PlayingFrozen Music
I am a channel to receive creativity," says Swami Devi Tarshito (whose passportname is an unlikely Nicola Strippoli). This disciple of Osho, an architect by training andinterior designer by learning, was seen last week—in red trousers and an iridescentviolet shirt—at the inauguration of The Gold and the Clay: Confluence ofTraditions. But Tarshito’s personal outré seemed a bit jaded in comparison tohis works, which were variously described in glowing terms, ranging from breathless toapproving.
These included candles the size of humans, ceramic turtles, a wicker boat with a gong (something the kids found immensely engaging), gold-plated pottery and Madhubani and Kantha wall-hangings with quirky designs. The star exhibit, however, was a huge shrine of candles that produced light, heat, a shower of wax and, of course, a bagful of compliments. This energetic confluence was made possible with craftspeople from India, Nepal, Tibet and Tarshito’s native Italy, and presided over by the Italian embassyand the ministry of textiles. It was all meant to be, says Tarshito, a tribute to thepeople with a "gift to transform materials". However, that gift required a dashof ideating, which the architect-turned-collaborator gladly provided. The result, asDelhiites will be able to see till May end, is unprecedented originality.
Dhiraj Singh
Keys To Her Success
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan applauded energetically, as did the invited audience which satspellbound through a 40-minute performance by French pianist Arianne Gray Hubert at theFrench Embassy in New Delhi recently. Hubert enthralled with her technical virtuositysliding from Bach, Beethoven to Scribin with an ease of a trapeze artiste. The buddingstar has in the past few weeks performed at Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. But that’snot all, the real test, she says, is to compose music for Bollywood. Is Anu Maliklistening?
Bishwadeep Moitra
Getting Hot Over Cold Dinks
It’s time for the Coke and Pepsi annual slugfest that starts in April andcontinues right through the festive season of October. But the summer of 2001 will be abit different, ostensibly because of two diametrically opposite marketing gameplans.Market leader Coca-Cola India, which notched up sales of 190 million cases across thecountry for a 14 per cent growth last year, says it will aim to increase profits throughits newly devised ‘hub and spoke’ gameplan that focuses primarily on thecountry’s burgeoning rural bazaar (villages with a population of less than 5,000), amarket many say continues to remain largely untapped.
The company, say insiders, alsoplans to launch a health drink (Lift), new variants (orange, mango and pineapple) of itsMaaza brand and 500 ml Kinley bottled water at a low of Rs 4 per bottle.
Pepsi, which also notched up impressive sales last year, calls its move ‘shoulders of the season’ and wants to ride the forthcoming domestic cricket season with its carryaway 1.5 litre pet bottles that will now be available with freebies like chocolates and candies.
"Each summer is a different summer and a new battle because sales peak. Our urban base did not increase last year as per our expectations. The cricket season is starting and we would definitely like to cash in," remarks PepsiCo India executive director (marketing) Vibha Paul Rishi. The cola giants are fast realising that instead of trading charges over ad campaigns, it’s important to penetrate areas where chances of success are high.
Shantanu Guha Ray
Glamour Clamour
It was an art show with more beautiful people than paintings, what with Bollywood stars Rekha and Feroze Khan and the fashion world’s Rohit Bal alongside Delhi’s beautiful set gathering at India Habitat’s art gallery to celebrate the birth of an artist from their own midst.
The invites for Laila Khan Rajpal’s first solo show took care to spell out that the opening would be "at 7 pm sharp". It had little effect: Laila’s father and chief guest Feroze Khan walked in with the other chief guest, Rekha, more than 40 minutes late. But he made up by complimenting his daughter on the impressive turnout: "More than I got for my first film." Not that Laila’s works were any less eyecatching, with ghostly Meena Kumaris flitting among Roman ruins, but the audience won hands down, especially when reclusive beauties like Dilshad Khan and her daughter as well as cousin Suzanne, Hrithik Roshan’s bride, entered in a show of the legendary Khan khandaan solidarity.
Sheela Reddy
Image To The I-Max
Men are obsessed with size alright. And so there’s the Adlabs promoter ManmohanShetty’s grand imax dome in Mumbai. Built at a cost of over Rs 50 crore, the imaxdome-screen spreads over 13,700 sq ft and its theatre can seat 520 people. It was thrownopen to the public by CM Vilasrao Deshmukh. Since Bharat Bala seems to have patented theexhibition of that slice of digital India where rural folks walk in long lines and darkchildren laugh for no reason, it was not surprising that one of the inaugural films washis India on imax. He has already been commissioned to direct the first exclusive Indianimax film, which will star Aishwarya Rai as the lead. The two imax flicks being shown noware Mysteries of Egypt and Blue Planet. Shetty plans to stretch thetheatre into a multiplex, which will seat over 1,300. Only he wanted the CM to cut adifferent kind of red tape. Deshmukh promised to look into it. Now to if he keeps hisword…
Manu Joseph
Express Intent
They’re calling it the ideal marketing exercise. And if successful, it could be aclassic deal for the record books in India’s Rs 3,500-crore cargo business. Federal Express, which works in India through a tie-up with Blue Dart and dominates more than 60 per cent of the domestic market, wants a bigger share of the Indian pie. All this through a magazine that will tell Indian clothes makers everything about global fashion (read exports). But aren’t there enough magazines on the subject? Not so, because FedEx honchos believe a magazine will help their company target designers with exports on their minds. With Ritu Beri and Co’s recent overtures to the lucrative West, this one may just be a great idea.
Shantanu Guha Ray
A Show Of Flaming Passions
A bright shaadi ka mandap and bottles of bubbly from Moet & Chandon to go with it,all set up in a five-star discotheque—the perfect setting, one would say, for atypical Delhi wedding evening. This one, though was a departure from the usual—it wasdesigner Suneet Varma’s bold dedication to a certain businessman, Vikas Malhotra, whotags along with him to invariably all parties. His latest muse and "notboyfriend", as the designer has graciously clarified.
Beyond that, Varma’s ‘Raptures’, his new spring-summer collection whichwas unveiled in New Delhi’s Hyatt Regency last week, had all that one has come toexpect from the master designer—splashes of bright colours, amber chiffons andgeorgettes embellished with coloured beaded work and embroidery. The overplay of orange,yellow and pink on the short tunics with pants and two-piece sarees lent a young andbreezy air to the evening’s show. And yes, there were the churidars too. It all wentwell with the mood that the designer appears to be in these days. For, Varma says that heis feeling rapturous, and the thanks for that went to Malhotra, for all his support and‘inspiration’.
"These days I am creating and am not at all bothered about selling. I am doing itfor myself," says Varma. And the show was a testimony to the designer’s labourof love—the sequences were pretty, the women even prettier. The clothes? They werebeautiful, and shouted of femininity and wearability.
Bobby John Varkey
