Saturday night saw some of the city's beautiful people gather at Laila and Farhan Furniturewala's airy, earth and gold burnished heritage bungalow, opposite Joggers' Park for the former's birthday celebrations.
Laila and Farhan Furniturewala; Sussanne Khan and Farah Khan Ali
Saturday night saw some of the city's beautiful people gather at Laila and Farhan Furniturewala's airy, earth and gold burnished heritage bungalow, opposite Joggers' Park for the former's birthday celebrations.
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Cousins Simone Arora, Farah Khan Ali and Sussanne Khan, her mother Sundari, and uncle Akbar Khan, along with Kabir and Parveen Bedi, Shaina NC and Manish Munot, Sunil Alagh, Dia Mirza, Ameesha Patel, Neelam Kothari, Anu and Sunny Dewan, Nisha JamVwal, Anna and Jaiveer Singh were seen enjoying the warm hospitality and DJ Bosco's chart busters from the 1900s.
Laila and Farhan Furniturewala; Sussanne Khan and Farah Khan Ali
"I wanted a retro evening with my father's dance hits..." said Laila, daughter of the late Bollywood star the dashing Feroze Khan. Sunil Alagh told jokes, jewellery designer Farah Khan Ali caught up with her old pal, jewellery designer Neelam Kothari, Queenie Singh made a late appearance. Sundari Khan held court with a gaggle of admirers and the party showed every sign of greeting next morning's early bird joggers across the road.
Simone Arora
Celebrating Protima
The 18th death anniversary of the late Protima Bedi whose startling mid-life transformation from hippy chick to Odissi exponent is the stuff of urban legend,was marked last week with a poignant tribute by her friend, theatre veteran Dolly Thakore. "I cannot leave this paradise called Nrityagram on the outskirts of Bengaluru, which holds a piece of my heart and a life spent with the most wonderful generous, creative, bold, daring, courageous friend, Protima Bedi, who the mountains and rain took away on August 18...exactly 18 years ago," she posted. "She made her dream of establishing a dance village come true and today her Odissi dancers are the toast of all international dancers and festivals."
Protima Bedi
The anniversary saw performances by all Nrityagram students from across India and was attended by many of the late dancer's friends and fans.
Dolly Thakore
Pawar zipping around
We are all for budding entrepreneurs who opt for their own paths instead of joining the family business. Yugendra Pawar, who schooled between Mumbai's Cathedral and Switzerland's Aiglon before completing a business and finance degree in Boston, is the son of Srinavas Pawar, the founder of the successful Sharayu Group, which runs numerous car dealerships in the city. He is also the nephew of former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and belongs to the powerful Sharad Pawar clan.
Yugendra Pawar
The twenty-something has launched a startup mobile called Ziptown, a personal delivery assistant that lets users pick up or drop off anything in Mumbai within 60 minutes. Pawar says he self-funded the venture from money he made 'betting on 3D printing stocks in the NYSE'. "There is nothing like it in the city. We have been operational for five months now and people are using it for all sorts of things that I hadn't even anticipated," he exults. "It's convenient and safe and you can track our police verified riders in real time every second right on your cellphone."
And given its instant success, the startup has further expansion plans. "We have plans to grow Ziptown pan India, specially in the metropolitan cities where a time based delivery service is the need of the hour," he adds, before zipping off.
Nice!
The studio through the White Door
If we felt a bit like Alice searching for the white rabbit over the weekend, it was perhaps because of artist Sunil Padwal's extensive directions on getting to his studio in Lower Parel. The dapper forty-something-year-old, known for his anguished protagonist set against hyper surfaces of confused metropolis and changing cityscapes, had sent a series of texts on how to reach his place of work. The idea was to see the studio — from all accounts an astonishing space — view his recent work, and meet a handful of other artists over drinks.
Standing (from left) Tanuja Padwal, Brinda Miller, Prabhakar Kolte, Dayanita Singh, Arun Jothi (a friend), Baiju Parthan, Vinod Sharma. Sitting (from left) Arzan Khambatta, Sudarshan Shetty, Sunil Padwal
"If you are coming from Lower Parel station (east) you come down the flyover, cross the main traffic light, come straight..." began one message which ended with 'you need to walk inside the narrow lane, you will see a white door.'
And to be honest the Alice syndrome saw us through to the other side of what was an essentially middle class housing society, into a cathedral of height and edgy beauty: minimal bespoke furniture, a brimming altar of a bookshelf, gigantic pieces of sculpture and a swathe of Padwal's sublime recent works for prestigious assignments across the world like an upcoming art fair in Cologne.
But man does not live by art alone and so, amidst great music, and supported by a well-stocked bar were gathered some of the countries best known artists and creators: Prabhakar Kolte, Baiju Parthan, Brinda Miller, Vinod Sharma, Arzan Khambatta and Arun Jothi, along with hosts Sunil and his attractive designer-model wife Tanuja Padwal.
"I often call my artist friends over to the studio," says Padwal. "We really are a small community which discusses each other's work and supports each other's creativity," he says about the gathering, while sculptor Khambatta, known to be a great mimic, narrates amusing anecdotes from his artistic career.
And then the doorbell rings and in walk Dayanita Singh and Sudarshan Shetty with a few bright young organisers of the Kochi Biennale, and the discussion and laughter and viewing goes on till the wee hours of the morning.
For such is the artistic life.
From the mouths of ADs
It is a truth universally acknowledged that some of the most delicious behind the scenes stories in Bollywood emanate from the units of films. Those callow men and women who toil silently in the background, their antennas ever ready to pick up on the ebb and flow of real-time Bollywood occurrences. And so when this young lass who'd worked on a recently released epic tanker, featuring one of Bolly's musculated super stars in all his bronzed glory was overheard griping sorely about said Bronzed One' s curious reluctance to promote his film — we lent her our ear.
"It was weird how he remained so aloof during the run-up to the film's launch," she said. "On the few occasions he chose to speak about his role in its making, he focused entirely on himself," she said, adding the kicker, "All of us on the unit believe that his recent fall from grace following his public spat with his co-star, appears to have unhinged him — what other explanation can there be?"
Oh dear.
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Don't you hate it when all you ever wanted was a selfie, but life gives you a silver medal instead? #PVSindhu
— @sarcasm_so
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