Cumballa Hill housewarming

Rishi Kapoor at Pamela and Timmy Grover's housewarming that was also attended by SRK, Rima Jain, Neetu Kapoor and friends

Pamela and Timmy Grover, whose weddings for their children in exotic European locales over the past few years have been the toast of the NRI crowd, are said to have hosted the mother of all housewarming dos recently, when they threw open the doors of their newly refurbished, sumptuous Cumballa Hill apartment this weekend.

The Grovers are an old business clan, whose Modella Mills had been one of the country's leading establishments of its time and Pamela herself is the daughter of a well-heeled Sindhi family from Lagos and London, which is related to not only Bollywood's Kapoor clan (Pamela's cousin Manoj Jain is married to Rima, Raj Kapoor's youngest daughter), but also to the glamorous Aswanis.

No surprises then, that the couple's legion of friends from across the worlds of business and Bollywood thronged to the leafy neighbourhood, bringing their share of glam and glitz. Spotted at the do were SRK, Randhir Kapoor, Sridevi and Boney Kapoor, Neetu and Rishi Kapoor, and Sunita and Anil Kapoor from the industry, enjoying the stellar hospitality at hand.

Saad Bin Jung, Leena Singh and Bina Aziz

A royal repast
A creamy layer of some of the country's most delicious luvvies descended on Hyderabad's Faluknama Palace this weekend for the wedding of the dashing Saaz Bin Jung, the twenty-something son of former Test cricketer and present conservationist and author Saad Bin Jung and his wife Sangeeta.

Mala Singh and Ravina Raj Kohli

The wedding of the Bengaluru-based Jungs, related to the royal family of Pataudi, saw some of the city's best known denizens like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, woman around town Leena Singh, designer Manoviraj Khosla and Bengaluru-raised Ravina Raj Kohli joined by Delhi's Mala Singh and Mumbai's Bina Aziz amongst others, partake in what was described as a royal repast.

A sign of things to come?
The Christie's soiree on Friday evening to preview its auction on Sunday, could have been a fair indication of how sales would turn out, for anyone who cared to read the tea leaves.

Bunty Chand and Jay Mehta

A major collector who we'd expected to meet there had begged off a few hours earlier, saying, "It's more a society event. The serious collectors don't attend." He might have been right. Those we spoke to at the auction, though admiring and palpably covetous of the lots on display, shrugged off when asked if they were planning to make a bid.

Arjun Khanna and (far right) Abhishek Poddar

"Not at these prices," said one gentleman. "I have begun collecting works of younger, still to be discovered artists," said another. Spotted on the occasion were Asia Society's Bunty Chand, philanthropist and art patron Bakul Patel, entrepreneur Bharat Kewalramani with his actress wife Deepika, designer Arjun Khanna, businessmen Jay Mehta, Rajiv Malhotra and Bakul Jain, erstwhile Mumbai resident Gunni Murjani, and visiting art patrons from London Asha and Deepee Khilnani, amongst others.

Though the couple of the moment, Radhika and Abhishek Poddar, were not to be spotted, talk of the sale of 41 stellar works from their collection dominated the room. As it tuned out, 95 per cent of the Poddar collection is said to have been sold on Sunday in what was said to be a relatively tepid affair all round, inspite of an untitled 1974 VS Gaitonde going for Rs 15.63 crore.

Date night for Vidya and Siddharth at the movies
Put it down to the irresistible romanticism of the Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone holiday release La La Land, but when we saw Vidya Balan and husband, Bollywood producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, indulge in some charming PDA as the titles rolled post the movie at the PVR on Sunday evening, we knew that love was in the air - and it was catching.

Vidya Balan and Siddharth Roy Kapur

It's always nice to see film stars out at the movies enjoying the quotidian pleasure as it ought to be enjoyed: in the company of people whom movies are made for in the first place; especially when they show up in their crumpled weekend grunge like the rest of us, as were Roy Kapur and Balan (long black kurta, jeans, white cotton bush shirt, sandals etc) The Kapurs were at their urbane best that evening, even waiting their turn patiently outside a cafe until a table cleared.

What's more, this is not the first time they've been spotted at the movies. A colleague had posted about running into them at the same theatre only a few weeks ago. After all, where else will a successful producer and a talented actress like to spend a date night together?

Two lectures and a wedding
It's becoming something of a habit for Sanjay Reddy of the GVK Group. Not only did the Hyderabad-based businessman get chosen to deliver the prestigious commencement speech recently at the University of Purdue on Graduation Day, but he had also done so a couple of years earlier at the University of Michigan.

Sanjay and Pinky Reddy at Purdue

What's more, we're informed that he has been the first ever Indian to do so at both of his alma maters. And on the heels of this, Reddy along with wife Aparna (Pinky), will be getting ready to host the wedding of their son Keshav to Veena in Hyderabad early next year.

Kissa kursi ka
If you think that fashionistas make too much of a song and dance about getting the front row at shows, consider the case of captains of industry and czars of the financial world. The importance of being seated in the front row at a recently concluded mega business awards presentation could not be overstated.

"You had the country's top billionaires and bankers anxiously rubber necking to see if they had been placed in a seat commensurate with their stature," said a guest. "After all, to be relegated to the back rows at such a high powered gathering would have made their attendance counter productive." Talk about kissa kursi ka.