Fashion week-filled decade ahead

The sun is setting over the Arabian Sea in Bandra. I am sitting with Badshah Khan. Fans are thronging in multitudes outside his residence. They have no idea that he is a stone's throw away u2014 at the Taj Lands End hotel, where I throw him a proposal, "SRK, I know you make a few crore per film. But I am offering you a deal of a minimum of Rs 40 crore a year. You don't need to work at all. All you need to do is agree making all the right sounds to the media and two ramp appearances."

"You serious?" he says, running his hands through his thicker-than-Ash's-mascara L'Oru00e9al locks. "Here's the plan," I gloat, "We are organising The Bandra Bollywood Fashion Week!" SRK raises that famous eyebrow.

"Forget about Wills and Lakmu00e9 and Chennai, Kolkata and Pune. Here's the deal. Bandra has the major stars, right? They all need to earn, right? Forget about films in 2010. Let's do a fashion event. Fashion is where theu00a0 moolah is. And I'm not talking about Madhur's film. We do it for two weeks in a year, get all the best babes, get Sallu, Hrithik, Aamir, Sanju, blah, blah, blah. Then we allot them a day each. They'll receive a minimum of Rs 5 crore per day," I explain.

"Twice a year, man. That's big money! They make the call to the designers and offer them Rs 50 lakh per show (twice what they are offered by FDCI and some other construction companies). They bring all their girls and toy boys and show some clothes. They are happy with their lakh, we are happy with our crore," I tell him. "You kidding? It's that easy?" asks SRK.

"Easy as ABC.u00a0 All these 11 going on 21 fashion weeks are mad or what? They are all raking in the dough. All we need are sponsors. Look at the ones we have on Perry and Carter Road u2014 Popley, Notandas, TBZ... fat cats who will jump to get brand value via fashion. And then we have all those cricketers and the IPL waiting for association. The deal is simple. We budget Rs 40 crore per year for the Bandra Bollywood Fashion Week," I say.

"Okay Wendell, you have been around for 20 years and should know the industry. Let's shake on it!" SRK is all dimples.

That was the time to go in for the kill. "Listen, do you want to make another Rs 40 crore on the side?" I ask.

"Eh?" says he. "Lets do a Lokhandwala-Versova Escort Service Fashion Week. All those out-of-work-models supported by all those model-loving-diamond-giving-industrialists. It's a whole other game. Lots of money to be made," I suggest. "Rodricks," SRK beams, "We are going to have a great decade starting 2010."

"Shah Rukh baba, I have not even disclosed my plans for the other fashion weeks," I say, gloating even more.

"We'll have Mall Weeks. Everyone from Westside to Shoppers Shop to Pantaloonsu2026 they are waiting to sell pru00eat versions of fashion twice a year with select designers. Organising fashion weeks is the business to be in, SRK.

Just watch the new decade in 2010."

SRK vanishes in a cloud of dimpled smiles and heads out to sign autographs, in his 'ishtyle' only! Happy fashion week-filled decade one and all!