New Delhi, Sunday February 22, 2009

Party 3

Tonight the stars will comedown to earth and walk

down the Red Carpet indesigner gowns, designer jew-ellery, designer totes, designerpumps and possibly in design-er lingerie too, to the Oscarceremony. The next few dayswe will be bombarded withthe news of dames who daz-zled and those who fizzled onthe red carpet. All this hypemakes for a perfect publicitygimmick for the couturiersaround the world and nodoubt they hire the best ofagents to lure in the stars todon their label. We havealready seen the madnessbehind AR Rahman’s Oscaroutfit, a man who is reticent ofall this red carpet brouhaha.On the other hand, Frieda isdefinitely enjoying all theMarchesas and Gaultiersshowered on her.

One thing that bothers meabout Slumdog Millionaire iswhy the slum kids, who tooacted in the movie, were total-ly ignored when it came tobasking in the glory of themovie’s success. I mean, themovie builds the character ofthe slumdog — Jamal, rightfrom his childhood days andprogresses to adolescence andadulthood. The screen timethat the real slum kid has inthe movie is almost equal tothe screen time of Dev Patel,so why only Dev basks in theglory and not the poor kid? Iread somewhere that the kid,Aayush (who plays Jamal)now wants to only wear goodclothes. It’s such a pity that nodesigner label has come for-ward to give him some niceclothes. Gaultier has a kidsrange — Gaultier Junior, and Ithink if they had offeredAayush some clothes to wear,they would have earned notonly publicity but loads ofgoodwill too. But the designerlabels are blinded by a millionflash bulbs that flicker on thered carpet and are flooredwhen the star gives that vitalsound byte, “Oh, it’s an Oscarde la Renta.”

But hey, the red carpet fren-zy has arrived in India too.Now that loads of designerlabels are in India, Bollywoodcouldn’t have escaped the red-carpet frenzy. There’s intenselobbying by the brand pushersto get Piggy Chops or Bebo

darling to strut down the redcarpet in their labels. Someare willing to offer not onlythe gown but also free hand-bags and heels. The season’shot picks are Katrina Kaif,Priyanka Chopra, KareenaKapoor, Sonam Kapoor,Deepika Padukone and Asin.In the dazzle of Gucci, Dior,Chanel and Lanvin, theManish Malhotra, Shantanu &Nikhil, Rocky S and Abu-Sandeep have paled. This redcarpet frenzy has sproutednumerous celebrity stylists.They are having a gala time. Ispoke to few of these ‘celebstylists’ and their attitude wasno less than the stars they represent.

Now that the snooty brandshave rack full of unsoldclothes, soon you will seethem dressing up soap queensfor telly awards or even thelikes of Rakhi Sawant andSambhavna Seth, who wouldinhabit the next Big Bossseries. After all a hundred day exposure on television isalmost a publicity coup ofsorts!

The red carpetFRENZY

CAPITALBUZZ

JAYDEEP GHOSH

ENTRY RESTRICTED

‘HEALTHY’ AFFAIR

Aparty for “youngfriends only” hosted

by model AmanpreetWahi and her fianceRaghav Narula.

Who

What

Cheek-y couple:Amanpreet Wahi andRaghav Narula

‘Bare’devil?Vandana Vadhera

Noch loongi:RashmiVirmani

andAkshya

Chauhan (R)

All smiles: Designer Rahul Jain andDJ Barkha Kaul; (below) Hemantand Krishna Somani

Aparty hosted byMonika and Ankur

Sachdev to celebrate therevamped all-white inte-riors of Bonsai restau-rant at Connaught Place.

Health Minister ARamadoss’ arrival sig-nalled a sudden silenceas smokers scrambled

for a hide-out. The manstuck to health food as he sipped watermelonjuice and gorged on veg sushi.

Also present at the dowere designer duoGunjan Arora andRahul Jain, DivyaGurware of BridalAsia, designerAnupama Dayal andHarmeet Bajaj.

— Zabeeh Afaque

That’s my drink:Health Minister A Ramadoss

RA

AJE

SSH

KA

SHYA

PR

AJ

K R

AJ

What

Who

WhereAt Ai restaurant, MGFMetropolitan Mall, Saket.The theme of the party wasangles and demons andguests dressed to the hilt.

Closest pal KrishnaSomani, friends Samir andTanvi Gogia, DJ BarkhaKaul and restaurateur ADSingh amongst others,let their hair down.

— HTC

Here comes the fairy: Ashita

Pretty little angels: Sisters Simar (L) and Anupreet

Proud hosts: Ankur Sachdevand Monika Sachdev

Stylish: DesignerAnupama Dayal