India Masala
Bollywood and culture in an emerging India
WIFW 2010: HIGHLIGHTS – Nandita Basu
Highlights from the Nandita Basu collection at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week 2010 in New Delhi.
WIFW 2010: First day a no-show
Shows on the first day of India’s biggest fashion event were cancelled on Wednesday after organisers of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week could not furnish mandatory fire safety permits.
(Flip cam video by Urvashi Sibal)
Has Bollywood run out of heroes?
At the ongoing FICCI Frames conference, during a very engaging debate on scripts in Indian cinema, writer Javed Akhtar came up with an interesting observation.
He said Bollywood had run out of heroes and therefore run out of villains as well, because contemporary Indian society had run out of morality.
Rahul Mahajan searches for the perfect TV bride
As India heads into wedding season, yet another celebrity is hoping to get hitched — with millions of people watching on prime-time television.
Rahul Mahajan follows in the footsteps of Bollywood starlet Rakhi Sawant and will choose a life partner from among 16 candidates in a reality TV show.
Fashion overdose: Do we need so many expensive clothes?
Whenever I have attended the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai, it has always struck me as an event that is a little out of my league, but something that always gets the eyeballs.
After all, isn’t fashion, at least some form of it, an increasingly essential part of urban living?
A House for Mr Hashmi
When you are a Bollywood actor in Mumbai, doors open automatically — or at least so you would think. But as Shabana Azmi, Aamir Ali and now Emraan Hashmi have discovered, there are some doors which remain shut.
Hashmi has complained to the Minorities Commission of Maharashtra that he and members of his family were not allowed to buy a flat in the posh locality of Bandra — because of his religion.
from India Insight:
Ambani rivalry spills over at shareholder meeting
Anil Ambani on Tuesday used an annual shareholders' meeting to lay into his older brother and the government for good measure, over the issue of gas pricing which is at the heart of the most recent spat between the fighting Ambani brothers.
Anil charged Reliance Industries, India's top private-sector conglomerate run by estranged brother Mukesh, had used every trick in the book, and some outside the book, to feed its "greed", and was firing from the shoulder of the oil ministry that he claimed was being "partisan".
Are Indian audiences ready for the truth?
There is something addictive about watching ‘The Moment of Truth’, the American TV show where contestants have to tell the truth to win cash.
Contestants go through a polygraph test to determine if they are lying while answering a set of questions based on their lives.
from India Insight:
Star seeks groom on TV and other soaps
A new reality show in which a bunch of suitable men vie for the hand of Bollywood starlet Rakhi Sawant is an interesting twist on the prevailing custom of Indian men choosing their brides.
"Rakhi Sawant ka Swayamvar", which harks back to the ancient tradition of princesses choosing a groom from a line-up, began airing on Monday night, pitting more than a dozen men from varied backgrounds -- and with varying singing and dancing abilities -- wooing Sawant, a colourful personality known more for her antics off camera.
Growing up with the ‘Moonwalker’
It was the late 80s and I was in school, contemptuous of rules and looking for a cause to rebel against parental interference. I was too young to run away and wise enough not to push it so as to end up without dinner.
I was itching for an icon, a just cause to let out my angst, when I saw him for the first time on our black and white television one night.
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The Wall
