Malavika Sangghvi: Pachees Saal Baad

The interview with the actress, Masand says, was characterised by their mutual affection.

“It will be 25 years since Aishwarya was crowned the title of Miss World in November 1994, and I was one of the first people to interview her when she returned,” says one of India’s best-known TV anchors and all-round film buffs, Rajeev Masand, on his interviewing the actress yesterday. “I interviewed her about doing the voice for Maleficent 2 — she voices the Hindi version of the character Angelina Jolie plays in the English version. We spoke about her playing a negative role. The last time she did one was in a Hindi film — Khakee —which was like 15 years ago,” said Masand, who, besides his weekend film-based show ‘Now Showing’, is busy shooting two series called ‘The Bold Bunch’ and ‘Women We Love’ for the same channel.

Rajeev Masand with Aishwarya Rai.

Aishwarya Rai when she won the Miss World title in 1994.

The interview with the actress, he says, was characterised by their mutual affection. “What hasn’t changed is the warmth after all these years. Twenty five years later, we still end up spending 15 minutes before and after every interview catching up, gossiping, and just reminiscing,” he says, adding, “What also hasn’t changed is that she’s never on time.”

But what’s a few wasted minutes between old friends?

“She makes up for it with the affection she shows. In that way she’s exactly like Shah Rukh Khan. Never on time, but can’t hold it against them because they’re just so full of affection, you forget you were upset just minutes ago,” he laughs.

True Lies:

One of the fallouts of the recent clipping of wings of some of the country’s high rollers is the impact it’s had on nightclubs and their owners. As is known, the men who are currently in judicial custody or on extended ‘vacations’ abroad, were notorious for their flamboyant show of their ill-gotten wealth at the city’s hotspots. “His office would call one week before and make sure our most expensive table was reserved for him and his standard order was Dom Pérignon champagne. On one occasion, we had sold his favourite table to someone else, celebrating their birthday. He showed up with his entourage and demanded we move the customer elsewhere, and that he would he pay for the customer’s full tab,” says one aggrieved night club owner about one such high roller, adding, “Since all the trouble began, his office doesn’t even answer our calls and he hasn’t cleared his tab for four months. He has done the same with other hotels and clubs as well,” he continues. “The talk is that he hasn’t even cleared the bill of his security agency and all his bodyguards.”

Oh dear, and to think that not too long ago, the sight of one or the other of these high flyers entering a night-club, accompanied by gun-toting security men, surrounded by a phalanx of henchmen and in an entourage of luxury cars was a most welcome sight for the city’s night club owners, who’d lay out a red carpet knowing they’d hit their monthly targets on one night.

How the mighty have fallen…

WTSWTM:

WTS:

Noted political economist and the husband of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Parakala Prabhakar, in an opinion piece published on Monday, advised the BJP to embrace the PV Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh economic architecture to rescue the economy out of the current choppy waters it’s in.

-Newspaper reports yesterday.

WTM:

But who is going to rescue poor Parakala Prabhakar out of the choppy waters he will be in once his wife hears what he said?

Professor Henry Dadlani?

Vishal Dadlani

He’s always been outspoken and in your face, taking on various powers that are especially in the political firmament, but when ace musician Vishal Dadlani, one half of Bollywood’s hit-making duo, Vishal-Shekhar, took to social media recently, it was for a completely different reason.

Dadlani posted a clip in which, after thanking fans for appreciating his latest composition Ghungroo from the Hrithik-Tiger blockbuster War, he entreated them to pronounce the lyrics of the song correctly. “I’m getting cover version after cover version every day,” he posted. “It means a lot to Shekhar and me… I put up this video as a little bit of a guide I guess, please don’t think I’m complaining, I really appreciate the love , but when you sing a song, please, please pay a little attention to the way the words are meant to be pronounced,” he said, going on to enunciate the difference in the sound of words like ‘kharab’ and ‘galati’ used in the song. “Kya aap ek phool hain? Ya phir ek “fool” hain? Choose wisely!” said his accompanying text.

Good to see a musician weighing in on the side of lyrics. As they say, “some days you need the music and some days you need the lyrics”.