INDIA - Bollywood-related stuff (Part II)

So I’m back to complete my Bollywood-related tales… one of the most thrilling things we did in India was writing fan mail to our favourite actors and actresses and actually visiting the homes of a few of them. We had already agreed before leaving for India that we were going to act like true fans – a little pagal, a little OTT... we were just going to go for it and enjoy it – and I think we totally did. It was SO MUCH FUN! We bought our kagaz and lifafaa, wrote loads of fan mail and went off to Bandra and Juhu in search of our favourite Bollywood stars… we knew we probably wouldn’t spot any stars, but we decided that just seeing their homes would be fun enough for us.

First on our list (of course) was ‘our boo’, Mr. Shah Rukh Khan, who lives at the wonderfully-named ‘Mannat’, really close to the beach, in Bandra. SRK got some special attention, as we bought him some beautiful yellow roses near Flora Fountain, grabbed a cab and went off to search for Mannat, roses and letters in hand. It was so exciting… especially when we got there…

First though, on our way to Mannat, our taxi driver, the very lovely ‘Sir-ji’ (that’s what I called him and just about every other taxi or auto-rickshaw driver we met in India) pointed out to us the home of renowned singers Lata and Usha Mangeshkar – apparently they live on the second floor of this block of flats…

I loved the piano sign outside…

So anyway, we got to Mannat and were just so excited, jumping around like little ping-pong balls… here’s the sea close to SRK’s house…

...here's the gate to Mannat...

…here’s the imposing villa itself…

…and this is the Mannat sign opposite the gate (and a little bit of me and my bangles)…

The guards outside SRK’s house were very amused at these black female tourists who had come all the way from Nigeria to see Mr. Khan. They didn’t speak or understand much English so we had to find a way to explain that ‘yeh phool’ were for Mr. Khan. They really were amused – they inspected our flowers (for hidden recording/explosive devices, I guess), read our fan mail and generally had a good laugh. Heck, we didn’t care, we were just so excited to be there… especially when the gate swung open and…

… we were almost faint with anticipation, I kid you not… but then out rolled a boring police van… but that moment, when we thought SRK just might come out, was just sooo incredible… one of the definite highlights of our time in Mumbai.

Anyway, so that was all really exciting... after Mannat, Sir-ji took us to Salman Khan’s house, which is only a few minutes away from SRK’s…. Here it is – he lives in a flat on… the third floor, I think.

The guards at Sallu’s house weren’t quite as friendly as SRK’s – the security there is (understanbly) quite tight…

On that day, we also tried to find Pooja Bhatt and Sanjay Dutt’s homes, I think, but there was too much traffic and so we decided to call it day as far as star-home-hunting was concerned. Sir-ji drove us back to Churchgate, where we had a nice dinner at the lovely Gaylord’s restaurant and caught up with some amazing scenes taking place at the stadium right opposite our hotel, as India defeated Australia at cricket.

I just cannot tell you how special it was to be so close to the action… and as we watched, we speculated about the likelihood of SRK being at the cricket match with his son Aryan (my friend Uzo even spotted a car outside the stadium that looked like the one she saw in a documentary on his life), and we actually thought up a couple of hare-brained schemes as to how we could meet him – like trying to sneak into the stadium without tickets, then finding the nearest cameras and telling members of the press that we’d come all the way from Nigeria to see the man and would SO love to see him (or else, we would not be leaving)… we had a good laugh about that plan.

The next morning the Times of India was slid under our door just before breakfast… and sure enough, there were pictures of SRK and Aryan on the cover… sitting close to Shah Rukh’s ‘Om Shanti Om’ co-star Deepika Padukone at the cricket match… so he probably sat in this box....

After lamenting over being so-close-yet-so-far-away-from SRK over our breakfast (and after lots of sightseeing and shopping), later that day (which also happened to be our last full day in India), we decided to take a taxi to Juhu, in search of more celebrity cribs… it turned out to be quite a ride… it was Dussehra and so the streets were extremely busy – it was great to watch all the colourful celebrations, from the hordes of worshippers walking down to the sea to the many shrines to Durga, to the decorations and lights everywhere…



Anyways, so we finally got to Juhu amidst heavy traffic, and we managed to find ‘Amitabh Bachchan ka bangla’ – it was no mean task I tell you…. We introduced ourselves to the guards and they pretty much promptly (but politely) told us to get to stepping… and so we did… but not before I snapped this photo of his gaily decorated gate (with lots of other fans hanging around)….

And so that was the end of our starry adventures in Mumbai. We did send out all our fan mail as well… and just in case you’re wondering where the picture of the gate leading to ‘Dharmendra ka bangla’ is, we realllly wanted to get to it but it was getting realllly late and we had a lot of things to do that night, so we took it off the schedule (but of course I still have nothing but love and mad respect for Dharam-ji).

Here are some other Bollywood-related pictures from my trip... these ones were taken at this ‘resort’ where we stopped for lunch, somewhere between Agra and Delhi…

Mr. Bachchan’s visit to the resort was obviously a huge highlight for the owners of the place…

And I really liked this rather dated but very attractive advertising on the back of an auto…


And of course movie posters… ‘Laaga Chunari Mein Daag’ was everywhere – it was easily the most-advertised movie while we were in India… a bit sad really, cos it didn’t do too well at the box office...

... 'Saawariya' had some billboard presence as well...
And there were some very cool and retro-looking posters up on this lovely brick wall in Agra…

And also some really pitiful and/or slight tacky-looking ones…

Seeing the billboards for Beyonce's tour dates was interesting...

And seeing the brawny Sunny Deol advertise girly Lux soap (Correction: actually he's advertising Lux Coxy underwear - thanks Ashish for the tip!) was pretty amusing...

Of course, TV soaps get loads of advertising as well… I really liked this one…

Speaking of TV, Uzo and I speculated that this shoot we observed at Humayun's Tomb in Delhi might be for some sort of TV programme...

It's too far away for you to see it properly in this shot, but this billboard for Indian Vogue is really cool - Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra and Preity Zinta appear on it... this one is from Mumbai...


.... and Deepika looks ethereal on the cover of Vogue...


I think that just about covers it for the Bollywood-related stuff from my trip to India… I’m already working towards my next trip, and looking forward to even more fun adventures…

...And here are a few random shots from my time in Mumbai to help you look forward to seeing the city for yourself (if you haven't yet). It is so fab.

We walked past this cricket game during our long search for Flora Fountain...

... this is Victoria Terminus - I badly wanted to get some really good shots and go inside but we just short on time...

I loved the Gateway to India... and watching SRK's first film ('Deewana') recently got me all nostalgic - it forms the backdrop to one of the movie's songs...

... I forget what this building is called... something very gravitas-laden I think... I loved it...

...and I loved Marine Drive ('the Queen's Necklace')... Uzo and I took an evening walk there just before leaving India... great atmosphere...

... and here's a bus driving in front of Flora Fountain...

This is my fifth and last post about my trip to India. It's a testimony to how amazing those ten October days were, that there is SO much more I could say... reminiscing has been great fun and I must thank all of you for sharing my journey and experiences with me...

Thanks for all your votes on the latest poll – please vote if you haven’t done so yet!

See you soon…

POLL: Female Directors

I was in the middle of reminiscing about the Bollywood-related things I experienced during my first trip to India (you can read about the non-Bollywood related things here, here and here) – but I’ve decided to interrupt programming to bring you the latest poll on this blog… the last two polls were all about two of Bollywood’s male icons (Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan) who have ruled Hindi commercial cinema since the 1970s. I promised that the next poll would be female-oriented, and here it is…

I have a great deal of admiration for the female film-makers that have taken on the mantle of director and made their mark in Indian cinema. Farah Khan’s ‘Om Shanti Om’ is still making big money at the box office, and several other female film-makers have also been very successful at their craft.

The question for this poll is: which of the 12 listed female directors is your personal favourite? (I have given some examples of their work as well, as I realise some may be more familiar with the films than their directors). Your answer may be based on the quality of the films they’ve made, the way their films have affected you, their commitment to film-making, the bold subjects their films have addressed, their personal philosophies, their life stories – really, your choice may be based on whatsoever criteria you consider important at the moment.

PLEASE vote – this poll has got me much more excited than the last two – and I am so eager to see who comes out on top. Have fun voting – I know I will have fun tracking the votes; and I am REALLY looking forward to doing the results post at the end of the poll… because I have a lot to say about each of these ladies.

As usual, please do leave your comments on the subjects of the poll… and if I’ve omitted any of your favourite female directors of Indian origin, please let me know…

… will be back with the rest of my reminiscences soon…

India: Bollywood-related stuff

The first Bollywood-related thing that I did in the course of my trip to India in October was the inflight entertainment I enjoyed on the plane. It was a long-ish plane journey, so there was plenty of time for me to be entertained by filmi stuff. So I watched one thoroughly forgettable film starring Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar (so forgettable I can't remember what it's called), then I watched a little bit of the classic mystery-movie ‘Gumnaam’ (I fell asleep partway in), then I woke up and watched Rishi and Neetu Kapoor (with Rakesh Roshan) in ‘Khel Khel Mein’ (which I liked for the most part); and then finally I watched a collection of filmi songs – the theme running through them was that the songs all featured the beautiful voice of Kishore Kumar. One of the songs I enjoyed in this collection was this one from ‘Sholay’, which I’d actually quite forgotten about:


There was quite a bit of Bollywood-related stuff to see and experience on this trip…. On our second night in Delhi, we strolled around Karol Bagh in search of a SIM card. We walked into a little mobile phone shop and saw this poster:

SRK was everywhere on this trip, really. (Which was great because both Uzo and I absolutely love him.) Here he is again in Delhi:

Our ‘closest encounters’ with King Khan, however, took place (quite fittingly) in Mumbai… but more on that later…

Another favourite we were frequently confronted with was the very cool Abhishek Bachchan. Abhi is fronting a huge ad campaign for the Idea Group, and there were many variations on this everywhere we went:

Abhishek is also doing an inspirational campaign for the Times of India – I forget what it’s called but it’s all very youth-driven and stuff… I really liked the TV ads and billboards:

On the same theme, I was intrigued to see that the Times has nominated Rahul Bose for ‘Mumbai’s Lead Indian’. I don’t like Rahul for some reason – something about him just rubs me the wrong way (for now, anyway), so I was really interested in what it was that made him a candidate for this title – and what kind of title it is, anyway – it sounds a bit strange… funny enough, I completely forgot to look it up until now…

Back to the commercial stuff, I’m not a Bebo fan but I must admit she looks absolutely amazing in her ads for Globus…

… and Katrina looks pretty in her Kodak ads…

… and of course Hrithik is still hot hott hottt stuff playing it cool for John Players…

Also very filmi were the cinemas… down the street from our hotel was the lovely Eros… we never got past the lobby but it looked very nice…

And then there was the renowned Raj Mandir cinema in Jaipur…

…which looks like this at night…

…we heard that the Raj Mandir is beautiful on the inside as well, but we didn’t go in… we did have a rather interesting experience there on our last night in Jaipur, though…. We had just alighted from our auto when we saw a young lady in a strapless top walking into the cinema with a few of her friends. Nothing unusual about that, you might think… but wait for the ‘interesting’ part – this young lady was followed by a horde of no less than 20 (I kid you not) young men wolf-whistling and shouting rude-sounding words after her. I was stunned by the aggression of these guys…. In fact, were it not for the way her friends surrounded her and hustled her into the cinema, well... I really don’t know. It was really quite disturbing to watch the reaction of those guys to a bit of exposed flesh….

As soon as the lady entered the cinema, these young lads just milled about the place looking a bit wild and leering at the women in the vicinity… so although what my friend Uzo and I were wearing could not be regarded as risqué by ANY standards, we didn’t hang around… we ducked into the Mickey D’s next door, grabbed some dinner with the quickness, and went back to our hotel (now the ride to the hotel was quite something – the craziest auto-rickshaw ride we had in India for sure – but that’s a story for another day)…

Ok, so I couldn’t leave India without picking up some magazines for all the hottest celeb ‘gist’… I got Stardust, Filmfare and Hello! The Indian edition of Hello! is still pretty new and the content could be better, but my, did it have some very pretty pictures!! Here are a few of my faves…

… the Lara Dutta spread was gorgeous…

…there was a nice dignified piece wishing Amit-ji a very happy birthday…

… and this was my fave spread – lovely pictures of the stars of ‘Saawariya’, Sonam and Ranbir Kapoor; with their starry parents Anil Kapoor and Neetu Singh…

…there was some gossip on Bollywood’s hottest new couple, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor…

Speaking of Saif, here he is looking ultra-cool for Provogue…

… incidentally, another hot Provogue model is Esha Deol. And my dear Dharam’s daughter is currently fronting a massive ad campaign for L’Oreal’s latest fairness cream…

… and wow, is fairness a booming industry in India or what? I was somewhat bemused to catch this ad for skin-bleaching cream in Stardust (I thought it was quite clever to place it next to a picture showing Preity’s naturally fair skin – a little free extra advertising for the product - although Preity obviously was born with it)…

…and this ad for 9x (whatever that is, I’m pretty sure it’s not a skin-lightening cream though – the ads for the products are very varied but are really all about change and improvement) I found quite telling… the message of this one seems to be that ‘brightness’ means youth, fairness, happiness and Caucasian features… (Ed. thanks to Nirvana for letting me know what 9x is all about and to Alan for letting me know this particular ad is actually a spoof on the skin-lightening phenomenon).

… but back to Lara Dutta, she’s doing an ad campaign for Pantaloons and I loved the ads…

…Bobby Deol is also one of Pantaloons’ models, and I think he looks really good in his ads as well… like this one from Stardust…

… ok, this is getting really long and I haven't even gotten into our Mumbai 'activities', so I guess I’ll finish it off in another post…