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Journalism of Courage
The end result of course was not reflective of the World Cup finals though. Australia was not even in the running. New Zealand, whose lamb had everyone’s mouth watering, was the winner. Interestingly, Pakistan was the runner up at the Taj and on the cricket field.
Playing the field that night were Sanjeev Chowdhury, Kishan Mulchandani (the Palkhi owner was very impressed with the wide range of dishes), as well as Sonia Garware. Sitting and eating in a corner were Sherie Meher-Homji and husband Nikhil Khatau — who besides being an art lover is a great foodie, he knew the name of each and every cheese on the buffet. Also spotted in deep conversation were Thomas Cook’s Ashwini Kakkar and Arthur Anderson’s Sid Khanna. We suspect it was cricket they were talking about and not food or the state of the economy.
Fragrant nights
After The Express Newsline’s ‘foodie’ cricket match held at the Taj, Friday night saw party animals heading for the Oberoi Rooftop where Carolina Herrara launched itslatest fragrance, 212. Inspired by Carolina’s daughter, Adrianna Herrara, the perfume and packaging is a work of art all by itself, and at the launch, almost all of Mumbai’s glitterati showed up to check it out. A fashion show and dance that made up the evening was mostly ignored by everyone, since people were busy circulating, eating and drinking the night away.
Seen boogeying were Suchitra Pillai, Jeh Wadia, Chicki and Dianne Pandey, Aarti and Kailash Surendranath, Neeru Nanda, Dino Morea, Mark Robinson, Anaida and Bipasha Basu. Laila Rouass, who emceed the evening was at her charming best, and also seen shaking a leg after years was Kalpana Iyer with a friend’. F X Billaud, Director, Asia-Pacific, of Antonio Puig, the company that owns the Herrara brand, kept everyone busy circulating and dancing. The only one, apart from Imam Siddiqui, perhaps, who was in good form. Rocky S, who is almost unrecognisably healthy’ now, was seen hugging everyone in sight. Holed up in separate corners were SumeetChopra and Atul Kasbekar. The surprise of the evening was the very dignified newcomer Sanjay Suri, who came, was polite with everyone and left as sober as he was when he’d arrived. One of the few. A fun affair, the evening had everyone asking when the next perfume was going to be launched in the city.
Art brunch
Well, the next party to watch out for is the Oberoi’s art camp, this weekend. This is the second time the Hotel is staging this event, and artists such as Anjolie Ela Menon, Samir Mondal, Anupam Daand and Kahini Arte Merchant will be asked to conjure up a piece of art in a week. But for most part, the highlight of the week is the Sunday brunch held at their Regal room where art lovers and the cream of society will meet and let their hair down. Last year, it was attended by the likes of Shobha De and Devika Bhojwani who mingled with attending artists Manu and Madhavi Parekh, to name a few. Most people ended up on the dance floor, creating a night club atmosphere in the middle of theday.
Business front
Designer James Ferreira has been in the business for over 10 years but till now this master cutter has been wary of taking business affairs into his own hands. Well, now he’s ready to chop and change and bring business affairs to the forefront. James is opening his own shop at Glitterati where you can buy both his couture and ready to wear colections. Known for chic and affordable western wear, his store will also stock rather unusual furniture. And that’s not all! James also plans to open an another boutique in Bandra — so even those who live beyond Haji Ali now have a chance to buy a Ferreira original.
And finally…
While on James’ Bandra boutique, guess who will be helping him run it? Noyonika Chatterjee, the dusky, ever-so tall, ramp model.
Previously working with Anupam Kher where she helped him manage talent, Noyonika has been itching to sink her teeth into a good project since Kher’s MEC shut down. James new venture is a perfect oppurtunity for her to mixfashion with business — two things this lady is passionate about.
Double Matinee
Last week there were two functions aimed at promoting films — one, the Kodak variety, the other, Smita Thackeray’s debut venture, Haseena Maan Jayegi. Kodak has launched its new Vision Film’ in India — Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam being the first film to be developed using this technology. Hollywood of course has a headstart with The Thin Red Line. "It was a great way to bring our product to India because Bhansali’s film is truly very colourful," said Shankar Dutta, Kodak’s business manager in India.
Kodak invited bigwigs from the industry — producers, directors and distributors — to watch a special screening of the film’s songs. Lisa Ray compered this show while cinematographer Anil Mehta spoke about Hum Dil…. This was followed by a party at The Club with everyone from Ramesh Sippy, Kundan Shah, Vinod Chopra to producer Parvesh Sippy in attendance. Conspicuous byhis absence however, was Hum Dil’s… director who was apparently busy screening his film for a select audience elsewhere.
On Wednesday, while the skies came pouring down on Mumbai, the star-studded Haseena Maan Jayegi cast — Sanjay Dutt, Karisma Kapoor sans make-up, Pooja Batra dolled up in a blue calf-length sphagetti-strapped spandex creation — dutifully showed up at Sun N’ Sand. After posing for the photographs alongside Smita Thackeray — who herself walked in at 10.45 pm — they left in a hurry. However, true to form, Govinda came and stayed on after everyone had left. Also spotted at the do were Bharat Shah, Tips’ Ramesh and Kumar Taurani, music director Anu Malik, Alka Yagnik and of course director David Dhawan.
