India in fashion

Right now, though Britain's Bollywood and India craze continues. High-street fashion is dominated by India, writes Nabanita Sircar.

The weather may be limping towards summer and Indian tourists are swamping London, like every year. With Sensation 2005 taking place we have also had an overflow of Bollywood stars, including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Rani Mukherjee. The other day, while travelling in a minicab, the Afghan driver, seemed delighted that I was an Indian and went on to tell me how he sees every Bollywood film and loves Indian actors. His favourites were Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor, he informed me very thoughtfully.

Then, suddenly he yanked out his mobile and after fidgeting with it for a while I was getting nervous that his interest in his mobile may be a traffic hazard for me, he showed me a photograph of Shah Rukh Khan. But his aim of showing the photograph, which he clicked while waiting to collect a passenger at Heathrow, and saw King Khan arriving, was that he felt let down. I always thought he was a big man, but he isn't, moaned the driver. He is not as good-looking as he seems in the films. "It's really upsetting," he said. Although he was not prepared to delete the picture from the phone, he said, he'd rather keep the big-screen image of Khan in his heart.

One star tale that is about to be unveiled and will be eagerly awaited will be the biography of none other than Amitabh Bachchan. The news that his younger brother Ajitabh is working on a biography of the Big B has naturally taken the media by storm. Although there have already been about five biographies on the superstar, voted as the most famous actor in a BBC poll beating even Lawrence Olivier, the forthcoming one will naturally stand out because it will be written by a person who can be described as the wind beneath the wings of an executive from Kolkata, who gave him flight to become an icon of modern-day India.

Also for serious-minded readers it will come as a revelation to learn of the close relationship and then the falling out of two of India's premier families - the Nehru-Gandhis and the Bachchans. Some in the media are speculating it would be a hatchet job by an embittered brother - that the two brothers are no longer close is a known fact - but friends close to Ajitabh believe that will not be the case. Instead, it is a mammoth task taken up by the brother of one of India's most admired national figures and the son of the highly renowned poet, Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

Right now, though Britain's Bollywood and India craze continues. High-street fashion is dominated by India. Embroidered lehangas are the popular long skirts of this season. All fashion conscious females have a range of jootis, but of course bought at exorbitant prices. It is shocking to see the profit shoe-stores are making on these items. A few months ago I picked some jooti's from Delhi's posh Khan market at below Rs 2,000 a pair, which definitely have been cheaper if I went looking for them in Lajpat Nagar, but here stores like LK Bennett are selling similar pairs priced at £69. And believe me they are selling like hot cakes this season. But are these shoe companies paying a better wage to the poor workers that are making them in India or Pakistan? I doubt it.

Basere se dur, we wonder!