Celebrate the festive season with Bollywood as some of the biggest movies this year hit the screens within a month. Bang Bang, Haider, Happy New Year, Ekkes Toppon Ki Salaami and Sonali Cable are all set to entertain you throughout October.
The official remake of the Hollywood film ‘Knight and Day’, Bang Bang is set to hit the cinemas on 2nd October. Starring Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif, this action rom-com is one of the most awaited movies of 2014.
Giving a tough fight to Bang Bang on the same day is Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Haider’ starring Shahid Kapoor and Shradha Kapoor. A modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the movie also stars Tabu and is already making waves in B’town.
Releasing on 10th October is Ramesh Sippy’s production ‘Sonali Cable’. Starring Rhea Chakraborty the movie is a survival drama of an ordinary girl who belongs to a family of internet technicians and her war with her childhood sweetheart.
Also releasing on the same day is Ravindra Gautam’s ‘Ekkes Toppon Ki Salaami’. Starring Anupam Kher, Divyendu Sharma and Aditi Sharma, this movie highlights the ever-changing dynamics of the complex father-son relationship.
Witness action, comedy and drama all rolled into a single package with Farah Khan’s ‘Happy New Year’ releasing on 24th October. Also slated to be one of the biggest releases this year, the movie features an ensemble cast including Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Vivaan Shah, Sonu Sood and Jackie Shroff.
Here’s all you need to know about the designer Troy Costa, the man who designs clothes for Bollywood A-listers and now also for PM Narendra Modi!
Mumbai based fashion designer Troy Costa began his career in the Indian fashion industry in 2003. And in the last 10 years he has established himself as one of the foremost men’s wear designers in the country
Troy Costa: My focus was not on the glamour or the fashion weeks of this country. Once I was able to build a group of tailors who were able to excel in finish and quality and then planned to go to the next step which was starting a made-to-measure label called TroyCosta or TD Costa designs
And Troy’s designs have been donned by Bollywood A-listers including Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor and Arjun Rampal
Troy Costa: We don’t follow any Bollywood diktat as such. Our focus is on making amazing clothes and we also are wanting to dress up Bollywood in a TC signature or a TC style. We don’t want to dress bollywood as per each individual style. That is the only one way we make clothes, tailoring, tailoring and tailoring.
Looking back at the decade spent as a designer, Troy affirms that fashion trends are cyclical in nature
Troy Costa: In 2003, we had the double breasted suit being made a part of the menswear movement then we moved to the single breasted and from 2010-11 going forward we’ve been wanting the double breast to come back and finally its come back in 2013 so that is one aspect. We’ve gone from the small collar in 2003 -2004 to the big collar in 2007-08-09 and we’ve come to the small collar again in 2013. So, that way fashion in a continuous circle its always travelling it goes into various forms it goes into footwear, hairstyles… we had long hair in 2001, and then we had long hair again in 2008-09 and then short hair in 13 and long hair in 16. So it’s constantly evolving but each time taking a new form
His winter festive 2013 collection titled ‘The London Eye’ for men was showcased at the Lakme Fashion week last year and his showstopper was none other than Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Here’s Troy’s take on his latest collection
Troy Costa: It meant that while the merry go round moves you would see color and you’d not see color and technically saying that in menswear fashion color was there in some seasons and then it was not there in some seasons. So, you don’t have color all the time. The man is not a metrosexual like yesteryear, he is ubersexual, he loves his color, he wants it to be a part of his everyday life. He is now more keen on dressing up or doing things of his own unlike yesterday where he asked his wife or his girlfriend to decide or choose his clothes. So, I am seeing a man who has graduated to a more…to a higher level technically.
And we leave you with Troy’s trend predictions for the upcoming season
Troy Costa: Internationally I think there are beautiful trends for menswear and the trends are going to evolve further and further, we have the new wedge brogue which has never been a format for shoes before so this was also showed in the TC London Eye show, coloured wedge. That’s going to be a very big international trend in 2014. The double breasted jacket is going to be a very big trend moving forward. The paisley jacket, the paisley print, all forms of botanical prints in menswear with regards to the shirts being floral based and that’s gonna be a big trend moving forward which is beautiful for menswear, it talks of going away from stripes and checks and creating new spaces with regard to menswear.
Here’s a look at the highlights of the third instalment of the India Runway Week Winter/Festive 2014.
The third season of the India Runway week held in September this year showcased the talent of over 35 young designers in the country. Organized by the Indian Federation for Fashion Development (IFFD), the winter/festive edition of the event was a riot of colors with surreal designs on display along with an amalgamation of traditional and western wear.
Meet Thea and Thomas from the ‘Nordic Kandie Magic’. Retailing out of the Neel Sutra Lounge, Khan Market, Delhi; the duo specializes in exclusive luxury handmade Marzipan delicacies. Offering Marzipan in a variety of flavours ranging from strawberry and rose to the more Indianised spicy flavours, ‘Nordic Kandie Magic’ is sure to surprise your taste buds in ways more than one. Here’s everything you need to know about chocolate-covered Marzipan, that’ll make for the perfect add on with your presents.
Treat your taste buds to a touch of European luxury with lip-smacking handmade Marzipan delicacies! Launched in September this year in the capital, these exclusive gourmet Marzipan bites are a must-try for the Indian palette.
This luxury gourmet delicacy has been a part of the Vogue wedding show earlier this year and has conquered the hearts of many at the event.
The brain behind this sweet delight is the Estonian expatriate, Thea Tammeleht, who has been overwhelmed by the Indian response to her family’s traditional recipe.
Elegantly packaged, Nordic Kandie Magic’s Marzipan makes for a perfect gift through the year but the duo also believes that it could be a great add-on to your wedding invites.
Now, now… we agree we’ve always been Apple lovers. But with the hottest tech update of the year, the iPhone 6 plus has created ripples in the webspace – and not in a good way!
The all-new iPhone 6 plus has been reported to have a ‘Bendy’ characteristic and for the same reason its users have been expressing their unbridled wrath on the internet! Here are a few funny memes or shall we say, RIP posts for that ‘having a new phone’ feeling:
Are you also fed up of waiting for your favourite TV show’s season premiere to come out on torrents? Not anymore! Our favourite family is back on the telly and all you need to do is have a twitter account. Watch the entire #ModernFamily Season 6 premiere right now! Just log on to twitter, follow Star World Premiere, RT, unlock and watch! Don’t believe us? Check it out for yourself! #ModernFamily #SWPCurtainRaiser
This morning while we were going through some reports, our team came across an interesting post on the new iPhone 6 plus. Before you lay your hands on that magnificent beauty that costs a bomb, here’s something you might want to know – IT BENDS!
That’s right. Reportedly the new iPhone 6 plus made with an Aluminum body has a tendency to bend in your pockets! With a certain amount of external force, this iPhone 6 plus might be a shape-shifter in disguise. Here’s a ‘Unbox Therapy’ video that you need to watch.
HBO’s captivating and hilarious TV show, Silicon Valley, has won the hearts of viewers across the globe by turning the spotlight on the interesting journey of a start-up. Here are 7 lessons every growing organisation can take away from the show.
#1 All catchy taglines are always taken
#2 Everyone’s always confused about what your company actually does
#3 There’s always a chance that someone will copy your product
#4 The moment you realise that, your brand new company’s name is already taken!
#5 All start-ups take inspiration from Facebook
#6 All successful companies have logos in lower case letters
As this year marks a decade since the iconic TV series ‘Sex and The City’ ended, we take a look at five outfits from the show that we would want in our wardrobes.
A decade ago Carrie Bradshaw’s tryst with relationships, love and labels finally got its ‘Big’ ending. Besides making us cry, laugh and indulge in delicious gossip, Carrie also revolutionized the way regular women looked at fashion as an extension of their independent, stylish personalities. We spotted the many fashion highs and lows, over six seasons of one of the most iconic TV series, ‘Sex and The City’. Take a look at these five fashion moments from the series that stole the show and the hearts of fashionable women the world over.
First up is the Dolce and Gabanna outfit donned by Carrie for her first ever ‘walk the ramp’ moment on the show. The runway appearance in itself wasn’t very successful but the outfit was sure a head turner!
Source: www.windsorstar.com
Next up is the vintage pin stripe suit she wore while walking Aidan’s dog Pete. A stripe on stripe ensemble with Manolo Blahniks and a Fendi bag made re-defined the way women embraced fashion as a daily way of life.
Source: www.pinterest.com
Third on the list is the iconic Badgley Mischka ‘Carrie’ dress. Post its appearance on the TV show this strapless gown became one of the brand’s best sellers.
Source: www.pinterest.com
For her date with the Russian, Carrie was gifted a stunning pink to-die-for Oscar De La Renta dress which went on to become one of the highest fashion moments of the show. Turns out that the Russian wasn’t the one, but this dress, most certainly was!
Source: lora-myfavouritethings.blogspot.com
Out of the many outstanding outfits sported by Carrie in the show’s Paris stretch, the dusty grey ruffled Versace Couture gown was one that every woman dreams of. This princess gown with its perfect styling made it to the top of our list. In the ten years since the last episode of the show, there has been plenty of debate by fans over whether the men Carrie chose were swoon-worthy at all. Nobody has, however, denied that the dresses and looks she flaunted were stuff that all women’s dreams are made of!
Camino is a new addition to the bustling M-Block Market in GK II. If live music, Peruvian food and some chilled cocktails are your idea of an evening well-spent, then Camino should be your new hangout destination. Located on the second floor, just next to Starbucks, Camino offers live music on Wednesdays and Fridays, an interesting array of signature cocktails and an amazing food selection from cuisines across the world.
Where: M-13, M-Block Market, Greater Kailash (GK) II, New Delhi
Must Try: Camino Signature Cocktails ‘Dee-gab-leo’ and ‘Mr. & Mrs. Mischief’
Cost: Rs.1,500 for two (approx including alcohol)
Opening hours: 11 AM to 1 AM (All days of the week)
As Johnny Depp turns 52, yes 52, we show you how he’s managed to look incredibly hot all along. Here are some tips that all you men out there can use!
Besides being Hollywood’s highest paid actor Johnny Depp has also been voted the Sexiest Man Alive and not just once, twice. On his birthday, we get you a lowdown of the trends inspired by this gorgeous man.
Johnny Depp’s style is characterized by his many hats that he carries with effortless oomph. From fedoras to beanies, this star can make hats look like they belong to the right place.
Short, long, messy, curly, if there’s one actor who can manage to look good in every kind of hair style, it’s Johnny Depp.
Don’t think you are an eyewear person, turn to Depp for inspiration; coloured, nerdy or traditional he can rock all these looks with his special brand of charm.
If you feel accessories were not meant for guys, think again. Here’s how Johnny dons the jewels and makes us swoon.
Lastly, the right attitude. There aren’t a lot of men who would sport their fiancée’s wedding ring with such ease in public.
Meet the man behind ‘Minimal Bollywood Posters’, Akshar Pathak.
He is not only keeping the trend of making Bollywood posters alive but has reinvented the art to suit today’s sensibilities. Film posters are an integral tool used to publicise films. From hand-painted posters in the past, to the motion posters of today, Bollywood posters have undergone many transformations over the years. While minimalism has never been Bollywood’s forte, new-age graphic designer Akshar Pathak uses it as his USP. He focuses on the central theme or motif of a film to design these piquant posters.
Akshar:The main idea in every poster is to have a joke or have something that people can relate to. If a person is going for a movie or if you’re going for a movie or anyoneelse…there’s always one thing that you come out with the movie, one thought that have in your head or one thing you’ll remember forever so the whole point was to just capture that one thought or one moment and that idea into one graphic and just present it to the people, and that’s what it is, nothing else.
Log on to www.minimalbollywood.com and explore Bollywood through the eyes of this 23-year old graphic designer for whom designing Bollywood posters is a hobby and it’s something that he stumbled upon by chance.
Akshar:None of this was actually planned, it’s very“one evening I am just sitting I have nothing to do at home so I am surfing stuff on the internet”and I came across these posters by Ibraheem Youssef and also I saw a few posters on Behance which had superheroes but superheroes were shown in a very minimal way so there were about 6 of those posters andI saw those and I thought “this can be done to Bollywood posters as well”. And that’s how I started it.
Using social media to publicise his art, Akshar hit bull’s eye when he was roped in by Mira Nair to design posters for her 2013 film ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’. That’s not all, film maker Subhash Ghai commissioned him to design posters for 15 films. As for his personal favourites ‘Mr. India’ and ‘Sholay’ top the list.
Akshar:My favourite would be the‘Mr India’one.Soit’s a blank poster where there’s the hero and there’s a red strip in the middle where you can see him. Besides that I really like the poster of ‘Sholay’,also because the guy I had shown is pretty insignificant in the movie so he has about like no dialogues.Soit’s just a poster of that guy sitting on top of the hill.
Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has graduated from playing blink-and-miss roles to being the most-looked-forward-to element in highly acclaimed films. His journey may have been a spectacular one but his humble demeanour reveals how he hasn’t let fame get the better of him.
He smiles self-effacingly as he shares how his journey began in a small town where his only cinematic exposure was to “C-grade” films. “I grew up in a place where most people are farmers. I had no intentions of getting into films. I was never chosen in any audition or through photos,” Siddiqui laughs. He still feels that he hasn’t discovered his true potential as an actor and this is what drives him.
The 39-year old Siddiqui started his career in the film industry with a bit role in Aamir Khan-starrer ‘Sarfarosh’ way back in 1999. Siddiqui shares, yet again in his signature unassuming tone, that he only got this chance because the other actor who was cast for the role didn’t turn up for the shoot. Even though his role was for a short duration of about 40 seconds, it did open the gates for more opportunities. Anurag Kashyap got a peak at Siddiqui’s performance and promised him a role in whichever film he would direct in the future.
Kashyap kept his promise and gave Nawazuddin Siddiqui three scenes in ‘Black Friday’. The actor, at that time, was overjoyed at the chance and still considers it his real big break in Bollywood.
When Nawazuddin made his way to Mumbai after having graduated from the National School of Drama in New Delhi, the reception he received from his friends was less than encouraging. “Since I was a trained actor, I was confident that I would find work in a jiffy. But when I reached Bombay, my bubble burst. Even the warmth I expected from my old friends seemed to have dried up with the heated pace of life in Bombay,” he reminisces.
The struggle to establish himself as an actor continued and it was only in 2012 with full-fledged roles in films like Ashim Ahluwalia’s ‘Miss Lovely’, Prashant Bhargava’s ‘ Patang’ and Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur Part 2’ that Nawazuddin got his due.
But essaying the role of Faisal Khan in Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur gave Siddiqui sleepless nights, quite literally! “The first two days, I simply couldn’t understand the nuances of the character. Then Anurag sat me down and told me that the problem was that I was making the portrayal of power too overt. It had to be extremely subtle.”
“I kept mulling over Anurag’s words throughout the night. They kept bothering me. ‘Why couldn’t I be like Faisal Khan? Why can’t I fathom the scope of his power?’ These thoughts kept me up all night and I reached the set without having slept a wink,” he adds.
Over the sleepless night, Siddiqui had to convince himself that he was a powerful man, that he was the veritable Faisal Khan! Once he gave the shot with this conviction at heart, Anurag was satisfied and the rest, as they say, is history!
While his role in ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ was that of a passive aggressive character, his role in Sujoy Ghosh’s ‘Kahaani’ was that of a man who only used aggression to get his way.
Siddiqui himself was a little surprised when Ghosh approached him for the role of a controlling, forceful cop. This role helped both Siddiqui and the audiences in learning that he could do more than just essaying soft roles. The frustration of being stereotyped that was creeping in within the actor finally found a cure. “I think it was my real-life frustration at being given roles where I’m usually bullied, that helped me play the aggressive character better,” he surmises.
Today, there is no shortage of critical praise for Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s work. But one role which made even an accomplished actor like him nervous was walking the ramp for designer Troy Costa as his showstopper at the Lakme Fashion Week last year.
Troy Costa shares with us the reason behind his unexpected choice:“When I met Nawazuddin, he embodied a certain quality about himself that brought me back to who I was when I left home at 17. His raw earthiness reminded me of the days when I couldn’t own a machine. When I spoke to him that evening it brought back many memories for me of 14-15 years ago. Perhaps, this is what spurred my choice.”
Nawazuddin, is a trendsetter in his own right who started with small roles but can carry off the role of the leading man effortlessly today. His flawless depiction of a range of characters and the depth that he brings to all of them has made him a favourite with ardent fans and connoisseurs of Hindi Cinema alike!
After launching his campaign against rape and gender discrimination called MARD last year, filmmaker, actor and singer Farhan Akhtar has also started touring colleges across the country with his new band called ‘Farhan Live’. According to Farhan, it is a collaborative effort with other musicians and the endeavour aims to spread awareness against gender discrimination through a number of live performances. ‘Farhan Live’ has been endorsed by many celebrities including Preity Zinta, Shaan, Mahesh Babu and Yuvraj Singh.
Farhan:Felt very correct because it also timed itself with spreading the MARD message. You know where we are going around and narrating the poem, talking to various institutions about gender equality and things. So it all fell together at a very important time, I think, in my life as well as what’s going on around us.
The campaign was a big hit on social networking sites and a number of celebrities including Shaan, Mahesh Babu, Yuvraj Singh and Preity Zinta pledged their support for the cause. But Farhan believes it’s a slow process and a significant change in perception will take a long time.
Farhan:We are just here to keep talking about things and keep putting a light on issues that affect us all. So my belief is that the change we want to see can only happen on a huge level as a generational change.
Meanwhile, Farhan admits that performing some of the hit numbers from his films has given him the opportunity to interact with the youth and this experience is far more enjoyable than recording the songs in a studio.
Farhan:Performing live, of course,is way more enjoyable than being in a studio and singing, for sure. We are always looking forward to engaging with thecrowd, you know,interacting with them and there’s so much exchange that happens… of energy between the people who are listening and us, performing on stage. But at the same time if you hadn’t done that singing in the studio there won’t be a live song to do on stage.
Farhan is a trendsetter in his own right. His 2001 cult film ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ was instrumental in setting the tone for future urban dramas in Bollywood and his latest effort, which involves spreading a social message through live performances, is yet another noble endeavour.
And here’s Farhan’s take on what he enjoys doing the most, considering he is not just a filmmaker but an actor, singer and an activist, all rolled into one!
Farhan:It’s very difficult to say which one is better… which one is more satisfying than the other. They are all a part of me.They are all different forms of expressions from the same person so it’s very-very difficult to segregate them.
