The Wealth Distribution in India

It's interesting to note that its not in fact Bollywood/Mumbai which has the largest contingency of massively wealthy Indians... 

Reality TV Star Abhinav Shukla at Four Seasons Mumbai: Outtake from a shoot

 

Sooooo my buddy, Indian actor Abhinav Shukla, has been trending furiously on social media - particularly Twitter - and I am new to the scene of the train-wreck of a reality show Big Boss 14, where he was just evicted. 

Many, particularly in UK, are probably aware of the format of this reality TV show, as its a part of a franchise that's been picked up around the globe. 

I need to start off by saying I haven't seen the show as am not based in India but am stunned by the clips. The screaming, crying, fighting, forced drama... I don't get it. But am glad he's out of there and peacefully back home. 

I hope the paycheck was worth it... (BTW I just googled, dayumnnn that's some serious numbers thrown at contestants - dimes compared to what the host Salman Khan is making annually). 

A decade ago, had flown down to Mumbai to do a shoot and feature on Mumbai city for a magazine - in the glory days when there was budgets to fly around Asia for shoots and features. 

Through random friend association we found new model, a young Punjabi fella, who was also working on a sitcom on TV. He strutted in to the shoot - late - but was profusely apologetic about it as his TV shoot had gone overtime. I've learned since then to never schedule any shoots in India early in the morning - unless its Akshay Kumar. 

My friend and photographer and favourite person Ayesha Broacha (wife of Cyrus Broacha, TV personality and comedian) did the shoot at the Four Seasons, Mumbai. A glorious venue. Wardrobe was a mix of East and West - eg the above look by Indian designer Narendra Kumar but the shoes were Zegna. 

It's so odd to have famous for being famous friends... At least, Abhi's a good guy. Bless his socks. 

Last when we spoke, he had 10 to 12k followers - a mostly private account that archived his adventures, nature trips, hikes, mountaineering adventures and such. One of his earlier posts this week got nearly 2 million views and counting... 

Wonder how he'll be able to monetise this newfound pan-Indian popularity... .

Watch this space.

Follow the actor/model/reality TV star on Instagram here:

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Men of Mumbai: Shoot and Interview with Three Aspiring Actors in Bollywood: Aanaahad, Dushyant Yadav and supermodel Inder Bajwa

In a city where dreams are born and die each day, millions – and we do mean millions – head to Mumbai with stars in their eyes as they come from all over India, to set their eyes on the silver-screen of Bollywood – the largest film industry in the known world. Hoping against hope that a ticket to Mumbai’s magical movie screen shall ignite them into the stratosphere of fame, wealth and unimaginable adulation. It’s a tough ring to get into, in an industry where nepotism rules and luck favours few. The contenders are…

Aanaahad
Aanaahad has the gait and presence of a supermodel, tall, buff with chiseled features and near-perfect diction. With an award-winning film already released last year (Lahore, a blood, sweat and tears tale of the life of a struggling kick-boxer), we met and shot the actor while he was rehearsing a play. With a film now out on DVD, he’s already ahead of the game. Having just signed a sci-fi film under production as we go to publication, he’s a leg up on the newcomers that litter the streets. On screen, he appears ruthless, his tendons tearing up his opponents as his unflinching gaze never loses focus. In his love scenes, you’re never sure if he’s going to kick or kiss the girls and make ‘em cry. It’s all an act of course, the soft-spoken actor came down from Haryana (northern region of India) to “make it in Mumbai”, a mantra we heard often.

Dushyant
Like Hollywood or any of the western counterparts that is besieged with reality TV, India has its own brand of mind-numbing reality-TV stars and lingo. As a former journalist who found easy fame on Indian MTV, on a reality show called Splitsvilla - which he won - Dushyant is the young newcomer on the block, still in awe of the fame and fortune that’s so visible in the affluent parts of Mumbai, where the super-rich and the impoverished live next door to each other. He’s hoping to sign an ad-campaign, a TV show, a movie, anything to take him from the newcomer status to a more gilded status-quo.


Inder Bajwa
If there is such a thing as a supermodel in Mumbai, the uncrowned king of the catwalk would be Inder Bajwa. His posters stare out of many a campaign that stream across Mumbai city and he’s strutted his stuff on so many catwalks, he can’t remember how many shows he’s done over the past six years. He came from a village in Punjab, where his family still is, and soon was on speed-dial with every major designer in India (a booming fashion industry that’s bound to make global waves in the near future). Bajwa’s already jaded with the glitz and glam of the industry that genuflects to him. Having represented India at the Mr World competition held earlier this year in Korea, he stands on the precipice of Bollywood, waiting to sign a film to take him into another league. As one of the highest paid male models, he’s already in a league of his own, but the bumpy road to film fame, lies ahead.

Words: P.Ramakrishnan
All photography: Sayan Sur Roy

A Model Designer: Bollywood Celebrity Designer Manish Malhotra and the magic of movies

All the stars were aligned in the right place at the right time for Indian designer Manish Malhotra when his sterling career was ignited. Bollywood stars that is. P.Ramakrishnan met the man who dresses the most beautiful women in the world and almost single-handedly revolutionised Indian fashion in Hindi films.




It was more of a circus tent than a skirt. Blue and yellow stripes that reached the poor girl's ankles and a skirt that twirled like a pancake when the actress turned in song, in film. Her belly-baring, off-the-shoulder pink blouse was studded with dangling sequins. A lot of them. If the lights went out, people could follow her top like the northern star. Her hair was in a ponytail. No, a side ponytail - it was the '80s. Not to forget the blue eye-shadow and pink, heavily glossed lips, like she just ate a glazed chicken before she stepped on stage.

Oh the horror!

Throughout a large chunk of the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Indian cinema was a litmus test on how foul and amuck fashion could go. A land of hand-embroidered perfection, pashminas and nine-yard saris, there wasn't a sorrier sight than a leading Indian actress clutching the branch of a banyan tree yet looking like a Christmas tree when she tried to wear a Western outfit.

All that changed slowly and steadily when former model Manish Malhotra stepped into the limelight courtesy of some very high profile friends.

"Oh I just love [Indian actress] Sridevi", he exclaims. "My big break came when she, (the biggest actress in Bollywood at that time), let me do her clothes on film, my greatest passion. It was a dream come true and I learned a lot from her. All about fabrics, patterns and colours, and what would look good on screen and what wouldn't. She let me experiment and my model was the number one actress in Indian cinema. What more could I ask for?"

Apart from the curvy south Indian actress, Malhotra also designed for a host of young starlets on the rise. When he did the complete look and makeover of actress Urmila Matondkar in the film Rangeela (1995), he collected a special Filmfare award (India's Oscar equivalent) for his contribution to the film. And from then on, there's been no looking back.


Now one of the top designers in India, he was in Hong Kong as Moet & Chandon paid tribute to him, amongst other Asian designers, in a gala evening hosted at the Four Seasons. Each designer brought an outfit, inspired by the champagne and showcased it to an international mix of about 1000 VIPs. When his first model appeared in a glittering bikini blouse, smothered under a gorgeous, highly embellished sari, spontaneous applause erupted throughout the audience. By the time all his models stepped out and he joined them in the finale in his own white Sherwani top and blue denims, whispers among the crowds queried if the handsome young designer was a model too. Well, he was.

"I'm flattered that people think so but with my paunch, but believe me, I'm not! I did it very briefly a long time ago but I'm very happy creating," he says, pleased as punch at the fawning conjectures.

Apart from creating makeovers for several high-profile folks in India, he branched out to create his own namesake diffusion label in 2004. For those who think a pop over to his shops for an easy sale in the land of rupee is in the offing, think again. It costs a pretty penny to land an outfit from his collection. "I am very particular about quality and colour, fabric and patterns, and everything. I don't cut corners anywhere," he says. "That's just not my style."

A close friend to every single top celebrity and socialite in India, Malhotra arrived in Hong Kong having festooned his multi-plumed cap with yet another feather. "I just received the MTV Style award for the clothes I created for both the men and the women in the film Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (Never Say Goodbye). I've designed for men for years and it has been a great experience."


Be it the rather eccentric Michael Jackson, the exquisite Cate Blanchett, or the effervescent Reese Witherspoon, Malhotra's creations have wrapped Hollywood bodies too. "For one-off projects really," he clarifies. "For example Reese wore one of my outfits in Mira Nair's Vanity Fair but I'm not really that enthused to try my luck in the West. I'm very happy in Mumbai. If all goes according to plan, my film directorial venture should take off in 2007. I'm more excited about that. God willing, I can start next year."

There's no denying his talent and his innate knack for setting trends but as Malhotra humbly says, "Yes I do think I was in the right place at the right time. The industry was slowly going through a change and I found directors that were willing to support me in my vision of how a film actress should look. More subtle but sophisticated cuts, more conscious decisions on the over-all look. Then when actresses insisted on working with me, well, then the battle was nearly won!"

So it's goodbye to Bollywood babes when his first film as director takes off?

"No, I love designing clothes but it doesn't mean I can't do other things,"he says. "I have my own successful talk show, I've been going over the script of the film, the casting, the new shop that I opened in Dubai, fashion week, coming here to Hong Kong, I'm flying to a shoot straight after..."

And to think that all this sprang from the... what was it, a bicycle or toothpaste modelling shot? 

He laughs and says,"Oh God, you know there was an actor whose wardrobe I was fixing and he was teasing me the other day because he found an old photo of me in some magazine where I was modelling on the beach wearing blue socks! Blue socks at the beach!" he says covering his face in sartorial shame. "We all make mistakes... and then we recover!"

Night & De

She juggles home, husband and six children, three weekly columns and a weekly talk show on TV, churns out a bestseller each year and is more often than not hopscotching around the globe promoting, speaking and... shopping! She's a woman undeniably in control. An exclusive conversation with P.Ramakrishnan and Shobhaa De, superwoman... in a nine-yard sari!

All images courtesy of Ayesha Broacha.

Read the entire feature in the latest issue of Kee magazine. 

The Race to Oscar Glory: Paheli and Shahrukh Khan

A Bollwood film chases Academy honours. P.Ramakrishnan writes.

Early last week, 5,798 little ballots were sent out to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and “the most famous actor alive on the planet” (TIME) Shah Rukh Khan, is hoping that at least half of them will tick the little box next to his film Paheli [Puzzle]. A quaint and visually sumptuous Hindi film he produced and starred in last year, up for a Best Foreign Film nomination. Hopefully.

Forget the award, for Indian cinema, even being nominated is an uphill struggle.

When asked at a press conference if he’s going to get a gilt-edged invite for the cinematic event of the year, Khan simply said, “I think it's a long shot… [getting nominated] but it's a good chance of getting Indian cinema some recognition."

Khan was on location in London when Vinod Pande, acting chairperson of the Film Federation of India, announced in Mumbai that Paheli was unanimously voted to represent India in the foreign film category at the Oscars.

When he spoke to the press, a very-much surprised Khan [the film received mixed reviews when it was released early last year] said, "I think its the time for our film industry to get recognised on it's own merit. It is time that Indian films and filmmakers and the audience do not have to be on the periphery of world cinema. I think and I believe we are as good as it gets. I want everyone to know that, and that would happen if we all believe that we are not just an exotic nation of snake charmers but a media literate and educated upcoming economy.”

However, if the past is indicative of the near future (nominations will be broadcast at 5 a.m. UST on Jan 31), well, the figures are working against him. Since the first Indian film, Alam Ara, hit the silver screen in 1931, an Indian movie has made it to the list of nominees at the Academy… erm… thrice; Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) and Lagaan (2001).

On average India produces roughly 800 films a year, that’s about 59,000 movies over the last century churning out of the largest film industry in the world with an estimated annual turnover of nearly US$1.3billion per year and with a global reach of 3.6 billion, to Hollywood's meagre 2.6 billion. And yet, only thrice has an international celebrity mispronounced the names while reading the teleprompter during the live global telecast.

Nevertheless, Khan isn’t looking back at history, instead, he’s taking example of the movie mavericks like Miramax in Hollywood and noting the song and dance they go through to get the attention of the voters. The producers and distributors of Paheli approached the PR giant Rogers and Cowen for the film's promotion and the campaign is full on. Khan himself attended the two screenings in LA, lobbying for the voters with his trademark movie-star charms, while exquisite stills of the lead actors Rani Mukherjee and himself made it to full-page advertisements in Screen International and Variety. The buzz is clearly in the air among the esoteric circles that watch movies with subtitles.

But will it work? The selection of the film raised eyebrows in India itself where it did average business at the box-office and till date has won few awards in local ceremonies. Movies that garner applause from foreign countries usually are serious dramas, with political undercurrents or historical significance. The magical surrealism of a woman in love with a ghost disguised as her husband in the Mumbai musical doesn’t quite have the ‘Oscar goes to…” ring to it.

Though his own film Iqbal failed to represent India this year, producer/director Subash Ghai defended the selection saying, “Paheli represents Indian colour culture and ethos and mythical beliefs. It's based on an original work of an Indian writer from Rajasthan. These are elements that may have tilted the scales towards Paheli.”



While he backed the actor and wished him well, there are others of a diametrically different opinion grabbing headlines and columns. Indian producer/director Mahesh Bhatt had scathing comments for the film fraternity spending millions of rupees offshore to dollar-loaded audience that doesn’t care for Bollywood. "The manner in which people wag their tails in front of foreign academies and get swayed by them is pathetic and unacceptable," said Bhatt in a televised interview to an Indian channel.

"There are one billion people in this country and they are a better judge of an Indian film than those who sit on foreign soil and pass judgment. The yardsticks are completely different. I think the box-office rating given by the rickshaw-puller in this country who watches the film and determines whether it is worth watching or not is far more important for any filmmaker. When you make a film, you have to keep in mind the interests of the billion people you are catering to here. The idea is not to make crossover films, which a majority in this country may or may not like. If you want to cater to the international audience, go raise your money there!"

If the Golden Globe nominations are anything to go by as a precursor to the big O, Khan might as well take heed of Bhatt’s words and team India can get on their first flight back home. India didn’t, but China made the cut; Kung Fu Hustle, (Columbia Pictures Film Prod. Asia/Huayi Brothers/Taihe Film Investment Co. Ltd/Star Overseas; Sony Pictures Classics) and The Promise, Master of the Crimson Armor, (Moonstone Entertainment) are Golden Globe nominees.

Still, the campaign continues, there are interviews with American channels and appearances on morning talk shows before the ballots are collected and accounted for. After all, its an honour to be nominated. If even that.


Published in South China Morning Post, 2006.

Brand it like Mumbai: Luxury in India, designer brands, Bollywood and High Society: Its a return to home base for Rama as he goes back to Incredible India

Indubitably, China is regarded as one of the world’s biggest potential markets for major luxury brands. On his first visit to Mumbai, P.Ramakrishnan discovers the subcontinent’s discerning shoppers who are poised to take up the No: 1 market slot in Asia with sari-clad ease. 

All images by Ayesha Broacha. 

A perfectly pedicured foot alights a black Mercedes, following the soft tinkle of silver anklets. A white, French chiffon and lace sari, embroidered with exquisite red zari and zardosi work, streams out of the car, revealing erstwhile Bollywood superstar Sridevi Kapoor, as she steps out to a shower of paparazzi flashes. On one arm she carries her daughter and on the other a ruby red Rs 41,400 Christian Dior leather satchel, that perfectly compliments her exotic regalia. The following day the leading society columns have splashed photos of the media-shy star for the teeming masses but the real question that burns in the social harem of Mumbai’s crème de la crème is; where did she get that bag? 

Though still under the radar, unlike China or Japan, the luxury brand empires of the world are poised to hit India hard over the next year. The affluent middle class is said to number 60 million in India, while 364, 000 high-end tourists and visitors got off the jets, according to Abacus International. Status symbols such as Burberry's, Cartier, Daks Simpson, Louis Vuitton, Mont Blanc, Nina Ricci, Piaget, Tiara, Tiffany's and Versace have already left their emblematic marks on the market. Rumours of Dior’s entry are in the air while brand [Richard] Branson is up to its usual theatrics as it harpoons through the region this year. 

For the record, Kapoor got her Dior bag in New York, where she holidayed because Dior isn’t open in India. Not yet. Her movie producer husband, who is famous for collecting Gucci shoes as he is for his mammoth film productions, relishes in his foot fetish in Hong Kong and the US. 

Gucci is not in India either. Not yet. 

The world’s largest democracy should be an apt demographic target for every designer label; a nation that’s still littered with royalty (who’ve turned their palaces to chic money churning nostalgic hotels), a celebrity-fueled film industry (the largest in the world no less), swing a Fendi bag anywhere in Mumbai and you’re bound to hit an ex-Miss India, World or Universe who then go on to hit Bollywood to keep their fame alight. With modelling endorsements, they have a none-too shabby disposable income too! A leaping industrial pool (burgeoning bourgeois that’s morphing into the nouveau riche), the feudal lords (remnants from pre-colonial India who own large swathes of property) and the undisputable dollar and pound powered NRI (Non-Resident Indian) nexus that returns home or invests in his/her motherland. 

Break it all down to three simple categories: old money, with preference to classic brands, the corporate tier, with their proclivity to what’s “in” in New York, Paris and Milan and finally the nouveau riche, who know nothing of fashion but can see price tags loud and clear. It’s all about showmanship for them. For that last lot, a muted classic like Zegna would be thumbed down for a flashy, silky, multi-hued Versace, that just might glow in the dark. It signals look at me, I got the money! 

Haseena Jethmalani, a fashion savvy socialite in Mumbai, says, “The strangest conversation I had recently was a lady at a party who had flown down from Delhi and she was showing me her diamond ear-rings. She didn’t discuss carats or design but said it cost her Rs 25 lakh. Not labels or cut but cost was advertised which I found rather funny.”

Educated in London, Jethmalani has been aware of luxury brands years before they cropped up in India over the last five years. She has her own shop (closed the day of our shoot as the vendors are on strike, protesting the news that VAT might be introduced in India!) and heads the best dressed list in the city replete with the trendy and the hip. 

Heading down to Chor Bazaar, which translates to “The Thief Market”, a sobriquet that stuck the strips of shops where pre-1947, objects that “fell off a truck” from the affluent, ended up on sale in the market days later!) to pick up an antique fan. 

She says, “More and more people are holidaying abroad, they know the brands, because of the proliferation of the media, through television, through channels like fTV and the vast collection of international magazines, know what they want, know what’s in. So trying to hoodwink someone who’s even slightly aware of what’s hot in the retail industry is just not going to work. Even the fake market is tiny compared to say, places like China. You might see it on say a college girl who’s walking around with an LV fake. But she knows and everyone else knows a 23-year-old kid who goes to a local school can’t afford the thousands of rupees it costs for the original. They’re doing it for fun. Fake fun.” 

Noting where the well heeled, bellied bankers and businessmen were buying shirts, ties and suits in bulk, Donatella Versace saw that her goods were Eastward bound. She took her first trip to India in March this year. Not only promising to open up flagship stores but investing in India. She even participated in a fashion hunt program (think of it as an Indian-ised American Idol show but in search of the next top designer, not singer). At a press conference she said in her clipped English, “I love India. Indian women are chic and fashionable and elegant. Of course Versace will be in India.”  

The love for India is a phrase that cropped up when Yves Carcelle, CEO of Louis Vuitton, opened up flagship stores in India; one in Delhi which does phenomenal business and another in the hopelessly elegant Taj hotel in Mumbai. LV is categorically the first to dip its feet into the unknown waters, only to find itself swimming along “fabulously”. Says retail manager of Louis Vuitton India, Prasanna Bhaskar, “A major luxury brand jeweller from Europe opened a few years ago in Delhi and Mumbai and took it for granted that the market would just lap up the unsold, the rejected goods of Europe and Dubai and that it would sell in India. The Indian market is extremely savvy, very fashion conscious and brand aware. It’s not like the new mints of say a Russia or a China where any brand could be lapped up, real or fake.” 

With no air-kissed invitation to the celebrity circuit, Indian actors are repeatedly seen in magazines, clutching their LVs without any direct incentive given to them by the company itself. This year alone, photo-shoots with starlets Amisha Patel and former Miss India Celina Jaitley appeared with LV embossed bags in multiple magazines. It’s easy to assume someone from the brand and orchestrated the shoot. But no. 

Says Bhaskar, “When LV launched in India, we did nominal advertising. We’ve never done shows in India, no aggressive publicity campaigns and yet the goods were selling extremely well. This is a market already cognoscente of what the brand is. There was no need to educate the market. We never approached any of the stars in India nor have we worked with film magazines to use products for their shoots. When Filmfare came out with the ladies clutching their bags, which happened to be LV, that was a pleasant surprise to us.” 

Sipping coffee inches away from the Mumbai flagship store, at the Taj coffee shop, she brews on how the sales have been over the last year. “Delhi sees the best sales in all of India, in fact, all of Asia at the moment. We’re seeing sales that don’t happen in the Japanese market!”

Which is surprising indeed as Bollywood is based in Mumbai, the celebrity driven city would seem like the “it” centre for retail goods but that’s not the case. The arteries around the capital are rich in large, old moneyed families that made their millions through natural resource sales (farming, cotton, linen, cloth, steel, natural gas). 

“For example a lady will come into the shop, like something and then she’ll come back with her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, a cousin… it becomes like a family affair. In that cluster another lady will see something else and pick that up later. Women make sound sartorial, fashionable business decisions and it’s never an off the cuff sale. And we didn’t get whoever’s hot in Bollywood to sway any of them!” 

Each and every Indian actor endorses, in most cases, multiple products. There’s an appeal to the youngish crowd that will gladly pick up a Pepsi because Shahrukh Khan, the King of Bollywood, is addicted to it but for the jet-setting, bi-annual holidays in Tuscany and Paris lot, the wrong screen idol pushing a product, it can only backfire. 

Says Shobhaa De, celebrity columnist and chat show host, “The new money lot blindly follows a certain section of the society because to compensate for their own lack of self-confidence. So and so was seen wearing such and such, I must get one. But there are a few of the top families in India and the matriarchs there that make their own fashionable statements. With purchasing power that comes from their innate fashion sense, not because some star splashed on the idiot-box says so. These are the people who have a lot of disposable income. Well, access to their husbands disposable income!”

Though she herself professes to endorse no brands, her four daughters, more than make up for it. “I only have originals and don’t carry fakes,” says Arundhati De, right before regaling on her mother’s antics. “At the opening of LV at the Taj, I went with Mum and I couldn’t believe it when she took her fake bag to the opening! It was the new duffel sports sack thing which they didn’t have in the store and everyone was asking for it – I mean the original!” 

De, as always, couldn’t help being cheeky by tagging along her fake HK bought sack. “Why do I need to endorse a brand? I am my own brand! It often doesn’t go with my outfit. I like the embroidered or cloth bags that would complement an Indian outfit. Just because a particular shade or style is in, if it doesn’t go with the outfit, why bother? And I know I’m not alone in this!” 

Narendra Kumar, Indian designer to the socialites and fashionistas in the capital, who has four stores around the country, nods his head to De’s words. “Say in places like Japan which has a very different fashion vibe, they might buy the new cherry LV because its hot, its new, its in. Here it might not work as well. If you’re wearing a gold embroidered sari or something multi-hued, if the bag clashes with the outfit, the ladies won’t carry it!” 

When international brands hit home, what should they be aware of? “Price point. Unlike a few years ago, the upper middle class and especially the upper crust, they fly out of India four or five times a year, either on business or on pleasure and they do shop! If they even remotely suspect there’s something fishy about what they’re paying for a watch say in the city versus what they would pay in, lets say Changi airport (Singapore’s airport/uber mall!), then they know it. Also, I must say, even people who buy something in India, might say that they got it in Dubai or Paris or London. There’s a certain romance to saying that they got it “abroad” than down main-street you know?” 

Oh and lets not forget the caste system and social hierarchy was coined in India long before the rest of the West thought the world was flat. Status and luxury, six papers have a society column and 12 magazines, with names like High Blitz and Verve, dedicated and primarily targeted at the prolific ‘haves’. And have they got it. 

Dressed in all her finery, when a local paper published a full-page picture of Jethmalani at an event, a ring on her left hand caught the eye of millions. Flooded with calls, the paper rang her up to ask, where she got a ring? 

“You know something, I had bought my kid a cereal box from London and there was this colourful ring that came free with it. It went with my outfit so I just wore it! It might have cost 9 pence! The paper couldn’t believe it! They refused to publish that story and said it was a luxury brand!” 

Whatever works.