Simi Garewal

Half a decade after Rendezvous…, Simi Garewal returns to the small screen with Simi Selects India’s Most Desirable, a celebrity chat show on STAR World, in which the actress — famous for her age-defying looks, her refined language and her penchant for the colour white — will put the country’s most eligible achievers on the couch and quiz them about their lives and loves. A t2 chat…

What is India’s Most Desirable all about?

The show, as the title suggests, is about selecting India’s most desirable and I have selected a list of achievers who, I think, constitute India’s most desirable. These are people who are eligible, talented, powerful, inspirational, wealthy, good-looking… who have the full package of what we would call objects of desire. All the people on my show are those the Indian audience dreams of meeting or dating. Some even dream of marrying them! (Laughs.) I thought it would be a good idea to bring them on the show and give the audience a little bit of a preview into their personality… what they are like, what kind of woman he wants, what sort of a guy she is looking for, does she have a sense of humour, is he good at dealing with women…. You get to see different facets of these people who are constantly in the public eye and yet people know little about what they are really like. I’m trying to give you an overall picture of the person in an ambience of entertainment.

It’s a fully original format, completely written by me. Every word, every single element, everything that has gone into the show has been thought of by me. I have also designed the sets. So, it’s very much my show (laughs).

One hears that you have a lot of sections and sub-sections on the show…

Yes, lots of elements. That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier. I have consciously included sections that help you to find out more about the people on my show — in ways that you haven’t ever found out before. You haven’t seen them in these situations before, you have never seen them doing any of the things that you’ll see them do on my show. That’s why I have tried to include ways and means by which I can bring them out of their shells and get them to reveal a lot more. I have included things like a tarot card reader. There is something different in every episode. It’s not as if once you’ve seen the first episode, you’ve seen all of them. It’s packed with entertainment, packed with lots of interesting stuff that deals with what you would like to know about these celebrities.

Was there a conscious effort to move away from Rendezvous with Simi Garewal and try something different?

Rendezvous went on for five seasons. I did 140 episodes, but with India’s Most Desirable, I wanted to move away from Rendezvous. Okay, Rendezvous was a big success and after that you must have seen similar shows that came up (laughs), but I thought that: ‘No, I must move away from Rendezvous and think of something completely different.’ Even the way I have handled my guests on India’s Most Desirable is different from Rendezvous. But I must say there is a little bit of Rendezvous in it, as there are people who wanted a bit of it even in my new show. The opening is a bit like Rendezvous, but then it moves into areas that are completely different. Remember, this is an audience-based show, a live audience will be present in each episode. All the people in the audience will only be college kids. I have targeted India’s Most Desirable at the younger STAR World audience, but there is something in this show for everyone. Even the more mature audience will be able to connect with it, though the guest profile is younger. Families, parents, kids… there is something in it for everyone.

Did the guests surprise you on the show?

Oh yes! Everyone, in fact, has surprised me in some way or the other. I have learnt so much about people I thought I knew a lot about and when you see it, you will know what I mean. What you know about these people is what you read in the gossip columns. You never get to see them as they are, their views on marriage in a real way, not a tabloid-ish way. Freida Pinto sprung quite a surprise. I had imagined she would be the Hollywood-star type, but she turned out to be very humble and modest. Very real, there were no affectations. She told me that it’s her family that manages to keep her grounded. They will not let her fly high! (Laughs.)

Did you find it difficult to make some people talk?

Oh no, no, no! I never need to do that. Even in Rendezvous, I never needed to draw out anybody. You ask people the right questions, they will respond. You ask it the right way and people will respond. They give you more than you ask for.

Have you tried and included guests who are just not from Bollywood?

Well, I had Sidhartha Mallya… there is also a cricketer on the show. But the guests have to fit the image of the Most Desirable format… they had to have everything to be counted as most desirable and at this time, I will say that most of them are from Bollywood.

Was there anyone who you wanted to have on the show but couldn’t?

You can never get your entire wishlist, but we have a certain time limit by when we have to finish our episodes and hand them over. So, within that time limit, I have got most of the people I wanted. And for those I haven’t, there’s always next season!

What kind of thought went into the sets?

The base of the sets is, of course, white. We change the colour of the sets according to the segments on the show. When I have just a one-on-one, then it’s white. When I bring on the family, it’s golden. And when I bring on the fun stuff, all kinds of colours come in.

For the first time, you are wearing something other than your trademark white...

In the first episode with Ranbir (Kapoor), I wore a black outfit, but in subsequent episodes, I have more or less stuck to white. In fact, I have to tell you the history behind that black dress. It’s an Anamika Khanna outfit and the moment I saw it, I fell in love with it. And I said: ‘I absolutely love this dress and I want to wear it for my first episode.’ I knew it was black, but then I thought: ‘Why not? For the first episode, I can wear black’. That is the one that you are seeing constantly because the promos are showing the first episode. It felt very different. Every time I looked in the mirror, I was like: ‘Oh my god, who is this?’ (Laughs.) But in the subsequent episodes, I am wearing white, so it’s all right. Then I know it’s me! (Laughs.)