Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Walking Her Talk

When it comes to walking the talk, she’s certainly no slouch. So, trust Deepika Padukone, India’s highest paid actress, to take time off her busy schedule to show

When it comes to walking the talk, she’s certainly no slouch. So, trust Deepika Padukone, India’s highest paid actress, to take time off her busy schedule to show up in New York as one of the stars at the charity dinner for the Anxiety Youth Centre, held by the New York Presbyterian Hospital. As is known, a few years ago, at the height of her stardom, the actress had put her career at considerable risk by letting the world know that she had suffered from depression and anxiety and had sought professional help for it. This act of courage on her part is just one of the things that her industry colleagues admire the willowy actress for. “There’s something just so decent and down to earth about her,” said one of her senior industry colleagues, who’d worked with her not too long ago. “Good, basic middle class values straight through.” A photograph of the star from the recent NYC outing is featuring her in an Alberta Ferretti pantsuit, her celebrated dimples dazzling along with reality TV star Kendall Jenner makes her look like a million bucks. “That was the hardest part,” she said of her own experience with depression, on the occasion, “…to put on a front every single day like everything is okay in your life when actually that’s far from reality. You’re smiling and bringing joy into other people’s lives when you have none.”
Indeed.

Kendall Jenner and Deepika Padukone (IANS/Instagram/georgiougabriel)

True Lies
Business circles were buzzing with news of this much coveted dealership of an international fast food franchise that has seen much interest from corporate czars. Ever since the decade-long feud between the international giant and one of its Indian franchises ended in a separation there have been a whole list of candidates queuing up to try and acquire the cash cow. The latest contender who is said to have joined the race for this corporate jewel of modern India is a city-based F&B entrepreneur, who is alleged to be making a serious effort for it. What is interesting is that even as the business community waits to see if he can carry off the coup from under the noses of much larger pockets in Delhi and Kolkata, what most are really looking out for is if he will be backed in this effort by his Big, Cool Political Friend. “Since the past two years, there have been talks of a falling put between the entrepreneur and his alleged backer,” says one Dalal street type about the current round of speculation. “There has been no real confirmation about this though. But given how high-profile the acquisition of this franchise will be, it will become clear whether the two alleged business partners are really together or not. Which is why, the entrance of this individual is being closely watched.”

Tweet Talk
“After watching Ranveer Singh’s antics in Manchester last Sunday I am confused - is he doing biopic of Kapil Dev or Kapil Sharma?”
- Tweeted by comedian Atul Khatri

A Gentleman And A Prince

Richard Holkar with Hillary Clinton at his hotel in Indore.

We’d first heard of aesthete, epicure and hotelier Richard Holkar, scion of the erstwhile ruling family of Indore, in the early 1980s, when he’d been living in the South of France with his Texan-born wife Sally (Shalini) Holkar. Our then editor Dina Vakil had asked us to connect with the couple while we were passing through that neck of the woods saying they would make for interesting company over a meal. As it happened, the meeting hadn’t taken place, but a few years later, when they moved back to India to settle and start their family in Mumbai, the acquaintance was made. Sally had begun to do a vibrant column about food anthropology, even while she put in long hours championing the unique Maheshwar textiles of Indore through the couple’s NGO while the softspoken and gentle Richard was an encyclopaedia of knowledge about the finer things of life from trout fishing in Kashmir to the creations of great jewellery designers of Europe. This was no surprise because after all, his father, the late Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar II of Indore, had been celebrated the world over for his fine eye and refined sensibilities. No surprises either that later this September, Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs will pay tribute to the extraordinary life of the Indian prince who is said to have built up one of the most important private collections of modernist furniture and decorative arts in the world. Curated by the London-based Amin Jaffer of the Al Thani Collection, the exhibition is slated to feature over 500 pieces from the Maharajah’s palace Manik Bagh, in Indore which he commissioned in 1930 as a paean to his passion for the European Modernist Movement with pieces from masters like Le Corbusier amongst others. A portrait of his first wife, the Maharani Sanyogita Raje painted by Boutet de Monvel as a pendant for the Maharaja is one of the exhibition’s highlights and features a striking and stylish lady, very much to the manor born. Sadly, we are informed, the Maharani died in Switzerland only three years after the portrait had been completed. The exhibition ‘Moderne Maharaja, un prince Indien des années 1930’ will run till mid-January next year.