear that one saw on the ramp. For an international event of this scale, the designs one saw and the styling one was subjected to was appalling.

Fabulous designers like Swapnil Shinde and Raakesh Aggarvwal stayed away - the former having backed out a day before his showing, citing "personal family matters" as his excuse. While others like Little Shilpa, held her usual showing, her presentation was a huge let-down as she had only one spotlight on the ramp. So except for the people in the front and second rows, nobody else could make out what headgear and jewelry she had designed.

When we questioned the surprising lack of lighting at her show, the pint-size poppet told us that the focus was meant to be more on the AV that was playing in the background.

Obviously, Shilpa - Little or not - had no regard for the guests who had come in from all parts of Mumbai and the world to see her show. If she wanted to concentrate on making a statement with her AV instead of what was on the ramp, she could have easily put it on youtube or her facebook page for all to see, rather than have them waste time and brave the summer heat and traffic to see her show.

Another show that had me scratching my head in wonder was Manish Malhotra's. While the theme of the season was meant to be Summer-Resort, Malhotra displayed an elaborate line of men's ethnic wear and chikankari wear for women that had nothing to do with "resort" and if you really pushed the envelope, very little to do with summer.

And if you were there to spot Bollywood stars on the ramp or off it, this year you would have been rather disappointed. Amongst the A-list superstars, except for Kareena Kapoor sitting in the front row for Manish Malhotra and SriDevi at Babita Malkani's show, star-power this season was on a low ebb.

Also spotted were Sonali Bendra at the Siddharth Tytler show, Urmila Matondkar, JuhiChawla and Purab Kohli at Anita Dongre's show, Jaqueline Fernandez at Masaba Gupta's show and Minnisha Lamba in a black and white slinky dress.

On the ramp, it was Kunal Kapoor who walked the ramp for Energie, Zayed Khan & Dia Mirza walked for Cantabil (styled by Rocky S), Sarah Jane Dias (is she a show-stopping celebrity) for Satya Paul,  Riya Sen for Arpan Vohra and Geeta Basra for Pravesh & Jai.

However, stellar names like Amitabh & Jaya Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sushmita Sen and others were conspicuous by their absence this season.

Has Lakme Fashion Week lost its charm with the multitude of fashion weeks that keep happening all over the country? Are the designers disillusioned? Is it lack-luster because of the lack of stringent quality controls??

Any answers....????