The traffic stopped for half an hour outside Taj Lands End. Until Mukesh Ambani sped by with his fleet. Inside, the bride and bridegroom, who’d just finished with the marriage rituals, scrambled back on stage with family. It isn’t every day that a bridal couple gets Mukesh Ambani’s blessings personally. But this was no everyday occasion. It was the marriage of business power with filmland glamour. Where else would you also have Karan Johar playing host at the sangeet with Farah Khan joining him and Anil Kapoor shaking a leg with Neetu Kapoor on stage?
The bride was pretty Shauna Gautam who directed Nadaaniyan, Ibrahim Ali Khan’s debut film and Khushi Kapoor’s second, for Karan Johar’s production house. Shauna is well-loved at Dharma while her mother Pammi Bakshi, the warm and gregarious former editor of Movie, and one of the best-liked hosts in the industry, is considered family by Anil and Sunita Kapoor. At one of Pammi’s parties, Sonam Kapoor had come dressed like she was ready for the ramp. “Going somewhere else?” I asked her. “I’ve come dressed specially for Pammi Aunty,” she replied. That’s the kind of enthusiasm friends have for Pammi’s gatherings, which always includes Zeenat Aman.
Picky Rishi Kapoor, who had little patience with most people, used to say, “Pammi does it well.” If folks outside the film circle don’t know about these parties it’s because in a world used to Insta floods, Pammi doesn’t even like posing for pictures.
On the business side, bridegroom Kush Parekh has known the Ambanis since he was in school. He is bringing the premium South Indian chain The Rameshwaram Café from Bengaluru to Mumbai, to the Eros building that the Ambanis have taken over and given a complete makeover to. That’s how the coming together of a young and lovely low-profile couple became a high-powered celebrity celebration last week.
And of course, the bride wore a Manish Malhotra one of the evenings.
The making of Brand Manish has been interesting. One used to visit Manish in a garage in Hemant Kumar’s building Gitanjali to discuss styling stars for our photo shoots. From there to one of his many flagship stores two lanes away has taken years of great cuts and unusual colour combos for a growing clientele. It is a heartening story of success as the leap from the garage to the brand has one unchanged element: Manish himself. It’s one of the reasons why his turning producer with Gustaakh Ishq had the media turn up enthusiastically for the special screening of a Vijay Varma-Fatima Sana Shaikh film.
Manish is seriously invested in producing movies, even funding Gustaakh…from his own pocket. Irrespective of the returns, it’s a fee he has paid for learning a new job firsthand.
Unlike the opulence of his screen wardrobes, Manish is making small, story-driven films, in direct contrast to the-bigger-the-better mantra of filmmakers today. But whatever the content of his productions, all his actors get something they don’t with other producers. They get to wear the brand Manish Malhotra for all their promotional interviews and events. Check out Anupama Chopra’s Round Table with Shabana Azmi, Zeenat Aman, Abhay Deol or even the lunchtime media screening of Gustaakh Ishq where Fatima and Vijay Varma wore their producer’s label. Looking at Shabana and guests at his Diwali bash, apart from muted off-whites and creams, the predominant colour of the season is chocolate brown with splashes of gold.
To wrap up on a sombre note, while the Deol men chose quick-lowkey over a 21-gun VIP farewell for Dharmendra on Monday and the Moranis helped them host a “Celebration of Life” on Thursday, Hema and her daughters received people every evening for 13 days at Advitiya, their bungalow in Juhu.
With this, the page has gently turned on a robust chapter. Om Shanti.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author