Sonam Kapoor grace Gucci preview

In its 90th Year, Gucci Brings Florentine Craftsmanship to New Delhi

Mumbai, December 2, 2011: To mark its 90th anniversary, Gucci hosted a fashionable cocktail evening at its Mumbai boutique to celebrate the Artisan Corner, an exclusive presentation of Gucci’s famous Florentine craftsmanship. Gucci’s most skilled artisans offered a unique viewing of their time-honored traditions at the store. The craftsmen assembled four signature Gucci handbags, the New Bamboo, the Jackie, the Stirrup, and the Gucci 1973, and small leather goods. Guests saw first hand the meticulous attention to detail and superb craftsmanship that is involved in the production of every item of Gucci’s leather goods collection.

The Artisan Corner display includes custom work tables, a sewing machine, a leather stand, and metal tools, as well as additional background materials which show the products’ evolution from mood board to sketches. Each hand-crafted product was personalized with hand-embossed monogramming. In addition, each handbag featured a special inside plaque embossed with the location and date.

The evening presented the rich and captivating heritage of the House of Gucci. Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor and other notable guests like Ashok & Rina Wadhwa, Nachiket Barve, Devika & Suresh Bhojwani, Roohi & Chetan Jaikishen, Monica Dogra, Poorna Jagannathan, Radhika Ruia, A D Singh, Ramona Narang, Laila Lamba, Gayatri & Vikas Oberoi, Narendra Kumar, Bikram & Schauna Saluja, Namrata Baruah Shroff, Rita Dhody, Lata & Vispi Patel, Samantha & Nikki Nayar, Shobhaa & Dilip De, Pratima & Gaurav Bhatia, Sunita & Gaurav Ghai, Nikhil Meswani and Zoa Morani were seen admiring the craftspersons at work while they mingled over canapés and cocktails.

Sonam Kapoor was dressed in GUCCI Spring Summer 2012 and wore a black/white safari printed on cotton sable-cut boxy jacket, natural white-black bi-color striped fine viscose halter and black-natural white matte satin jogging band pants

Founded in Florence in 1921, Gucci is one of the world’s leading luxury fashion brands. With a renowned reputation for quality and Italian craftsmanship, Gucci designs, manufactures and distributes highly desirable products such as leather goods (handbags, small leather goods, and luggage), shoes, ready-to-wear, silks, timepieces and fine jewellery. Eyewear and fragrances are manufactured and distributed under license by global industry leaders in these two sectors. Gucci products are sold exclusively through a network of directly operated boutiques (365 DOS as of September 2011) and a small number of selected department and specialty stores.

Hindustan Times most stylist set

The best and worst of 2011

Bollywood scored some real hits last year, but it also hit us with some sore misses. Hello Bollywood’s round-up of all we loved and hated on screen

Top 10

01. ‘No One Killed Jessica’
Cast: Rani Mukerjee, Vidya Balan
We loved: The hard-hitting, entertaining movie with a message and the way it dealt with the Jessica Lal murder. There’s not a viewer who did not empathise with the characters
Big star: No one’s saying Rani Mukherjee wasn’t great, but the thing is Vidya Balan simply overshadowed every other cast member in her portrayal of Jessica’s sister Sabrina
Best scene: A preoccupied Sabrina walking down the street, so lost in her thoughts that she doesn’t see an elephant

02. ‘The Dirty Picture’
Cast: Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi and Tushaar Kapoor
We loved: The boldness of the subject

Big star: Vidya Balan, for her beautiful and gutsy performance in this movie, based on the life of southern cinema siren Silk Smitha

Best scene: The one towards the end of the movie, when Vidya sees her life collapsing around her

03. ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin and Katrina Kaif
We loved: The gorgeous locales, the wonderfully simple and chaltha hai storyline

Big star: Farhan Akhtar, who simply stole the thunder from right under the bronzed body of Hrithik Roshan, even surprisingly, in all the dances

Best scene: For an emotional high, it’s definitely the scene when Farhan gets to meets his father Naseeruddin Shah, but on the fun side, the expressions of fear, excitement, anxiety, and contentment the three show in the last scene of the movie

04. ‘Delhi Belly’
Cast: Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunaal Roy Kapoor and Poorna Jagannath
We loved: The nutty dark humour, the crazy songs and the perfect castingBig star: Real life stand-up comic Vir Das, who had you laughing and crying all through

Best scene: The scene where the trio of friends attempt a robbery

 

05. ‘Bodyguard’
Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Mahesh Manjrekar
We loved: The simple love story peppered with enough action to keep both Sallu fans and non-fans happy.
Big star: Salman Khan, both with and without his shirt

Best scene: When Lucky Singh (Salman) practices his love confession with Divya (Kareena) until his ‘real’ love comes along
06. ‘Singham’

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Kajal Aggarwal, Prakash Raj

We loved: The simple masala entertainment

Big star: Prakash Raj as the villain

Best scene: The confrontations between Prakash Raj and Ajay Devgn

07. ‘Tanu Weds Manu’
Cast: R Madhavan and Kangana Ranaut
We loved: This good ol’ love story that took us back to the 80s in terms of being a family entertainer
Big star: R Madhavan – there’s something that’s universally endearing about this boy next door

Best scene: When Manu confides to his best friend that Tanu doesn’t want to marry him.

 

08. ‘Shaitan’
Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Rajeev Khandewal, Shiv Pandit, Kirti Kulhari, Gulshan Devia and Neil Bhoopalam
We loved: The thrills and chills, something we have not seen in a while

Big star: Rajeev Khandewal — an actor to watch out for.
Best scene: Where one of the young boys from a rundown house plays tennis and the camera moves with the tennis ball

09. ‘Shor in the City’
Cast: Tushaar Kapoor, Nikhil Dwivedi, Pitobash, Sundeep Kishan, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Radhika Apte and Preeti Desai
We loved: The storyline, which deals with fate, despair, and hope

Big star: All of them, who keep the story gripping

Best scene: When the arms dealer is interrupted by a phone call

10. ‘Bol’
Cast: Atif Aslam, Iman Ali, Mahira Khan, Humaima Malick, Shafqat Cheema, Manzar Sehbai, Zaib Rehman and Amr Kashmiri
We loved: The theme movie, dealing with the abuse of women, is thought-provoking and realistic

Big star: The script-writer, who is the real hero of the film. On screen though, it is a toss-up between Humaima Malick and Manzar Sehbai as Zainab and Hakeem Sahib
Best scene: When Zainab tells her sisters to live a normal life – touching

 

Bottom 10

The movies that shouldn’t have made it to theatres.

01. ‘Ra.One’
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Armaan Verma
We hated: After all the hype, the movie was so mediocre it deserves a spot here. While SRK’s marketing prowess may have helped it make its money, it was nothing but a big fat yawn

Worst star: A close battle between Shah Rukh (over the top, annoying) and Kareena (shrill and grating); Rajnikant’s cameo was the best though — his ten seconds on screen had a ripple effect of more than 20 minutes in theatres

Cringe-worthy scene: Where do we begin? How about the fact that SRK’s son finds it so easy to get over the death of his father, simply because he finds that the robot version is an upgrade

02. ‘Thank You‘
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Irrfan Khan, Sunil Shetty, Sonam Kapoor, Rimi Sen, Celina Jaitly
We hated: The fact that Anees Bazmee loves to showcase men as dogs and women as dumb. No thank you, we say

Worst star: Akhsay Kumar, who is getting more and more regressive with each passing movie. Mid-life crisis? Buy a Harley
Cringe-worthy scene: Vidya Balan, such a let down as the dead wife.

03. ‘Mausam‘
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Supriya Pathak and Aditi Sharma
We hated: That the three-hour movie felt more like an eight-hour marathon of tears.
Worst star: Sonam, who we think ought to rush up on her acting skills

Cringe-worthy scene: When Shahid saves a boy’s life, during which his paralysed arm returns to life

 
04.’Chatur Singh Two Star‘
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Ameesha Patel, Anupam Kher, Satish Kaushik, Sanjay Mishra
We hated: The storyline, which is so convoluted even the stars looked lost

Worst star: Sanjay Dutt. Why don’t you focus on being a daddy for a while?

Cringe-worthy scene: When corrupt politician Gulshan Grover is killed by a sniper while watching secretary Amisha Patel dance. Ugh! Definitely, not even worth two stars

 

05. ‘Loot’
Cast: Govinda, Suniel Shetty, Jaaved Jaaferi, Mahakshay Chakraborthy, Mika, Shweta Bharadwaj, Kim Sharma
We hated: A bunch of actors in their 40s pretending to be in 20

Worst star: Suniel Shetty and Ravi Kishan

Cringe-worthy scene: The item song in the end credits, starring the immensely unappealing Rakhi Sawant

 
06. ‘Tell Me Oh Kkhuda’
Cast: Esha Deol, Arjan Bajwa, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Dharmendra, Rishi Kapoor, Vinod Khanna
We hated: Esha Deol trying to make a comeback in mommy’s movie. Silly idea, silly movie

Worst star: Esha Deol

Cringe-worthy Scene: Every single frame

07. ‘Saath Khoon Maaf’
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Naseeruddin Shah, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Usha Uthup, Annu Kapoor, Vivaan Shah, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Ruskin Bond
We hated: By the end of it, you could tell the audience just wanted Priyanka to kill everyone so they could get out of the hall

Worst star: Priyanka Chopra, who was so into herself through the movie

Cringe-worthy scene: When nun Priyanka dances in a dark room for her seventh husband

 
08. ‘Game’
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Kangna Ranaut, Sarah Jane Dias, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani
We hated: The whole silly movie, which was released on 1 April, making us wonder if they were just going all out to make fools of the audience
Worst star: Boman Irani

Cringe-worthy scene: The finale is so weird, who wrote this one?

 
09. ‘Ready’
Cast: Salman Khan, Asin, Aarya Babbar, Paresh Rawal, Mahesh Manjrekar, Akhilendra Mishra, Sharath Saxena
We Hated: The movie may have been Ready, but there was no steady from the word go. Too many characters spoiled this broth. Can someone please tell Anees Bazmi to take a break?

Worst star: Asin

Cringe-worthy scene: The family dance

 
10. ‘Patiala House’
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Rishi Kapoor Anushka Sharma
We Hated: What does it say about you Akshay, if you are featured in more than one of the worst movies of the year?

Worst star: Anushka Sharma – one too many chirps for our liking

Cringe-worthy scene: So many scenes, too little time

 

Gaga about Bollywood

Looks like Lady Gaga’s been bitten by the Bollywood bug. The pop singer, known for her larger than life costumes and music, found that there was only one thing even more over the top – Bollywood. The Poker Face hitmaker, who travelled to India in October last year to perform her first show in the country, is supposed to have told actors Shah Rukh Khan and Arjun Rampal, that she would like to act in a Bollywood movie. Gaga even tweeted — “I recently saw a Bollywood show in Paris and my interest in India has piqued. I would like to do a Bollywood film. I am fascinated by the dance and the clothing.”

The singer also said that she is planning to host a free gig in India in the near future. “I am so inspired by the country, it’s music, styles and countryside. I want to do a free show for all my fans the next time I visit,” she said. A Gaga sequel? You bet India’s waiting.

Rahman rings in 46th birthday abroad

Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman was abroad for his 46th birthday, but he has thanked his fans across the world for their good wishes. The composer has good things to look forward in 2012. He has in his kitty several southern projects like “Rana”, “Yohan: Adhyayam Ondru”, “Kochadaiyaan” and “Pookkadai” as well as an untitled Hindi movie with Yash Chopra.For now, he is upbeat about a five-city tour of Babelsberg, a German film orchestra, that will perform orchestral interpretations of Rahman’s film compositions. The orchestra will be joined by choir members from Rahman’s KM Conservatory.The concert will begin 20 January in Mumbai, followed by Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore.

Too skinny for Raveena

Raveena Tandon, who started her career with “Patthar Ke Phool”, says the current lot of actresses are under a lot of pressure to look slim and in the process, are compromising on their health as a result unable to withstand the rigors of the job. ”Actresses face so much pressure to look thin all the time. We are working at erratic hours…we also go through such strict diet plans, it is important to have a strong base,” she said. “These days we get to hear news of actresses fainting due to dieting or working non-stop for 24 hours or for 36 hours. But touchwood, I have never fainted,” the 37-year-old actress said at an event that announced her as the brand ambassador of Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil.
Raveena feels actresses of her generation were a lot healthier as compared to the current crop. “I did ‘Patthar Ke Phool’ when I was 16 and from that day onwards I have been shooting. That time people were not conscious about their looks to such an extent. We were very healthy back then. Kajol, Manisha (Koirala), me — we were strong, we looked like we belonged to healthy families,” said the actress, last seen in “Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap”. Now she has signed a couple of projects and is currently shooting for “Gin Liya Aasmaan”.She will also be seen in “E-dil Sambhal Zara” and “Shovna Seven Nights”.

Now, smell like Arjun Rampal

After nearly two years of negotiations, discussions, trials and delays, Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal’s perfume was launched in Mumbai 12 January.Arjun’s perfume, Alive, is produced by Drom Fragrances International, and will be available in two different scents to begin with.The perfume line will be distributed by Baccarose, a distribution chain responsible for brands like Burberry, Cartier, Caroline Herrera, Azzaro, Elizabeth Arden, Ferrari and Prada.So far, only two other Bollywood actors — Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan — have perfumes to their credit, handpicked, manufactured and marketed by them.It took Arjun more than six months to select the fragrance for his perfume.”Selecting a fragrance for a perfume is an extremely time-consuming and tough task.It took me six months to do so. One can’t allot more than three hours a day to savouring scents because after that your sense of smell goes for a toss,” said Arjun.”I had to continue trying the fragrance and in between I had to dunk my head into pots of coffee to stop my olfactory senses from shutting down. But you know what? It’s finally all been worth it,” he added.After Arjun had finally shortlisted the fragrances, he invited all his friends from the film industry for a smelling party. “They all liked the best the two fragrances that I had selected. Those are the two scents that have gone into the two perfumes that I am putting out,” said Arjun.When asked about the poor success ratio of Bollywood’s denizens in the field of fragrance, he said: “I’ve done my best. Picked the scents that I think are unique and likable. I personally am very fond of perfumes. I think they give every individual a sense of confidence and an identity. I am hoping to increase my range of perfumes in the coming months.”

Three men and a babe!

Saif Ali Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Khemu, and Puja Gupta! But the one-film-old actress says she is not at all insecure about being cast with three male actors in her next film, “Go Goa Gone”. In her debut Bollywood vehicle “F.A.L.T.U”, the former beauty queen was the only female among the boys — Jackky Bhagnani, Ritesh Deshmukh and Arshad Warsi.”I’m just happy with my character. And insecure? Not at all! Being again the only girl at the sets, it’s just second time lucky for me! It’s a lot of fun shooting with them,” Puja said.After winning the Miss India Universe crown in 2007, the 25-year-old went on to represent the country at the Miss Universe 2007 competition in Mexico. She didn’t make it to the top five, but the platform opened many doors for her.She bagged the chance to model for brands like Mari’o's Hair & Care, Pantaloons, Coca Cola, Monte Carlo, Bausch & Lomb as well as the Lay’s Tango campaign with Saif.
In her upcoming film, produced by Illuminati Films, Puja plays a young college girl.”My character is of an independent girl who believes in herself. She is a very easy going yet adventurous person and that’s what brings her to Goa with her friends in the movie,” said the actress.The movie is being directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. of “Shor In The City” and “99″ fame. Puja has already shot the first schedule of the film.”I do get to hold the real gun! We are just the first schedule down right now, and we have one more schedule to shoot. So there’s much more adventurous and bizarre things coming my way. I’m absolutely thrilled about it,” she added.So far the crew has shot at a place named Chorla Ghat, which is on the Goa-Karnataka-Maharashtra border. She says it was beautiful.”The place is surrounded by wildlife and greenery, cottages not much civilisation, there were no phone signals and so no BBM (Blackberry Messenger)…so it was a huge deal for me,” said Puja, who admits Bollywood has always been a “dream destination for me”.But, as she says, there’s a “long long way to go”.

Salman, SRK: India’s most profitable actors

Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan have been named the most profitable actors of the Hindi film industry in India and abroad respectively by ETC Bollywood Business Awards. Actress Kareena Kapoor, who featured in “Bodyguard” and “RA.One” in 2011 opposite the two actors, has been titled the most profitable actor in the female category. “Receiving an award wherein you are being adjudged considering the economic quotient as a cornerstone for mapping the success gives you a sense of pride. I’ve always maintained that commercial success is as important as the critical success of a movie. A commercially successful movie pays evidence to the fact that viewers loved watching your movie,” Kareena said in a press statement.
Salman’s “Bodyguard”, the Hindi remake of the Malayalam film by the same name, was titled the top grosser of the year, with the film’s director Siddique walking away with the most profitable director’s trophy. SRK’s mega-budget dream project “RA.One” was recognised as the best marketed film of the year and also bagged an award under the highest single day collection category.”Now I can safely say ‘har mulk ki public mujhe dhoondti hai’. ‘RA.One’, Bollywood’s most expensive movie, was my dream project. It feels great that my long cherished dream has been applauded and acknowledged,” said Shah Rukh.”Allah has been very kind to me and helped me to entertain my audiences and it is quite literally my audiences’ love that has fetched me these awards. Inshallah! I’ll continue to entertain my audiences and make it to this award in years to come,” he added.Other films such as “Pyaar Ka Panchnaama”, “The Dirty Picture”, “Don 2:The King Is Back” and “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” bagged awards for being the most successful small budget Film, ETC Box Office surprise of the year, most popular first look of a film and most successful foreign film respectively.

Sonu back in ‘Dabangg 2′?

If sources are to be believed, Salman Khan has asked Sonu Sood to feature in the sequel of their 2010 blockbuster “Dabangg 2″. In October last year, producer Arbaaz Khan announced that the sequel’s script didn’t allow him to cast Sonu in the role of villain Chhedi Singh for the second time. It looks like things have changed however, and Sonu will indeed feature in the sequel. On an earlier suggestion made by Salman, Sonu was supposed to play his character Chhedi Singh’s twin brother in “Dabangg 2″. But then the “Dabangg 2″ script brought in another arch-villain, to be played by southern star Prakash Raj.

Salman apparently feels Sonu is integral to the “Dabangg” franchise and wasn’t too pleased that his brother had written him out of the sequel. “Salman asked Sonu to return to ‘Dabangg’ at his birthday bash in Panvel. This happened in front of Arbaaz, Sohail and a whole lot of other people. Sonu was embarrassed. He didn’t know what to say because this was not the first time Salman had asked him,” said one of Sonu’s friend. “Earlier in Hyderabad, Salman had broached the subject, saying ‘Dabangg’ wouldn’t be the same if the two of them didn’t share a climax fight. Sonu loves Salman to death. But at this juncture of his career, Sonu isn’t sure that wants to do a marginal part, especially when he has a solo-hero film ‘Maximum’ ready for release. However, for Salman, Sonu would agree to return to ‘Dabangg’,” added the friend. “Dabangg 2″ will release in December 2012.