WEEKLY MAGAZINE, APRIL 8, 2012 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times
Top Bollywood actors can earn three crores a day for an endorsement – and nine times as much for a film
indulge
VIR SANGHVI
Natural is best
SANJOY NARAYAN
New Orleans rewind
SEEMA GOSWAMI
70mm fashion moments
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08.04.2012 18.03.2012 FOR A LARGER, MORE FILLING BRUNCH... ...grab a copy of the latest Brunch Quarterly. Your weekly dose of Brunch isn’t enough – there’s so much more we can write about! With this glossy 130+ page issue, you’ll get the same content – only deeper, longer pieces and more gorgeous pictures. Don’t miss out on this one!
inbox LETTER OF THE WEEK! ‘Bikini aunty’
I ENJOYED reading your article (Are Indian Girls Bikini Ready?, March 25). My 58-year-old mother has a good collection of bikinis. She gives swimming lessons to local slum boys. Flaunting her boldest minimal two-piece, she spends hours with the boys in our local pool unfazed by curious onlookers. She told the boys that the bikini is the only dress code for women in water. They call her “Bikini Aunty”. — ABHIJIT, via email Abhijit wins a shopping voucher worth ` 2,500. Congrats!
My child, my rules
EVEN THOUGH it was just a page long, The Big Sleep (April 1) was very handy and helpful. Features on baby care in most periodicals are cut-copy-paste from foreign publications, and do not fit here. Since every child is unique, he or she should be brought up in a unique way. – DEEPTI SAXENA, via email
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EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna Tewari, Yashica Dutt, Pranav Dixit, Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain, Shreya Sethuraman DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor Design), Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Singh, Saket Misra, Suhas Kale, Shailendra Mirgal, Monica Gupta
Drop a line at
brunchletters@hindustantimes.com or to 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001 APRIL 8, 2012
Highlights: ■ The sparkling chemistry between actors Sonam Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar ■ Model Angad Bedi’s guide to getting lucky with the ladies ■ Soha and Saba Ali Khan, the three Roy Kapurs, Shantanu & Nikhil – stories of celeb siblings
LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch Prajakta Memane A rocking start to my Sunday today!! Such awesome personalities all in one place (Lights, Camera, Shootout!, Brunch Dialogues, April 1) plus the fantastic team of HT Brunch.... You people must have had a gala time!! Great going Hindustan Times Brunch! :)
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Cover Story
16
Essay
18
Travel
Shivesh Bhatia I just LOVE the interviews in the end (Personal Agenda)! I love the layout, colour scheme, pictures and just EVERYTHING about it :) Cherry Jagdev Absolutely love this (Brunch Dialogues – Conversations with Indian Cinema photo gallery on Facebook). Have been waiting for and asking for pics on Twitter all the time (when you guys were tweeting the event!!)
TWEET YOUR HEART OUT twitter.com/HTBrunch @Luxwala Lovely pics guys! Are u gonna telecast it (Hindustan Times Brunch Dialogues) on TV? @AnilMyWorld Technology guru Rajiv Makhni is the best in the mobile world. Some company should make a mobile named ‘Rajiv’ @SavarSuri Even I signed up (for Path) yesterday @PranavDixit @HTBrunch (The Closed Circuit, April 1) @AdityaMohan Fantastic read!! (Rude Food, April 1) @Ajaythetwit Great gathering (Hindustan Times Brunch Dialogues) ... nice pics... must have been fun to be with so many 'hot & happening' people!
BRUNCH ON THE WEB hindustantimes.com/brunch
When the glass slipper fits Women love shoes! Especially when they (the shoes) are as gorgeous as these! After you’ve read the story on Christian Louboutin (page 20), you should check out the pictures of these sparkly high heels. Log on!
A peek into the real world of Bollywood stars and their unreal prices Most films are shot in Mumbai, and lately, Delhi. Will Kolkata in Kahaani change that?
A trip to Hong Kong’s Disneyland Resort took the Mickey out of me!
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RUDE FOOD Steer clear of the foods that made America fat
14 SPECTATOR Listing my top ten fashion moments in movies 15 DOWNLOAD CENTRAL Funk, soul, R&B and hip hop – there’s much more to New Orleans than just jazz --
TECHILICIOUS Rajiv Makhni will be back next week!
Cover Design: PRASHANT CHAUDHARY
Split-Screen remake Film remakes are often a result of lack of creativity, so why should one take them seriously? Read award-winning writer/filmmaker Gautam Chintamani’s latest on our website. Read his column Split-Screen every Friday!
Brunch Blogs
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This week, read Different Strokes by Aasheesh Sharma. Sports, arts and entertainment as unusual.
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PEOPLE
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The Akhara And The Kotha Karachi-based writer Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s haunting new novel, set in a crumbling city, tells the story of an ageing courtesan and a once-powerful wrestler by Poonam Saxena
P
AKISTANI WRITER Musharraf Ali Farooqi is a different kind of author. Though he writes elegant, evocative novels in English (his latest is Between Clay and Dust, published by Aleph Book Company, David Davidar’s new publishing venture), he is also a passionate advocate of Urdu literature and has translated epics like The Adventures of Amir Hamza. Excerpts from an interview:
You dropped out of engineering studies to become a writer. Didn’t your family protest vehemently? It caused a major scandal. My dropping out is still a matter of some shame for my mother, and I feel that even if I won the Nobel one day, she would come back at me with, “Yeh to buss aik award hai, degree to nahin! (This is just an award, not a degree).” I know there would be no answer to that. Your latest novel, Between Clay and Dust, unfolds like a lovely old-world tale. Why did you decide to write it? To begin with, I wished to explore the connection between self-discipline and power in the life of a pahalwan. Then the courtesan Gohar Jan entered the story and
suddenly there were two people, Ustad Ramzi and Gohar Jan, who were both devoted to their respective arts, and whose peculiar circumstances made their relationships with loved ones somewhat complex. It became a story of the tragedy of the choices available to them and how they would acquit themselves without compromising on their integrity as artists and human beings. The present narrative voice is not very different from the voice in the first draft written about 10 years ago. But longer reflection about the relationships created a greater layering of the story, and further clarity in my mind that it was really the only style in which this particular story could be told to maximum effect.
I have read Mirza Hadi Rusva’s novel and seen the two versions of Umrao Jan. I haven’t seen Pakeezah, but I have listened countless times to Thade Rahiyo O Baanke Yaar and Chaltey Chaltey from the film.
You have also done a lot of translation... Hoshruba, The Land and the Tilism, The Adventures of Amir Hamza. How difficult and enjoyable – was that? Both difficult and enjoyable. Translation taught me a lot about writing and led me to explore much arcane material which I plan to employ in my fiction.
This whole ‘flowering’ of Pakistani writing is driven by Western publishers
The novel is very ‘filmable...’ From your lips to the directors’ ears. Yes, a number of people have commented that the story is told rather visually. Have you seen films like Pakeezah and Umrao Jaan?
Do you write everyday? I really do not have a routine as such. The one thing I do religiously is my breakfast. Without that, words will indeed stop flowing.
How familiar are you with India? Do you think the Indian market is important for Pakistani writers? My parents come from Saharanpur and Muradabad. But this is the first time that I will be visiting
COMING UP NEXT Some of the other books Aleph will bring out over the next 12 months: ■ Writer Jerry Pinto’s first novel, Em and the Big Hoom, a story about the eccentric Mendeses of Mahim, who try and be a family. ■ The Freethinker’s Prayer Book by Khushwant Singh. Quite a change from the writer’s dirty old man image. ■ India in Love – Love, Sex and Marriage in 21st Century India by Ira Trivedi. This promises to be that difficult thing to pull off: an enlightening page-turner. ■ Expat Pamela Timms’ (known for her High Teas, or as she calls it, Uparwali Chai) culinary adventures in Purani Dilli, Mutton Korma At Shokkys’ – Five Seasons in Old Delhi. ■ Journalist Barkha Dutt finally does her book: This Unquiet Land – Dispatches from India’s Fault Lines.
India. As a growing market, India is very important for all writers.
What do you feel about the whole ‘flowering’ of Pakistani writing? Frankly, not much. It is mostly driven by Western publishers who show no interest in publishing English language translations of contemporary Urdu fiction. It was the same for Indian languages when English literature from India was all the rage. We cannot have a balanced debate about the literary merits of fiction from this part of the world under the circumstances. What are you working on next? I am working on the novel A Heroine of Our Time. It is the story of how a beloved institution was revived by a group of disparate people coming together from a common outlook on life. The central characters are a Karachi bookworm and a Russian artiste. Writers you love? I mostly read the Urdu fiction writers from India as translations from other Indian languages are not available easily: Naiyer Masud, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Syed Muhammad Ashraf. From Pakistan, Muhammad Khalid Akhtar, Afzal Ahmed Syed, Ali Akbar Natiq, Khalid Toor. And I think everyone should read Charles Dickens, Dostoyevsky and Maupassant. poonamsaxena@hindustantimes.com
“It was said – with some justification – that only the fickle survived in the kothas, and only the pitiless prospered” APRIL 8, 2012
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C OV E R STO RY
Welcome to the real world of stars – and their unreal prices. A peek into the Dirty Picture of star earnings! by Komal Nahta
K
AREENA KAPOOR would have to act in eight films to earn what Salman Khan can pocket in just one film, which is around R23-27 crore! Akshay Kumar, the star of the multi-star cast Housefull and Housefull 2, has not seen the housefull boards outside cinema halls for his solo starrers since what seems to be forever, but he still gets paid R18-20 crore for every film he works in. Vidya Balan may have carried Kahaani to the winning post and bagged every award for The Dirty Picture, but would you believe that even after two hits, she is not the highest paid actress in Bollywood? That’s the dirty truth about star prices. Till the ’90s, Amitabh Bachchan was the only star paid in crores. Figuratively speaking, stars are supposed to be living up there in the sky. But now, it is their prices that are touching the sky. Welcome then to the real world of stars and their unreal prices. You may even feel inclined to term their remunerations obscene, more vulgar than any adult sex film Bollywood has ever churned out.
APRIL 8, 2012
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Star prices are rarely, if ever, fixed, because actors make concessions for producers or directors who are friends or who are star names themselves. Stars are also emotional people. So you have Shah Rukh Khan doing films for Yash Chopra and Karan Johar at a price which is lower than what he would demand from other banners. Salman had, years ago, gone out of his way to accommodate a film with the down-and-out Saawan Kumar Tak when the latter requested him to make his film with lesser actors saleable with his presence. Besides, if a script catches the fancy of a star or if SALMAN KHAN he is keen to work with a direcActing fee per film tor or producer, he doesn’t mind making a concession in cr his fees because, after all, stars Endorsement fee (per day) need good scripts, banners and directors as much as producers cr and directors need top stars. Like any other product, the price of a star is determined by the laws of demand and supply. The greater the demand and/or lower the supply (read availability of stars), the higher the price. If
23-27 1.5
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TOP DRAWS
AKSHAY KUMAR
the entire family of lead stars is considered as one cr unit and all the producers Endorsement fee (per day ) put together, another, it is cr clearly a case of demand for stars exceeding the supply. That’s because the number of HRITHIK ROSHAN Acting fee per film films produced each year in Bollywood is around 140-150 cr but the saleable heroes or Endorsement fee (per day ) those who can be cast in lead roles are barely 14 or 15. Ditto cr for the leading ladies. On an average, therefore, each star AJAY DEVGN Acting fee per film should be working in 10 films every year, which doesn’t hapcr pen now. Ultra-selective heroes Endorsement fee (per day ) like Aamir Khan and Shah cr Rukh do one or two films whereas other A-listers like RANBIR KAPOOR Salman and Akshay are seen in Acting fee per film two, three or four films every year. There may be actors who cr have six to eight releases a year Endorsement fee (per day ) but they are very few in number. cr That our actors, especially the A-list ones, command SAIF ALI KHAN obscenely high prices is an open Acting fee per film secret. Not just in absolute terms, even if one were to look cr at the ratio of flops to hits Endorsement fee (per day ) (80:20) every year, it is anybody’s cr guess that most of our stars get undeservedly high prices. For, SHAHID KAPOOR even if a good script is the main Acting fee per film reason why a film works at the ticket windows, the stars have a cr major role to play, especially the Endorsement fee (per day ) hero and heroine who work as cr magnets to draw the audience to the cinemas, initially at least. JOHN ABRAHAM Considering that 80 per cent of the Acting fee per film films bomb every year and 90 per cent don’t even open decently cr enough to justify the high prices Endorsement fee (per day ) paid to their lead actors, it is clear cr that most of our stars are paid remuneration that is far more than IMRAN KHAN they deserve. Acting fee per film
For an out of form khiladi?
18-22
1.5-2
The cool club of Bollywood’s Khan Crorepatis almost always ensures a spectacular opening at the box office
15-20
1.25-1.5
10-16
1-1.5
8-10
1.5-2
Really, Travel Agent Vinod?
7-10
0.6-0.75
Even after Mausam?
7-8
1
5-7
0.4-0.5
AAMIR KHAN
Acting fee per film (share in profit, could go up to)
40cr 4cr
Acting fee per film
5-7 cr
Endorsement fee (per day)
Endorsement fee (per day )
1-1.25 cr
SANJAY DUTT
SHAH RUKH KHAN Acting fee per film
20-25cr
(including share in profit)
Endorsement fee (per day)
2-3cr
Acting fee per film
Thank god for Agneepath
5-7 cr
Endorsement fee (per day )
0.4-0.5 cr AMITABH BACHCHAN
Acting fee per film
4-6 cr
Endorsement fee (per day )
1-1.5 cr Imaging: ASHISH SINGH
APRIL 8, 2012
(1) All figures are approximate. (2) Rates/fees are never fixed. Adjustments/ concessions are almost always made. (3) Aamir Khan charges the maximum fee among all the stars, for endorsements. (4) Shah Rukh Khan probably earns more every year by way of endorsement fees than for acting in films. He endorses about a dozen brands but works in one or two films a year. (5) Shah Rukh has always maintained that he wouldn’t mind over-charging for endorsements and stage shows but would prefer under-charging film producers because he owes his stardom to films and film producers. (6) Salman Khan is not as popular for brand endorsements as compared to the size of his superstardom because of his court cases. (7) Till about four years ago Saif Ali Khan used to endorse the highest number of brands but he has since cut down on the number of products he sells. (8) For performing on stage at televised events (like awards functions), stars get paid almost the same amount they charge per day for endorsements. For non-televised events, the payment is about 50-60% of the endorsement fee per day.
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C OV E R STO RY BOX OFFICE MAGNETS
Even today, it is on the strength of face value that the paying public patronises a film, at least for the first couple of days. In that sense, more than even the scriptwriter, director and producer, it is the star, especially the hero, who, in a manner of speaking, is the ISI mark for a film. In other words, when a star is asking for R10, 15, or 20 crore for a film, he is, by implication, assuring his producer of a great opening. But for the audience, his presence in a film is like a promise of quality cinema or, at least, value for their money. It is due to this faith which the audience has in a star (that the star will offer them an entertaining movie) that the latter commands the price he does. Or, only that actor should actually be considered worth every crore he is paid, who ensures that his film opens to bumper houses and also ensures that it offers entertainment to the paying public. So, Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh seem to be the only three stars who are being paid what they deserve. Ajay Devgn and Hrithik Roshan are inching their way to that position but the occasional Guzaarish or Aakrosh pulls them down.
BANG FOR THE BUCK?
Akshay’s 20-crore price tag is wrong because his solo films just aren’t working at the box-office; Sunny Deol, Shahid Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan may deliver an occasional
STARS’ BIG BUCKS COME FROM… ■ MOVIES ■ GUEST APPEARANCES ■ ENDORSEMENTS ■ STAGE SHOWS ■ HOSTING STAGE SHOWS ■ HOSTING TV SHOWS ■ ATTENDANCE AT WEDDINGS/ FUNCTIONS ■ JUDGING REALITY TV SHOWS ■ DANCING/PERFORMING AT EVENTS The only appearance for which stars, thankfully, don’t charge money are those made at funerals of friends, acquaintances and respected industry people.
success but they’ve also given huge duds, which means they lack the consistency of Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman. However, the fees the stars charge don’t vary according to the fate of their films – the pay packet is not cut if a film flops. But Aamir Khan is a class apart. From charging a fee and a percentage in profits, Aamir now keeps a share in the profits his starrers make. “That way, I am not burdening the film’s budget with my cost, and I am also ready to put my neck on the line,” says Aamir matter-offactly. “By not taking anything upfront and only charging a fee for acting if the film makes a profit, I am openly stating that if the audience doesn’t like my film, I don’t deserve a penny.” The Indian obsession with a male child manifests itself in film viewing habits too. That explains why hero-oriented films open far better than heroine-oriented ones. Women-oriented films like No One Killed Jessica and Kahaani started slowly and scored only afterwards. The Dirty Picture, for all its claim of being a woman-centric story, still boasted of three heroes, hit music and titillating fare! Kareena Kapoor, the heroine of Heroine, has been paid a reported fee of R4 crore but she won’t be entitled to even one per cent of the profits in the film. By the way, Sridevi was the only actress who nearly touched the onecrore mark in the Nineties. The leading lady of such heroine-oriented films as Chandni, Nagina and Chaalbaaz had, years ago, signed a film for R1 crore but that film never got made. Character actors rank even lower than heroines in the pay hierarchy. But over the years, supporting actors have started charging exorbitantly. So you have Irrfan getting R1.5 crore and Paresh Rawal insisting on a fee with seven zeros or, at least, R75-80 lakh. brunchletters@hindustantimes.com
APRIL 8, 2012
PRIYANKA CHOPRA
Acting fee per film
2-3 cr
Endorsement fee (per day)
BIG PLAYERS Actresses lag behind the men when it comes to money
0.65-0.75 cr
DEEPIKA PADUKONE
Acting fee per film
1-2.5 cr
Huh? Endorsement fee (per day) What?
0.5-0.75 cr
ANUSHKA SHARMA
Acting fee per film
1-1.5 cr
Why? Endorsement fee (per day) Why??
0.25-0.4 cr
KAREENA KAPOOR Acting fee per film
3-4cr 1-1.25cr
Endorsement fee (per day)
KATRINA KAIF Acting fee per film
3-4cr 1-1.25cr
Endorsement fee (per day)
VIDYA BALAN Acting fee per film
2.5-3cr
Endorsement fee (per day)
0.25-0.5
cr
C OV E R STO RY
twitter.com/HTBrunch
W
ith the remuneration of actors, actresses and technicians soaring, how does a producer still end up making profits? Well, it’s not really tough because business has also grown manifold in the last 10 years. The main reasons for the growth are the high ticket prices in cinemas and the ever-growing sources of revenue, particularly sale of satellite rights. The desperation of corporate houses is another reason why producers of star-cast films are not generally in the red. Since most corporate houses have to show turnover to shareholders, they assign projects without weighing the pros and cons. As it is, they have deep pockets due to the availability of public money and institutional funding. Since they fund star-studded films, the producers of those films could end up laughing all the way to the bank even if the corporates incur losses due to high costs. And frankly, even corporates don’t incur losses in their books of account because most of them amortise only 50 per cent of the cost of a film in the first year. This amounts to accounting jugglery but that’s the way it is. This is not to say that these costs have not had an adverse effect on the viability of projects. Many of Akshay Kumar’s films would not be termed flops if his price were to be a third of what it is. And if that had to happen, most of his producers who have been making losses, would end up making profits.
cent films which click every year, 75-85 per cent are star-studded fares and so, it makes sense for stars to produce films with themselves acting in them. (ii) It is a fallacy to think that it is the producer who bears the brunt of the losses when a film bombs at the box-office. If a film is pre-sold to distributors or a corporate house, the producer can make a profit even if the film fails at the ticket windows as, in such cases, the loss would be the corporate’s or borne by the distributors. Examples of producers making money while corporates or distributors incurred heavy losses are aplenty. Omkara, Guzaarish, Tees Maar Khan, Kites are some. (iii) With theatrical earnings being only one part of the revenue stream of a film, a star-producer can make gains even if his film doesn’t fare well at the turnstiles, by pre-selling satellite, audio and other rights. This is not to say that star-producers never make losses. Of course, they do. Saif Ali Khan, nicknamed Travel Agent Vinod after the many countries his character in his home production, Agent Vinod, travels to, will end up burning his fingers and toes in the thriller. Had Saif only acted in it, there was no question of him losing money. But in most cases, star-producers end up making profits because star-studded films have better chances of clicking with the public and also because star-struck corporate houses are willing to fund films of star-producers and take the risk of distributing them. Interestingly, stars never brag about their earnings the way film producers do by announcing the gross and net collections of their released films on huge hoardings and newspaper advertisements. Therefore, in an industry where stars and their chartered accountants are the only ones who know their exact income, the grapevine and industry talk are the only sources of information about star earnings, star prices etc. But these are tried and tested reference points. Komal Nahta is a trade analyst and the editor of Film Information
A starproducer can make money by pre-selling satellite, audio and other rights
ENTER, THE ACTOR-PRODUCER
Not satisfied with earning handsomely as actors, many of our leading men have turned producers. Right from Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman to Akshay, Ajay Devgn, Sunny, Anil, Amitabh, Saif, Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham, every actor worth his name and probably unworthy of his crores has jumped on to the production bandwagon. When the success ratio of films is barely 20 per cent and when it is the producer who suffers losses if a film flops, why would stars turn to such a risky business? It is because of three reasons: (i) Of the 20 per
SPECALISTS’ FEES DIRECTORS’ CUT
W
ITH STAR prices touching the sky, directors also started demanding fat salaries at the turn of the new century. Highly-paid directors include Raj Kumar Hirani, Rohit Shetty, Anees Bazmee, Farah Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Rajkumar Santoshi, Prabhu Deva, Sajid Khan and the like. Of these, top ones like Hirani ask for a share in profits so that their fee could go up to R20 crore per film, or more! Some of the other above-named directors charge between R3 crore and R10 crore per film. Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar, Rakesh
Roshan and Sooraj Barjatya could be among the highest paid filmmakers of Bollywood but if they aren’t, it is because they only direct films for their own banners, not for outsiders. Years ago, when there was a crazy boom in production, Anees Bazmee was rumoured to have signed a film for a business house for R20 crore, besides a share in profits! Of course, the film never got made because the boom did not last. Raj Kumar Hirani
BRING ON THE MONEY: IT’S IN THE SCRIPT
Y
EARS BACK, writing duo SalimJaved’s names used to adorn the hoardings of films after they gave hits such as Zanjeer, Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Haath Ki Safai, all in one year (1973). Almost 40 years later, the tribe of writers felt short-changed. But things are changing for the better. So impressed was Aamir Khan with the script of Talaash when he heard it that Zoya Akhtar
he decided to pay 3 per cent of the profit of Talaash to Reema Kagti as her fee for direction and 2 per cent of the profits as remuneration to Reema and Zoya for penning the script. It is anybody’s guess that the 2 per cent in the case of Talaash will work out to at least R1 crore i.e. R50 lakh to Reema and Zoya each. This, as against the earlier decided fee of R5 lakh each. If it was Salim-Javed who made the industry realise the importance of writers, it’s now Kagti and Javed’s daughter, Zoya, who’ve brought their contribution into focus once again.
RULING THE CHARTS, NOTE FOR NOTE
N
OT JUST stars but technicians have also hiked their rates over the last decade. Among composers, only A R Rahman gets paid as a percentage of the price his music gets sold for. That way, he gets around R2-4 crore per film. Other composers charge between R30 and R60 lakh. The way it works for a top music composer is this: he charges around R10-20 lakh per song; if there are six songs, he gets paid R60 lakh to R1.2 crore. After paying off the expenses of recording, including fees of singers, lyricists, charges of the recording room etc., the composer is generally left with R30-60 lakh. Among lyricists, Javed
SMALL SCREEN, BIG BUCKS
Colour of producers’ money
R3 Akhtar is perhaps the highest paid (R lakh per song), followed by Gulzar (R R2 lakh). Other renowned song writers charge anything ranging from R10,000 to R50,000 per song. Even action directors, who were paid moderately, nowadays demand R30-40 lakh per film. If the action scenes are too many and too stylish, the action master’s pay packet could even go up to R75 lakh. A R Rahman
STAR
TV SHOW
Salman Khan
Dus Ka Dum
PAYMENT/EPISODE
Shah Rukh Khan
Kaun Banega Crorepati
R1.0 cr
Amitabh Bachchan
Kaun Banega Crorepati
R0.75-1 cr
R1-1.25 cr
R0.75-0.8 cr
Hrithik Roshan
Just Dance
Akshay Kumar
Khatron Ke Khiladi, Master Chef
R0.7-0.8 cr
Priyanka Chopra
Khatron Ke Khiladi
R0.3-0.4 cr
Madhuri Dixit
Jhalak Dikhla Ja
Farah Khan, Rohit Shetty For judging TV shows
APRIL 8, 2012
R0.1-0.2 cr R0.1-0.2 cr
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TOO MUCH TO DIGEST
Vir Sanghvi
B
THE LIGHT SIDE OF IT
Buy pastas made from a variety of natural unrefined grains
MIND WHAT YOU EAT
Photos: THINKSTOCK
A McDonald’s meal (a chicken burger, fries and a cola) contains pretty nearly the entire daily transfats intake for a woman
rude food
A recent report on the unhealthy nature of packaged and fast foods in India points to the need for eating natural products Y SOME coincidence of karmic timing, I went to Dilip Doshi’s swanky new Organic Haus food store, located in a building on the corner of Bombay’s Peddar and Altamount Roads, just days before Sunita Narain’s Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) released its report on the unhealthy nature of packaged and fast foods in India. Much of what CSE complained about eerily echoed Dilip’s words of a few days before. Some of you may remember Dilip from his spin-bowling days in the Indian team in the late Seventies and early Eighties. Others may know him better as the guy who brought Mont Blanc to India. But I know him best as the promoter of the two shows that the Rolling Stones played in Bombay and Bangalore some years ago – Dilip is an old friend of Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts. Anybody who has seen Dilip recently will marvel at the way in which he manages to keep the years at bay. He must be in his sixties but he has the energy of a man half his age. Some of it may have to do with his natural athleticism – if you buy the line (of which I am not entirely convinced) that cricketers are natural athletes – but a lot of it has to do with the way in which he eats. Dilip has lived in London since the mid-Eighties but remains a passionate vegetarian (and an equally passionate Jain, for that matter), even during his extensive travels. His view is that as long as you eat right, you can manage anywhere in the world and a good diet will keep you young, energetic and healthy. Organic Haus (another branch has opened in Ahmedabad and there are plans to open in Delhi this year) is a gourmet food store but instead of stocking the usual range of overpriced maida pastas, fancy pâtés and upmarket desserts, Dilip has tied up with well-established German companies to import healthier food options. So, if you are worried about your sugar intake, you don’t have to rely on aspartame, you can use agave syrup instead. If you want something nice to spread on your toast but are a healthy vegetarian – like Dilip – then you can choose from a variety of non-meat pâtés. If you find that the heaviness of refined flour just sits in your stomach after a pasta meal, then you can buy pastas made from a variety of natural unrefined grains. There are problems with the packaging in the sense that so much of it is in German. (This stuff flies off the shelves in the Fatherland so they don’t bother too much with making it attractive for the export market). But Dilip has a bright and intelligent staff who will help decipher the labels and the stuff I’ve tried has been good. The fusilli made APRIL 8, 2012
WHAT KEEPS HIM YOUNG?
Dilip Doshi must be in his sixties but he has the energy of a man half his age. A lot of it has to do with the way in which he eats
from jowar (a flour that our forefathers used but our generation has forgotten), mixed with pesto from Organic Haus was both tasty and light. Dilip’s view is that many of our health problems these days (sluggishness, lack of energy etc.) stem from too much refined floor and refined sugar. Moreover, he argues, our dependence on packaged foods makes us easy prey for manufacturers who load their products with transfats, too much salt and lots of sugar. Further, he says, there are so many chemicals and pesticides used in agriculture these days (which do not have to be declared on the packaging of the finished product) that you never know what you are actually eating. All his Organic Haus products are organic and free from chemicals, preservatives and the like. Sunita Narain is probably not a great fan of gourmet food stores but she has made the same points as Dilip. Some years ago, she found that colas and bottled drinks contained high levels of chemicals because the water used in the bottling had been contaminated through pesticides and pollutants. (I wonder if a similar study has been done on bottled, so-called ‘mineral’ water.) The latest study has three distinct components. The first says that fast food is unhealthy because each portion is so full of calories. A KFC meal contains 51 per cent of an adult’s recommended daily calorie intake. A McDonald’s meal (a single chicken burger, fries and a cola) has 47 per cent of the calories needed per day. And so on. This is fine and accurate but it is not necessarily new. Such movies as Super Size Me and such books as Fast Food Nation have made this point before. My view is that most people who send their kids to eat fast food know that they are not sending them out for a healthy, organic meal. So it is up to the individual to decide. Nobody forces you to eat a fried chicken or a burger. The second component of the CSE report is the sugar and salt content in junk / fast / packaged foods. Even those of us who
CHICKEN OR MEAT?
Goat meat is lower in fat than chicken (right), and contains omega 3 essential fatty acids and protein
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HEALTHY, ORGANIC, WISE
Photo: KUNAL PATIL
All Dilip Doshi’s Organic Haus products are organic and free from chemicals, preservatives and the like. (Top) Non-meat pâté at the store
recognise that packaged and fast foods are not particularly healthy often do not realise how loaded they are with salt and sugar. There is nothing necessarily wrong with salt or sugar but an excess of either can be bad for you (and especially for those with diabetes, hypertension etc.) The CSE argues that food companies must be forced to clearly label foods telling people just how much sugar or salt they are consuming. This is valid and reasonable: don’t ban anything but let people know what they are eating. It is the third component of the CSE study that worries me the most. This relates to transfats. The medical wisdom about how good or bad fats are for you changes almost on an annual basis. The current view is that natural saturated fats are not all bad for you: dairy fat may help with the immune system. But on one issue, there is universal agreement: transfats are bad for you. Taken in excess over a length of time they could kill you. Even the Indian government agrees. It had pledged to wipe out all transfats by 2010 and most packaged food manufacturers agree not to allow transfats into their product. The most worrying part of the CSE study is that it suggests that even products that claim to be free of transfats actually contain some level of transfats. According to the CSE, a KFC meal contains more than an adult male’s recommended daily intake of transfats. A McDonald’s meal contains pretty nearly the entire daily transfats intake for a woman. So do many packaged foods such as Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. Worse still, says the CSE, the levels of transfats listed on the packaging are false and misstate the actual quantity of transfats. To be fair to these companies (Lay’s, McDonald’s KFC etc.), they contest the claims made by CSE and say that their own tests do not show the level of transfats that CSE has detected. (The CSE report on colas had faced similar objections from manufacturers.) But if the CSE is right, then it isn’t just the likes of Dilip Doshi who should be gloating. The rest of us should also be worried about what our kids are eating.
Meanwhile, I do wish that somebody would do some independent testing of the fruits and vegetables sold in Indian bazaars. The UK government found high levels of pesticides in many fruits and vegetables sold in the UK and grapes (which we think of as healthy) came off the worst with evidence of 11 different pesticides. UK greengrocers are more environmentally conscious than our subziwallas so I shudder to think what the results of such testing would be in India. Similarly, somebody should test the chickens sold in the Indian market and tell Indian doctors to stop repeating the mantra they picked up from old American textbooks about how we should eat only white meat (ie. chicken) and not red meat. Almost all (actually, I think it is absolutely all) the mutton we get in the Indian market comes from free range goats reared in the open and fed on a diet that includes grass. Goat meat is lower in fat than chicken, contains omega 3 essential fatty acids, minerals, iron, B-vitamins and protein. Broiler chicken, on the other hand, is an industrial product which depends on birds who are not allowed to roam in the wild or eat a natural diet. Indian companies routinely deny that they give their chicken the kinds of chemicals, antibiotics and hormones that say, American battery chickens are raised on but then – hey! – packaged food manufacturers also deny that their products contain transfats! The importance of the CSE study lies in its emphasis on what we already know intuitively: we are much better off eating natural products than those that comes from packets or are sold at fast food outlets. Not all of us can afford Organic Haus’s products with their emphasis on natural, organic, unrefined ingredients. But there is a cheaper alternative. As the food journalist Joanna Blythman says, we should base our diets “on whole, unprocessed food.” It is not a difficult principle to understand. Basically, it means that we should eat more of the grains that our grandparents preferred (atta rather than maida, bajra, jowar etc. and unpolished rice), steer clear of bionic battery chickens, packaged foods (including many breakfast cereals, by the way, which can be 40 per cent sugar) and consume eggs, red meat, fresh fish and butter and ghee in moderation. This is an easy enough model to follow. Obesity is America’s national disease. Steer clear of the foods that made America fat and we’ll keep India healthy.
Many of our health problems these days (sluggishness, lack of energy) stem from too much refined floor and refined sugar
APRIL 8, 2012
BUT NATURALLY!
We should eat more of the grains that our grandparents preferred (bajra, jowar, unpolished rice)
IN CONCLUSION
Sunita Narain’s Centre for Science and Environment says that even products that claim to be free of transfats contain some
indulge
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MOVIE MAGIC
Listing my top ten film fashion moments
VERY FILMI
So successful was Amitabh’s Deewar look that he reprised it in such movies as Hum as well TREND SETTER
Rani Mukherjee’s look in Bunty Aur Babli started a trend that every woman below the age of 30 bought into
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Seema Goswami
HAVE TO admit – all those carping critics notwithstanding – that I quite liked Agent Vinod. I relished the twists and turns of a sometimes-improbable plot, I enjoyed the caper movie elements, I thought Saif Ali Khan did a great job of portraying a R&AW agent, and I was quite taken with Kareena Kapoor’s portrayal of an ISI asset. But even though it was Saif who was all over our TV sets modelling his sharply-cut suits and tuxedos in the run-up to the movie, it was an entirely different outfit that got the audience’s retail juices flowing. No sooner had the promos rolled out than the ladies were salivating over the pink sharara that Kareena Kapoor wears during her mujra number in the film. Brides-to-be came clutching pictures of the outfit so that their darzis could make a similar one for their big day. Designers quickly drew inspiration from the look for the next collections. And cheaper copies flooded the high street and flew right off the shelves. Perhaps the last time a film costume had had such an impact on popular tastes was when Madhuri Dixit sang Didi tera dewar dewaana in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun in a purple, crystalencrusted sari accessorised with a daring backless blouse and spawned an entire generation of women who wore exactly the same style for years thereafter. Of course, if you think about it, films have always been the biggest influence on our fashion scene. Right from the days when Sadhana’s punishingly-tight churidar kurtas and cropped fringe (quickly dubbed the Sadhana cut) became all the rage to when Sabyasachi-style saris have become a design staple in every Indian woman’s wardrobe after Vidya Balan and Rani Mukherjee were seen wearing them in the movies. Not to forget Manish Malhotra, to whom goes the credit for re-styling such actresses as Karisma Kapoor and Urmila Matondkar and becoming a trend-setter in the bargain. Yes, films and fashion have always had a symbiotic relationship in India. So here, in no particular order of importance, are my top ten film fashion moments: Sadhana, in her tightly-cinched churidar kurtas in such 60s hits as Woh Kaun Thi? and Waqt, looks like an epitome of grace and elegance even five decades later. In her day, she completely revolutionised how young women dressed, with her sharply-tailored sleeveless kurtas and skintight churidars, bringing body-con dressing to Hindi cinema with style and panache. Zeenat Aman in Hare Rama Hare Krishna. Those oversized tinted glasses; the hippie-chic bell-bottoms and bright flowery tops; that orange kurti accessorised with yellow marigold garlands as she gets high in the Dum maro dum sequence, complete with an incongruous red bindi on her forehead. Aman’s flower-power style of dressing brought bohochic to Hindi cinema long before we had even heard of the term. In an era when styling was unheard of Dev Anand created his own distinctive look in the movies, with his highcollared shirts and jackets, dressed up with a casually-draped scarf, and topped off with that signature quiff of hair modelled on his childhood idol Gregory Peck. And once he had found his
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THE HIPPIE WAY
Zeenat Aman’s flower-power style of dressing brought boho-chic to Hindi cinema
look, he stuck to it gamely until the end even though the rest of the world had moved on. Who can forget Dimple Kapadia in Bobby? And no, not the famous orange bikini scene, in which all of Kapadia’s baby fat is put cruelly on display, but the outfit she changes into immediately after: a short polka-dotted knotted blouse which leaves her midriff bare and references a similar ensemble that Nargis had worn in an old Raj Kapoor movie. This one is a no-brainer. Amitabh Bachchan in that now-iconic poster of Deewar, all smouldering eyes and pouting lips, his fingers thrust into the pocket of his blue jeans and completely rocking a red shirt knotted at the waist. So successful was this look that, not surprisingly, Bachchan reprised it in such movies as Hum as well. Ek do teen may have been the song that turned her into a star, but Madhuri Dixit will always be remembered for another number: Didi tera dewar dewaana. The purple satin, crystal-encrusted sari and backless choli she wore in the sequence launched a million knock-offs in an instant. The moment Sridevi sashayed into the frame wearing another of her diaphanous chiffon saris with a halter blouse you knew that a thunderstorm – that would leave her drenched to the skin – could not be far behind. And the lady – and the weather gods – never ever disappointed. Kareena Kapoor as the vivacious Punjaban Geet in Jab We Met convinced us of the impossible: that we could pair T-shirts with Patiala salwars and still manage to look stylish. And then there was Bunty Aur Babli in which Aki Narula styled Rani Mukherjee in colourful Patiala salwars (yes, them again) and short kurtis and started a trend that every woman below the age of 30 bought into. Sushmita Sen as the sexy schoolmistress in Main Hoon Na. Her sleeveless blouse, midriff-baring chiffon sari look had all the schoolboys – and their older brothers – salivating and wishing that their chemistry teachers had been half as hot. Sigh.
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seema_ht@rediffmail.com. Follow Seema on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami
CASUALLY CHIC
Kareena Kapoor as the vivacious Punjaban Geet in Jab We Met made the T-shirt-patiala salwar look stylish
indulge Photo: GETTY IMAGES
SOUNDS FROM THE BIG EASY
EAT YOUR HEART OUT
New Orleans’ jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins’ gigs usually end with a free-forall cook-out that he does for his audience
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Funk, soul, R&B and hip hop – there’s much more to New Orleans than just jazz
Sanjoy Narayan
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N ONE of the early episodes from the first season of Treme, the American TV drama series themed on post-Katrina New Orleans, Elvis Costello drops in at a club to watch one of the floodravaged but still music-drenched city’s leading lights, jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, play. Ruffins, of course, has no idea about who or how big the English singer-songwriter Costello is. When, during a break, someone tells him he should go and say hello to his famous fan, Ruffins, whose gigs usually end with a free-for-all cook-out that he does himself for his audience, is reluctant. “So, do you want to spend all your life playing small clubs and doing your barbecues in New Orleans?” asks the rather surprised man. “That’d be alright,” says Ruffins with a smile. I’m not sure if you’ll enjoy Treme as much as those who’ve been to New Orleans and felt the vibe. I’ve been lucky to have made two trips there – both preKatrina – and like most people who’ve visited that city, fallen instantly in love with it. New Orleans is nothing like any other place in America. Why, even when planes land at the airport, pilots welcome you to the “only tropical city in the United States”. Tropical it is. It’s hot and humid most of the year but there is an uber laid-back feel to it that is rare to find anywhere else – no wonder the city is also called the Big Easy. And, there is, of course, the music. It’s not easy to define New Orleans’ music. There are many styles and many influences but it is mainly known as one of the premier places where jazz originated. Traditional or New Orleans jazz still thrives in the city but over the years that has been influenced and fused with many new styles. But jazz is not the only form of music that you can enjoy in New Orleans. That is not to say that you shouldn’t experience Nola’s jazz. In fact, you cannot escape doing that if you hang around in that city. Everywhere there is jazz – at the Preservation Hall in the French Quarter where you can sit on the floor and watch and listen to top-notch bands, funeral processions where a marching band is de rigueur, sidewalks where talented buskers will hold you in thrall… hell, even New Orleans’ airport welcomes visitors with a live jazz band.
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MUSIC MANIA
A marching band with funeral processions is de rigueur in New Orleans (above); Treme is a TV series that looks at how ordinary New Orleanians rebuilt their lives after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina (below)
And, if you’re lucky enough to land there during Mardi Gras, it could be the closest thing you’ve experienced to jazz nirvana. But I like some of the other genres that the city serves up too. Funk, for instance. And R&B and soul and even New Orleans’s own brand of hip-hop. One of the pioneering funk bands, The Meters, are from New Orleans and are led by Art Neville whose other band, the Neville Brothers play R&B and soul and are so innately linked with the city that many feel the city is meaningless without them. At the forefront of the city’s funk traditions today is a band called Galactic whose New Orleans roots belie their global fan following. In Treme, a series that looks at how in a few months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, ordinary New Orleanians – chefs, buskers, bar-owners, Mardi Gras paraders – try to re-build their lives. I am not suggesting you get hold of Treme and watch both seasons obsessively, as I am doing right now, because I assume you are not nearly as mad as I am about New Orleans, but perhaps getting hold of the Treme soundtrack, packed with the sound of the city, won’t be a bad idea. For those who haven’t been initiated, it’s a good introduction to the music of New Orleans; for those who love it, it’s a great compilation. It opens with jazz singer John Boutté doing the infectious theme song and has a mélange of the city’s famous brass bands, pianist Tom McDermott, Kermit Ruffins, of course, and two of the city’s most prominent musicians: Dr John (Mac Rebbenback), the keyboardist and singer who blends rock, soul, jazz, boogie-woogie and even genres from the deep bayou; and Allen Toussaint, New Orleans’ legendary R&B figure whose influence is cited by legions of contemporary musicians. New Orleans has its share of problems. Locals feel it is neglected and that the US government could have done a lot more to prevent the 2005 disaster from happening. Not too many people are happy about the rehabilitation efforts either. But the city’s music is alive and kicking and every time I hear Boutte’s theme song from Treme, I make a mental note of going back to what I think is the musical capital of the world. To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in this column, go to http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/. download-central, follow argus48 on Twitter
APRIL 8, 2012
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E S S AY
Cut to Kolkata
Most Bollywood films have lazily stayed within the municipal limits of BombayMumbai, and ventured into Delhi only recently. Will that change with Kahaani? by Ruchir Joshi
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T’S FUNNY HOW films and cities attach themselves to each other, how one weaves itself into the other sometimes to become inextricable in our minds. The legendary film-maker Jean-Luc Godard made many films that were cinematic love letters to his beloved
Paris, some very subtle and some, like One or Two Things I know About Her, extremely direct ‘portraits’ of the city. Leaving these feature films aside, the one I really love to quote is a short Godard made for a cluster of six films on Paris made by six leading directors. In Godard’s film, a
young woman is secretly juggling two lovers, a typically Parisian thing to do. One day the woman sends two letters, one to each lover. To send the letters, the woman uses the ‘pneu’, the 19th century system of mail still working in ’60s Paris, in which you put the letter in a canister heading for a particular neighbourhood. The canister was then sucked along a network of tubes by pneumatic pressure till it reached a station from where a local postman took the letter and delivered it. Here, just as the two different canisters zoom off in different directions, the woman realises she has mixed up the letters – each lover will get the letter addressed to the other, leading to amorous disaster. The pneu canisters apparently moved at a pace only slightly faster than a human walking pace and so the woman starts to chase after one letter, hoping to get to the delivery station before the canister. Using this device and cross-cutting PARIS, AS SEEN BY GODARD
In Jean-Luc Godard’s short film, made in 1965, a woman goes chasing two love letters through the Paris of the ’60s APRIL 8, 2012
USUAL SUSPECTS
Kahaani is replete with predictable locations like this north Calcutta gali between the (slowly) hurtling canisters and the sprinting woman, Godard gives us a cinematic slice of the city he loves. The point about this minor film by a great director is that it brings in the city as a unique character – at every layer, here is something that could only ever happen in Paris. In contrast, if you take a big budget Hollywood flop such as City of Joy by Roland Joffe, you can see that Calcutta and its slums are used merely as an exotic backdrop before which the big Anglo-American stars can prance and emote. The poor, the riksha-wallas, the beggars, etc., are all, at most, glorified extras, even if they are played by some of Indian cinema’s most talented and respected actors. If you replace the ricksha with a tuk-tuk and tweak the local characters a bit, the film could easily have been made in Bangkok or some other crowded tropical Asian city. out south India for this Lhaveeaving discussion, most Bollywood films lazily stayed within the municipal limits of Bombay-Mumbai, only
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occasionally venturing out to capture the village, hill-station or foreign location. It’s only recently that those villages and small towns have become more than two-dimensional painted curtains before which the hero and heroine carry out their antics. Again, it’s only over the last decade or so that Delhi (with its huge film audience) has begun to feature seriously in films, especially middle-budget productions with some ambition towards creating serious cinema. Whether commercial or semi-arty, you can see an odd hot and cold relationship between the Bombay film-walla and saddi Dilli. If Rang de Basanti could have been shot in any reasonably sized Northern metro, Dilli 6 is a sentimental paean to an old city that’s already vanished. If Khosla ka Ghosla, Love, Sex and Dhoka, No One Killed Jessica and Band Baaja Baraat actually catch something that’s quintessentially Delhi, Delhi Belly teeters on the edge: take away the scene of the irate, soon-to-be-ex husband chasing the lead couple in a large SUV, shooting at them in a drunken rage, and you could seamlessly airlift the plot to Bombay. There are two passages in Dev.D, the first, which could only play out in a northern Punjabi city and then the MMS scandal involving the schoolgirl somehow infused with the social toxicity that only middle/upper-middle class Delhi can produce. Sadly, the third passage, the interminable, over-wrought selfindulgence of Dev.D’s disintegration in a Paharganj hotel could again be easily transplanted to Colaba, Sudder
Street or Panjim. One thing about Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani is that it fearlessly takes on the task of depicting Calcutta right after several contemporary films have been made about the city, made both by young-ish Bengali film-makers and a new clutch of exotica-hunting German, Italian and French wannabe-cineastes. The other thing about Kahaani is that the basic plot, such as it is, could again be slotted into any big Indian city and yet it feels like this story could only have taken place in amaader Kolkata. Despite the tall order and the flaws something happens in this movie, some strange successful alchemy between main character, location and camera, between the beautifully realised, small running jokes that are inserted across the film like kantha stitches and the frenzy of pre-Durga Puja, between a city deeply ‘felt’ by the crew and cast and a solid attention to the different crafts of cinema (except, of course, scripting). Here we have a film that draws us in. In fact, so strong is the energy of the acting and the filming that it overcomes and almost makes the overall plot superfluous, engaging us instead with the tension created within individual scenes and sequences. Thinking about it, you realise this happens because Vidya Balan (playing a hugely pregnant Mrs Biddya Bagchi) actually has the smarts and the sensibility to treat the city as a co-actor. This actor with whom VB interplays is an old jatra hack with a few basic melodrama tricks up his sleeve, but he (in that sense Calcutta has always seemed to me to be a male burgh, never a ‘she’ like Paris)
So will Cal-Kol now become the location of choice for sequences in, say, Don 5 or Dhoom 17?
GETTING ITS DUE
Over the last decade Delhi has begun to feature seriously in films such as Band, Baaja Baarat (below, left) and Dev.D
Photo: REUTERS
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A SENSE OF BELONGING
It does feel like Kahaani could only have taken place in amaader Kolkata is directed by Ghosh into using those old tricks very deftly. If you were to make a check-list of usual suspect Calcutta locations, the film would probably hit eleven out of ten: Howrah Bridge, wrestlers on the ghats, Kumartuli, metro train, tram, tram depot, Park Street, old office with rotting files and hanging wires, north Calcutta dilapidated house and gali, Anglo-Indian flat, Durga Puja, sleepy guest house, etc etc. (amazingly, no little nouko on the river and no koi-hai round of golf at the Tolly Club). Nevertheless, the whole thing still feels fresh. You know who one killer is, but when they appear again (and again in a cliché location), you still hold your breath. You know the young cop is a classic Bong wimp, the kind you usually want to give one tight slap, but here you root for him, you understand the fizzing knot of electrical wires inside him as he lusts after another man’s pregnant wife. The
two child-labour khokons are udum cute, as is Biddyaballon’s interaction with them, but still they stand apart from each other and still they ‘work’. he question this throws up is: will Tnatives Calcutta, (or Kolkoetaa as nonmispronounce it) now get
invited to the party more often by Bombay producers? The big budget houses in amchi Bambai often follow the smaller, more arty producers, coming and trampling over the ground that’s been opened up by the more daring directors, so will Cal-Kol now become the location of choice for sequences in, say, Don 5 or Dhoom 17? Unlikely. The thinking will probably be that Vidya B and Kol-C are a one-off, a hard act to follow, already done. But what might happen is that script-wallas and poedoosirrs might now start looking for the next ‘small’ town to exploit: you may get Bangalore with gigas of geeks and Digas doing Dum-Dum, you may well get Nucklau and tehzeeb touts snaffling galauti kababs as they spout shaayaris, you may even get Hyderabad and Guwahati reduced to pastiche, but you won’t get too much Calgotha in forthcoming Bolly-busters. To see the truly crazy place this city is mutating into, you may need to mix up the canisters of commercial and art film and have some people go chasing after them, you may need to fall back on local film-makers with courage and imagination. Ruchir Joshi is an author who divides time between London and Kolkata brunchletters@hindustantimes.com
Your gaze scans the streets as if they were written pages: the city says everything you must think... – Italo Calvino APRIL 8, 2012
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T R AV E L
Taking the Mickey Out Of Me
A dyed-in-Mickey-merchandise fan, I lived out many of my childhood dreams on a trip to Hong Kong’s Disneyland Resort by Pranav Dixit ‘Here you leave Today and enter the world of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy’ – Plaque at the entrance of every Disneyland Resort in the world
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VERYTHING ABOUT Mickey Mouse – the large shoes, the little red shorts with two buttons and the white gloved hands – is iconic, but nothing more so, perhaps, than the perky little rodent’s ginormous black ears. I mean, you can simply draw three circles – one large and two small ones – on a piece of paper and a child will tell you it’s Mickey. At Disney properties all over the world, you will find this three-circled representation of Mickey Mouse inserted subtly just about every-
where – in rides, architecture, décor and even the food. At the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, where I went for a three-day trip, it was no different: the windows of Disney’s Hollywood Hotel where I stayed were Mickeyshaped; Mickey and Minnie designs jumped at you from the carpets when you least expected them; the alarm clock in the room announced “Hello! This is your pal Mickey and it’s time to wake up!” in a squeaky Mickey voice every morning; the dollop of ketchup served in the café (called Chef Mickey’s, what else?!) was a little red Mickey; heck, even the tiny vegetables in my soup at lunchtime were Mickey-shaped. Of course, to fans like me, there’s a lot more to Disney than just Mickey. I have lost count of the number of
STARRY STARRY NIGHT
At the fireworks show, the sky behind the Sleeping Beauty castle lit up with the lights of fiery stars
APRIL 8, 2012
times I have watched evergreen Disney classics – Bambi, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King and the newer collaborations with Pixar like Toy Story, and Wall-E; I know the lyrics to most songs from Disney movies by heart. And so, spending three days in Disneyland was like spending three days in another world.
MOUSE CLICK
Nearly 31 million visitors have visited the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort ever since it opened in 2005. If you’re a Disney fan in India, it’s the closest Disneyland you can visit. Walking past the ticket booths is like entering Diagon Alley – no, you won’t see any owls or brass-bottomed cauldrons – but it’s equally magical. Popular Disney characters stand at strategic corners for a hug and a snap; colourful benches dot the cobbled streets; throngs of people dressed in Mickey caps and stockings jostle for space; in the distance, a majestic Sleeping Beauty castle flecked with pixie dust shimmers in the afternoon sunlight; and tunes from Disney movies waft over the scene (this music, I’m told, is NEVER turned off, not even when the park closes at night). Yes, it’s a ‘manufactured’ world, but with such finesse and attention to detail that it’s almost surreal. By the end of my third day in Disneyland, I was dying to go out and muddy my hands in the ‘real’ world. The Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is divided into four themed lands: Main Street USA, Fantasyland, Adventureland,
Tomorrowland and the newly opened Toy Story Land. At about 320 acres, it’s considerably smaller than the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California. But nevertheless, it does take about three whole days to experience completely. I spent most of the first day walking about Main Street USA (a long street that resembles an early 20th century American town dotted with quaint buildings, eateries, bakeries and souvenir shops choc-a-bloc with overpriced Disney merchandise), losing myself in the sweet-as-candy atmosphere and wolfing down Mickey-shaped waffles (with maple syrup filled in each gigantic ear). As evening descended, Disneyland
FACTS & FIGURES GETTING THERE: The airport is on Lantau Island near the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. By train, it is about 20 minutes away. HOTELS: There are two hotels in the Resort with 1,000 rooms. The Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, a 400-room Victorian-era themed hotel and Disney’s Hollywood Hotel, a 600-room property themed to 1930s Hollywood. CURRENCY: The official currency is Hong Kong Dollar. 1 HKD was about 6.5 Indian rupees at the time of writing. VISA: Visa on arrival for Indians. PARK FEE: Once you’re in, all rides are free (really!). Here’s what it’ll cost you to get in, however: General admission (ages 12-64): HK$399. Children (ages 3-11): HK$285. Seniors (65 and above): HK$100. Children under three go in free, the lucky munchkins.
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became even more magical. It shimmered in the glow of a thousand lights, spilling out over the cobbled streets. As the crowds settled down in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle for the 15-minute fireworks extravaganza, the air crackled with anticipation. A hush fell over the audience as the lights dimmed for the show. And as the sky behind the castle lit up with the light of a hundred fiery stars to the strains of When You Wish Upon A Star from Pinocchio, we all gazed straight up in rapture.
IT’S SHOWTIME!
The best view of Hong Kong Disneyland is from 90 feet in the air, strapped to a raging red machine known as the RC Racer. If you can keep your eyes open and stop screaming, that is. The tall, U-shaped ride is the one of the most thrilling ones in the park and speeds you along a deadly-looking semi-circular track till you are almost parallel to the ground… and then pulls you back down at top speed. By the time you get off, your legs are a wobbly mass of jelly. Yes, day two was all about what I cared most about – rides and attractions. There aren’t too many scary rides in Hong Kong Disneyland, which makes sense since it pulls out all stops to be kid-friendly. To adults, most attractions will simply seem like nostalgia trips into the world of their favourite Disney characters and elicit the occasional “Wow” (or “Aww” depending on how cute things get). After a quick Chinese
The Space Mountain roller coaster makes you feel like you’re flying in space lunch at a rustic-looking restaurant called Tahitian Terrace, I was ushered in to a show of Mickey’s PhilharMagic, a 12-minute 4-D film projected on a 150-feet wide screen filled with effects, scents, water and a number of characters from Disney movies. If you want to live out Disney, there’s nothing better than this show: the wind sweeps back your hair as you ride the magic carpet through the clouds with Aladdin and Jasmine; and you’re drenched as Donald plummets into the ocean. A cutesy ride called ‘It’s a Small World’ that features over 300 brightly costumed audio-animatronic dolls in the style of children from different ethnicities all singing the eponymous song followed (we cheered when we saw what were meant to be Indian dolls, doing bhangra against a backdrop of the Taj Mahal). And just when I thought things were getting too sugary for comfort, I was whisked away to witness the highlight of the day: the Festival of the Lion King. The Lion King, perhaps the best known of all Disney movies, has been a big part of my growing up. It’s an evergreen film, one that you never ever get tired of watching and the Festival of the Lion King is an
original interpretation – a live stage musical that uses puppetry, songs, dance and visual effects to portray a tribal celebration in an African setting, filled with giraffes, lions, elephants and birds. It’s a little like Zangoora, the musical, if you’ve ever seen it, full of dance, drama, colour, stunts and special effects – just on a spectacularly grand scale. After 45 minutes of what I can only describe as a Lion King fan’s
When you get off the 90-feet high RC Racer, your legs are a wobbly mass of jelly
dream come true, we headed back to the Hollywood Hotel and that night, I dreamed of an African savannah.
BACK ON TRACK
Even if you’ve never been to a Disneyland park before, I can tell you this: your last day there will be one of mixed feelings. On my third day, a part of me was dying to burst out of the place and come back to the real world. But another part wanted to stay back, walk the cobbled streets at leisure, help myself to caramel popcorn from shiny pink carts that dot every corner, hum along to the catchy Disney tunes and become a child again. But this was no time to be glum. I was perched on the edge of my seat in a ‘rocket’ with my heart in my mouth in what was the most thrilling ride in Disneyland: an indoor roller coaster known as Space Mountain. What’s so scary about it? The entire ride takes place in pitch darkness! You sit in the car, hanging on for dear life as you zip along the invisible track at top speed, twisting and turning sharply when you least expect it. All around you, stars, planets, galaxies and asteroids loom, sometimes menacingly close. The wind whips your face and halfway into space, you realise you’ve been screaming at the top of your voice for about five minutes non-stop. When it ends and the adrenaline rush slows down, you want to do it all over again, of course. pranav.dixit@hindustantimes.com
The writer’s trip was sponsored by the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
“A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep” – Cinderella from Walt Disney’s 1950 film Cinderella APRIL 8, 2012
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STYLE FILE
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Red Is The Colour of My Sole
or the red and green suede Pesce where you slip your toes into an open fish mouth.
INSIPIDLY YOURS
“India has quietly been into luxury, be it in terms of leisure, incredible jewellery or food. But earlier, the disconnect was higher as many people couldn’t afford them (sic),” remembers Christian of his time in Delhi when there were almost no cars on the roads and only a handful of newspapers. “Indian-made products are not considered cheap any more and are being appreciated all over.” Although that appreciation has turned into Kerala-inspired fragrances and saris (Hermès); ostentatiously blingy, Hindu God motif clutches (Judith Leiber); a pre-fall collection made of silks, dreadlocks, and polki jewellery (Chanel) and Taj Mahal-based watches (Cartier); India has at best been portrayed at its clichéd best. Something that broke Christian Louboutin’s heels too, with his ‘Bollywoody’ shoe priced at `1,36,500. Designed with kitschy Rajasthani embroidery inspired by bridal makeup, it hasn’t garnered the critically orgasmic ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ here that his shoes are used to. And he knows that. “There is a difference between India and Bollywood. Bollywood is about the stage, it’s immediately flashy and eye-catching. In America people love that shoe, because it is like a poster for India.” The poster in Louboutin’s mind, however, isn’t all about flashy and gaudy bits. “In Jodhpur, I saw women wear beautiful gold bangles that also had tiny diamonds decorating the insides. It was the opposite of showing off. Only the person who wore it could see it,” he says, comparing it to his Clovis shoe which has a see-through transparent sole instead of his trademark red sole.
Interestingly, the patent for the red sole has him embroiled in a bitter battle with YSL, whose negative outcome could leave his carefully constructed brand identity open to use by anyone who wants to. Not that it would be anything new for millions of YouTube fashionistas, high-street retailers and low-cost shoe manufacturers, who’ve been copying the red sole for decades. Louboutin did launch a website called stopfakelouboutin.com in 2010, which features a video of a bulldozer flattening thousands of fake high heels.
Designed with kitschy embroidery, ‘Bollywoody’ didn’t earn the critical vote in India
Christian Louboutin says his shoes give you a certain kind of body. But that doesn’t mean you need to walk in them by Yashica Dutt
W
HEN MEETING someone who’s basically the shoe god of the world, the least you expect is for him to judge your shoes. But seeing Christian Louboutin sun himself at a Delhi hotel poolside, dressed in a white Lacoste T-shirt and striped trousers, you wouldn’t take him to be the judgmental type. Or maybe he’s used to discreetly decoding your personality through your shoes, like some genius shoe doctor. “When you try on a pair of shoes you like, you gain greater control,” he says, peering from behind his round Lennonesque glasses which he changes into from his aviators for the interview. “You stand up straighter, your behind protrudes and the shoe essentially gives you a certain type of body.” But his extensive body of glittering, studded, velvety and toe-cleavage enhancing shoes were alien to most Indians until they saw Carrie Bradshaw obsessing over her Manolos, Choos and of course,
Louboutins in the Sex and The City series. Outselling the other two (Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo) in both numbers and popularity, Louboutins quickly became ‘Loubs’ for us (now available here at his first ever store in Delhi), flashing dangerously sexy red soles, super high heels and whimsical touches. Like the minimalist black patent leather Pigalle pumps,
PENSEÈ The shoe that started it all. Inspired by the pop colours of Andy Warhol, the black base of the original shoe didn’t go with the drawing Louboutin had in mind. And in a moment that made history, he spotted his assistant painting her nails with a bright red lacquer, grabbed it from her hands and painted it on the sole. “It was exactly like the drawing that I had made,” says Christian.
APRIL 8, 2012
BOLLYWOODY Despite being slammed by critics, the shoe still has its fans both in India and globally. It stands tall at a height of five and a half inches. Christian differentiates between India and Bollywood and says that the latter is flashier, and so is the shoe.
LOCKING HEELS
But it wasn’t until YSL decided to launch their version of the red sole, or technically a Pantone 18, Chinese Red sole, that he finally saw red. “It’s flattering to know that you are inspiring enough to be copied. But when you work from scratch, build your own dream and stand for yourself, then I think a group has to understand that they can’t kill individuality. They can’t think they can do whatever they want just because they are a big house. It’s disgusting,” he says of the PPR group which officially owns the YSL brand. Not all is disgusting, however, with 2012 marking the 20th anniversary of the brand and the Design Museum at London making him the subject of a retrospective this year. “There is nothing more boring than an exhibition around fashion. But the evolution of shoes reflects the evolution in culture,” he says, commenting on the changing sociological perception of shoes. “Earlier super high heels were a symbol of fetish and were only worn by prostitutes. That’s not true any more and I want to show how shoe designs can change pre-conceived ideas.” And he adds, “Shoes are about emotions, they’re meant to evoke something else. They are not always meant to walk in.” yashica.dutt@hindustantimes.com
CLOVIS It’s a garden all over the sidewalk. At least with the shoe, made in resin and hand-dried after being handpicked from Louboutin’s own garden, it ensures you are never far from summer. One of his more theatrical designs, Clovis isn’t a typical super high heel but an easy pick for the edgy.
WELLNESS
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White Lies
Bombarded with advice on sunscreens and don’t know whom to believe? Here’s help to separate fact from fiction by Veenu Singh
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UN PROTECTION factor, ultraviolet radiation, skin suitability? There is a whole lot of confusion surrounding sunscreens. Our experts bust some popular sunscreen myths. Myth: You need a minimum of SPF (sun protection factor) 50 to save your skin from sun damage. Fact: Not true. We can easily do with a cream that has an SPF range of 1530, which, according to dermatologists is ideal for Indian skin. However, if you are dusky, then you could do with an SPF 15 sunscreen, but if you are fair-skinned, opt for a higher SPF such as 30 since your skin tone is more vulnerable to sunburn and tanning. As far as skin types are concerned, a cream-based sunscreen for dry skin is best while a gel-based sunscreen is ideal for oily skin and a lotion works well for the normal variety. Hot tip: While buying sunscreen, choose the one that also extends UVA coverage (look for uva++ or uva+++). UVA rays that penetrate to the dermis
can cause free radical damage which ages the skin, produces deep wrinkles and splotches. SPF is an indicator of UVB coverage only, not UVA. Myth: Do not apply sunscreen every two hours on dusty skin, especially when you are out in the sun, as it can block your pores. Fact: Far from it. When you are out on a summer day, especially between 11 am and 4 pm, you are bound to sweat. That’s why you need to reapply sunscreen. If you can’t wash your face, don’t apply sunscreen on a grimy face directly. This is when wet wipes come to your rescue. This is particularly true for people with oily, acne-prone skin. Wash or wipe the skin with a tissue before applying a non-greasy sunblock. Hot tip: Choose a sunblock which is noncomedogenic (which means it does not block pores), non-greasy and fluid in nature. Myth: Age, environment and stress don’t affect your choice of sunscreen. Fact: Another white lie. Your age
plays an important role in choosing the right sunscreen. People on the younger side (aged between 20-40 years) tend to have oily skin. They should use a non-greasy sunscreen that is gel or fluid based. As one ages beyond 40, hydration levels start reducing and the skin becomes dry. Then, you should opt for a sunscreen that is greasy and moisturiser-based. The working environment also determines your sunscreen choice. Hot tip: Even if you work indoors, you should still apply sunscreen with UVA protection as the sun emits ultraviolet rays that can pass through glass windows. Myth: Not using a sunscreen can lead to a cancer risk. Fact: Not quite. Thanks to our darker complexion and higher levels of melanin, Indians are less prone to skin cancer. However, in the long run, not using a sunscreen leads to pigmentation and wrinkling. Hot tip: Going overboard with sunscreen can lead to rickets. Instead, walk in the sun before the rays get too strong to get your daily dose of vitamin D.
The sun’s rays reflect off concrete surfaces and damage your skin, even indoors
(Info courtesy Dr Navin Taneja, director, National Skin Centre and Shweta Bhatia, beauty expert at Revlon) veenus@hindustantimes.com
Photos: THINKSTOCK
MIND BODY SOUL
SHIKHA SHARMA
BE POSITIVE
A
LOT HAS been written about the benefits of a positive outlook. But most people are unsure of how to achieve it. The foundation We get thousands of thoughts in a day. The basic idea is to recognise that we are capable of all kinds of thoughts and capable of choosing to pay attention to a specific one. The first step is to be more attentive to thoughts that create a positive sensation. As we become more attentive to positive thoughts, we create an anchor of positive feelings. The next step is to convert this mind circuit into a solid path, by creating a force called habit. Slow down mental chatter At all times, we have a constant mental chatter in our head which does not allow us to function productively. We are capable of witnessing our mind’s conversations. Once you do this, take a deep breath and exhale slowly… you will be surprised to observe the slowing down of this chatter. Why don’t we do this? Many times, we are trapped in a mindset, what I call being the director of other people’s actions. Trying to change others looks easy, but is next to impossible. Changing oneself seems very tough, but is possible. The next step towards being positive is to focus on what we can change within ourselves. ask@drshikha.com
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PERSONAL AGENDA
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Model/Actress
Nargis Fakhri if i could... I WOULD BUY THE MOST EXPENSIVE HOUSE
Photos: THINKSTOCK
And gift it to my mother!
I WOULD SEND MY MOTHER ON A WORLD TRIP
Let her see every nook and corner of this beautiful world
SUN SIGN Libra
BIRTHDAY October 20
HOMETOWN PLACE OF BIRTH New York
He looked so good in the movie Drive
Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar
Queens, New York
One character you would love to play? Something like Aeon Flux. I like strong female characters. I’m fond of action. Something that always brings a smile to your face? Children, they are so pure and innocent. Five things you can’t do without? My toothbrush, toothpaste, Osho books, BlackBerry phone and the Tablet too. The last line of your autobiography would read... ...Don’t forget to smile, it comes free! If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I’m very tomboyish. I wish I was the feminine type.
I WOULD HAVE A ROMANTIC ASSOCIATION WITH RYAN GOSLING
Photo: REUTERS
SCHOOL/COLLEGE FIRST BREAK
I studied at Queens College and went to Queens University, NY
Clearing the audition and working in a movie like Rockstar
Before the movie released, I wasn’t allowed to interact with anyone except the cast
Launching HCL’s ME U1 and My Edu Tab. Also, gearing up for a new project
Your ultimate travel destination? they been a boon for you or a bane? I would love to travel for at least So much has been written six months in South about them. I feel America and see that any publicity is YOUR places like Machu good publicity. FAVOURITE MIDPicchu. One physical attribute NIGHT SNACK? One dance form you you wish you didn’t have? would love to learn? My butt. It’s always a Kathak. I am talking point among fascinated by it. all my girlfriends. It is so beautiful. Before you start shootIf you had to wear the ing, how do you gear same outfit for a week, yourself for the shot? what would you pick? I usually meditate for Patiala salwar, some time. chappals and a Are you passive and quiet kurta. Most comfortor jumpy and all-overable outfit. the-place? You have lovely lips, have I am always very energetic and excited about everything. Your favourite movie? The Dirty Picture. I loved it. The hottest man in Bollywood? I feel it’s Kunal Kapoor. He really looks hot. What according to you is your most attractive feature? My eyes as well as my personality. Do you believe in ‘happily ever after’? No, not in the traditional sense of it. I feel that you could live happily ever after only with your own self. The last thing you bought for under `10? A pack of chewing gum. What turns you on? A chocolate chip ice cream with extra chocolate from Baskin Robbins. Just love it! What turns you off? People who lie and who are rude. Sex is...? Beautiful. Marriage is...? An experience.
PHOTO: RAJ K RAJ; LOCATION COURTESY: SHANGRI-LA’S EROS HOTEL, NEW DELHI
APRIL 8, 2012
HIGH POINT LOW POINT CURRENTLY OF YOUR LIFE OF YOUR LIFE DOING
Nutella, with a big spoon
— Interviewed by Veenu Singh