Bollywood hijacks Page 3

The flashlights seem to go off just for the filmi crowd these days. 'It's unfair to other guests,' say the regulars who once made Bombay's party circuit a livewire act. With stars getting all the attention these days, society divas are relegated to playing supporting roles

> Model Mugdha Godse walks the ramp for top designers and gets invites to launch male products. Shutterbugs go into an overdrive mode when she arrives at a social do. Not so long ago, she failed to turn heads at a fashion week event. This changed once Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion released. She is now hot property.

> Actress Neha Dhupia, despite doing edgy films like Ek Chalis Ki Last Local and Mithya, hasn't found a steady foothold in Bollywood. What she has found, though, is celebrity status at events, launches and fashion weeks. Probably, dating squash player Ritwik Bhattacharya helped gain more news space too.

> Then there's Vidya Malvade, from Chak De! India and the flop film Kidnap. She makes appearances at events and parties and is now going to judge a short film competition. She, too, manages to create a buzz at events, thanks to her Bollywood connection.

The deal today is that Bollywood actors hog the Page 3 circuit be it at events, parties, book and product launches or fashion shows. Their presence is a sure-shot way to gain news space. The bigger the names, the better the event. Perhaps, it's a vicious circle. Perhaps, it's the changing face of Page 3. The truth is that veteran socialites find the filmi glamour a bit too blinding. Add to that the crowd of lesser-known TV and film actors, who encash on the easy fame.

Says former party animal Kishen Mulchandani, "Bollywood has completely taken over the party circuit. Actors get invited to any and all events. They are even ready to launch underwear brands! There's no excitement left anymore."

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar counters, "That's not true. Socialites have their own parties and they don't invite us. They have their own coterie of people. Besides, townies don't want to travel to the suburbs to attend a party." But Madhur says page 3 is a good podium to network and interact, and he got the idea for three of his films from mingling with a cross-section of people. "When I entered the industry, it was quite intriguing to see models, actors, politicians, businessman and wannabes interacting under one roof. I remember asking a well-known person if he was going to the next party and guess what he said? He said, 'If I don't go, everyone will think I was not invited!" laughs Madhur, who feels the industry is superficial.

Last week, Mugdha Godse and Neha Dhupia launched a men's perfume, because the brand managers apparently thought that "women are much more sexier". At another event, Amrita Rao launched a watch collection.

Says a freelance photographer, "Socialites' photos do not find many takers in magazines that circulate all over India. Everyone wants to see a film actor at an event. The second preference goes to TV stars. Society people have been left by the wayside."

Of course, except for the Ambanis, Birlas, Singhanias and Nisha Jamvwal, who disagrees that the filmi crowd has taken over completely. Jamvwal says, that whenever she is at an event, "lovely pictures" are taken of her.

She adds, "It's about circulating and freshness. I think Bombay takes Bollywood for granted. Recently, I was at Poonam Dhillon's birthday bash. The photographers were just as excited to see Yash Chopra as they were to see me. I was embarrassed at the attention they gave me. At another event, Hrithik Roshan and I came in together and the media showed the same enthusiasm. In Delhi, it's a different thing though. They think a star has fallen from heaven."

But she says that one needs to constantly reinvent oneself. "There has to be more to life than just attending page 3 parties. I curate, I write, I have written four books already and I recently designed the Jaipur airport. I am not a vacuous bimbette on Page 3. How much can one write about Chhaya Momaya, just because she is a friend of Nita Ambani's? Besides, I don't believe in wearing brands on the chest. I wear brands, but inside my clothes or carry it inside my purse."

Parvez Damania says that he doesn't think Bollywood stars are a big deal, but it's a different story at social dos. "It's embarrassing. Everyone jumps around them for attention. It's unfair to other guests," says the former airline owner, who adds that he doesn't believe in attending parties on SMS invites.

Esther Daswani doesn't find parties as trendy as they used to be. "It feels like someone has put a damp cloth over the party scene now. But good house parties keep happening, where people are more comfortable. The five-star culture is dying. When I say that, I am speaking about the south Mumbai scenario."

Esther doesn't feel that the spotlight on Bollywood is uncool. "Film stars have always been in the limelight more than socialites. If Shah Rukh Khan comes to a function, even people in Orissa would know him. But if a city socialite attends the function, who would know apart from the locals? An actor is idolised by many, possibly even fantasised. You hero worship a film star, but no one hero worships a socialite," says Esther, who says that one of her close friends used to attend 10 parties every week, but not any longer. "Some feel a high on seeing themselves in the newspapers. Bhaav chad gaya, they feel. But not for me," she adds.

For someone who is in the news for not only Page 3 appearances, but also her dressing sense, Aarti Surendranath says, "Page 3 is created by the media. It comes from an inverted snobbery. Our lives don't get affected that much. For some, it may be the high point of their lives to get into the papers. Some even pay to appear on Page 3. We get to hear about it all the time from people who don't get that much coverage. I even have to hear snide remarks from them like, 'you don't have time for us' or 'you don't know any thing about politics except Page 3'. And I have to retort, 'I know more about politics than you do'."

Life coach Chhaya Momaya doesn't think much has changed over the years. "People are still dying to be on Page 3 and they will try their best to get mileage by even paying their way through. Some have greeted me as 'Hi, Page 3'. Come on, I am more than that. Once I was sitting with Raell Padamsee and this woman I won't name came to me and said, 'I was hiding from photographers.' I thought, 'Look at the way you look, your hair, your face. Who would want to click you?' And there have been times when regular people recognise me from the photos and have asked to be photographed with them or sign an autograph. So where is the question of Bollywood taking over?"

Interestingly, Chhaya's financial consultant husband Nirmal refuses to be photographed because he feels his profession doesn't require him to be on Page 3.

Sharmilla Khanna contradicts Chhaya by saying that everyone wants Bollywood presence at every event she manages. "Page 3 has changed. When the CEO of a company is not recognised, they pay to be in the papers.

Big companies pay a lot to get Bollywood biggies to events, while smaller companies get smaller stars so that their event gets covered somehow. All Bollywood actors have become Page 3. It's very irritating, but the truth is that cricket and Bollywood sell. Even politicians don't have that kind of pull. And there are no clients who don't want a film star to attend his event."

Sharmilla says that though socialites do attend events, the janta may not recognise them. "I tell all my socialite friends very clearly, come for the event for a short time because Bollywood stars will take away all the attention. It's a different ball game if it's a Yash Birla or the Ambanis."

Show producer and fashion director Marc Robinson feels that events have become a lot more commercial. He says that if his friend (designer) Troy Costa wants to have a good show, he may make a few phone calls to friends and ask them to attend it. "I do it for free," he says and adds, "I don't understand why people pay celebs for parties. It happens in rare cases where models are paid to attend a party. But the models don't really get much mileage out of it. I have never done it though."

He quotes the recent fashion week, where Shah Rukh Khan walked for Manish Malhotra. "All of Manish's friends were there. But if a new designer wanted them to walk for his show, they would charge you to come."
He feels that the craving to be seen on Page 3 is missing and genuine people attend genuine events. "Of course, there are a few rotten eggs in the basket. But who are we to pass judgment? They are Page 3 parasites who have a hunger to be in the limelight and even throw parties just to be in Page 3."

Meanwhile...
The craze to be seen on Page 3 hasn't really faded. This is what happens now at events:

> Apparently, some socialites liaison with the event managers, tell them that they will get an X number of celebs for the event for an X amount of money.
> While film stars are the flavour of the season, a lot of wannabe socialites attend the events to bag freebies.
> Many small-time TV and film actors, invited for film premieres at the last minute, manage to make it just for the photographs. They scoot without seeing the film, once they are shot. Result: their picture appears on Page 3 the next day.
> Wannabe celebs are also known to call journalists the day after the party to ask or request them, directly or indirectly, if their picture will appear in the paper the next day. One of them is a tarot card reader.
> An actress who acted opposite Emraan Hashmi and hasn't seen a film release for sometime now still gets photographed, irrespective of where she deserves to or not. And she makes it a point to come and check her pictures to see if she's looking nice.
> Another flamboyant camp designer is known to arrive at parties with his boyfriend, but makes it a point to hang out with models, so that when girls are photographed, he too squeezes in, and in such a way that the picture can't be cropped.
> The modus operandi of gatecrashers: if an event is at 8 pm, one of the guys (they make sure they are well-dressed) arrives much before time, hangs around, checks out the security points. Then, when a star arrives, he acts as if he is chatting on the cellphone and slips in with the star's entourage. No one stops him, thinking he is part of the celebrity's staff. Once inside, he gets more of his friends in, who arrive later.

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