Mumbai: The Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015, beginning here on Wednesday, will mark the completion of 15 years of the bi-annual event. To celebrate the milestone, a heady mix of upcoming and veteran talent is ready to create a benchmark of diversity and creativity in fashion at the five-day gala.
“Our commitment to the business of fashion has made us the platform of choice for established Indian designers from all over the world. We will present five stunning offsite shows this season, including India’s first Instagram show with a stellar line-up of top Indian designers,” Saket Dhankar, Head-Fashion at IMG Reliance told IANS.
As many as 83 designers and 15 sponsors will participate in Summer/Resort 2015 edition of LFW. The names include those like Raghavendra Rathore, Tarun Tahiliani and Wendell Rodricks, Kiran Uttam Gosh, Krishna Mehta, Manish Malhotra, Suneet Verma, and Shivan & Narresh.
Apart from such big names, 16 models are set to debut at the fashion event along with 39 new and upcoming designers, who will showcase their creations in the Emerging category at the JABONG Stage, one of the show areas at the event.
What is unique about this season are the four offsite shows of some of the prominent names in the fashion world. While Anamika Khanna will present her Sculpt line at the grand finale show at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Sabyasachi Mukherjeee will open the season with an offsite show as well at Richardson & Cruddas.
Talking about the grand finale designer, Purnima Lamba, head of Innovation at Lakme said: “On this special occasion of Lakme Fashion Week’s 15th anniversary, Lakme is proud to showcase ‘Sculpt’ – our fashion forecast for 2015. Anamika’s craftsmanship lends itself seamlessly to bringing alive this cutting-edge trend forecast at the grand finale.”
Another offsite show will see designs by Bollywood’s beloved designer Manish Malhotra. His show, titled The Blue Fashion Runway Show, will be sponsored by WEvolve. It will launch the organisation’s global campaign to empowers young men and women to challenge norms that lead to gender-based violence. The best runway faces, popular celebrities and leading personalities from will unite on this global cause while celebrating the promise of a better future.
“We at LFW believe that fashion has a larger role to play in society and for our country. Over the years, Lakme Fashion Week has always taken the lead in standing up for social causes, from The Mai Mumbai Show in 2009 to the Blue Runway Fashion show the coming season. Being a global fashion platform, we take immense pride in lending a voice to such social causes,” added Dhankar.
The business aspect will also be buzzing.
While buyers will range from those in India, Middle-East and Europe, Dhankar says this time, they have expanded the “database by reaching out to an even larger set of buyers from IMG’s global network, including Berlin Fashion Week and Sydney Fashion Week and are approaching new e-commerce retailers”.
“These are some initiatives we have taken to meet our long-term objective of democratizing Indian fashion,” Dhankar said.
An increase in interest from boutique owners in tier-II cities like Nagpur, Surat, Goa and Ahmedabad, has also been witnessed.
LFW will also mark the debut of a fast growing European fashion house Tom Tailor in the Indian commercial market. It is coming in partnership with JABONG this season at Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015. They will present an urban-chic collection.
Another international brand, Miss Bennett will present its summer-resort collection at the fashion gala.
Adding more spark to the gala will be the glamorous Gauri Khan, wife of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, showcasing a special Satya Paul summer-resort collection.
Continuing the trend of supporting of Indian textile, known designer Raghavendra Rathore will showcase his regal collection to close Indian Textile Day, a unique property pays tribute to the rich heritage of Indian hand-woven luxury every season.
Designers like Anavila Misra, Deepika Govind, Ghosh, Soumitra Mondal, and Shruti Sancheti among others will present India’s indigenous textiles in varied silhouettes.

Anushka Sharma’s maiden production venture NH10 that also features the actress in the lead role released on Friday last week. While the film that has been gathering steam much before its release opened on a less than expected note, it has managed to fare well over the weekend.

In this Box Office analysis we take a look at the collections of NH10 while comparing it to previously released films this year. However, despite the immense hype surrounding NH10, the film managed to rake in just Rs. 13.30 cr over the weekend. Though the film recorded collections higher than releases like Alone that collected Rs. 11.5 crores, Dolly Ki Doli that collected Rs. 10.75 crores, I that managed Rs. 6.75 crores and Khamoshiyan that collected Rs. 6.67 crores, it fails to surpass releases like Baby (Rs. 36.07 crores), Roy (Rs. 28.68 crores), Badlapur (Rs. 23.5 crores), and Tevar (Rs. 22.05 crores).

However, since the film is still running in theatres and has been gaining appreciation from the audience, what’s left to be seen is whether the collections of NH10 manage to surpass other big releases in the days to come.

Movie Name Release Opening Weekend
Baby 23-Jan-15 36.07
Roy 13-Feb-15 28.68
Badlapur 20-Feb-15 23.5
Tevar 9-Jan-15 22.05
NH10 13-Mar-15 13.30
Shamitabh 6-Feb-15 13.25
Alone 16-Jan-15 11.5
Dolly Ki Doli 23-Jan-15 10.75
I (Hindi) 16-Jan-15 6.75
Khamoshiyan 30-Jan-15 6.67

The high-flying actress stars in the luxury airline’s latest campaign.
Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman is adding a new title to her already-impressive resume: airline ambassador.

The 47-year-old Paperboy star is now starring in a new campaign for Abu Dhabi-based luxury airline Etihad Airways.

The ad campaign, which was released on Saturday, shows Nicole on board the airline’s Airbus A380.
The actress stars in and narrates the advertisement, which is set to reach television and social media as well as other print and digital outlets.

“I spend so much time flying just because of my job, and also because I am a traveler and I am curious about the world,” she told The National of her new gig.

GALLERY: 12 things you didn’t know about Nicole Kidman

Etihad chief commercial officer Peter Baumgartner said the actress was ‘perfect’ for the job.

“Nicole Kidman, as a globally respected artist was the perfect voice and face for our story and embodies worldly sophistication, intelligence, originality and elegance — values which form the foundation of the Etihad brand.”

Three national award-winning actresses of Bengali films — Roopa Ganguly, Rituparna Sengupta and Indrani Halder — have joined hands for a women-centric film.

Aro Ekdin deals with the lives and careers of three friends who rediscovered their personal bonding.

“Rupadi, Indrani and I was never cast in the same film. We three had never shared screen space,” said Rituparna. Adding that in Aro Ekdin, a film about the quest of love and understanding, they looked at life’s feel-good factor from their perspective.

“In Piyalir Password, Rupadi was my elder sister. In Dahan, I had worked with Indrani. There is no competition but a positivity on the sets now,” she said.

Rituparna is also working in Srijit Mukherjee’s Partition-based film Rajkahini. The actress, whose character Jhumur is the youngest of the lot in the film, found it challenging to imbibe the traits and mannerisms of her character – in a word living with the character she was not in real life.

“Rupadi essays my senior in college in this film and Indrani is my elder sister Malobika,” she said. Admitting it was a challenging task to assemble three national awardees in a single film, debutant director John Halder said it was a treat to watch them improvise during the takes.

Actress Sayani Ghosh is the youngest face in the all-women group.

Bollywood actress Nimrat Kaur, who turned 33 today, celebrated her birthday on the sets of upcoming film “Airlift” along with co-star Akshay Kumar.
The “Lunchbox” star and the team of the film are currently shooting in the Middle East.
Nimrat Kaur posted on twitter:
Bringing it in with a gorgeous Middle East sunrise,a first working birthday for me!Tonnes of love and warmth to everyone sending in wishes❤️
— Nimrat Kaur (@NimratOfficial) March 13, 2015
Directed by Raja Krishna Menon, “Airlift” is said to be based on the Indians who were stuck in Kuwait during the Gulf War.

Mumbai: Popular fashion designer Masaba Gupta, daughter of veteran actress Neena Gupta and cricketer Vivian Richards, has got engaged to her beau Madhu Mantena, a film producer, at a ceremony here.

“Kal hamaari sagai thi. Aaj hum khush hain. Aur 7 din mein hamaara show hai! Thank you for the love, now back to wrk,” Masaba, who is widely known for her quirky designs and colourful prints, posted on Twitter on Wednesday, along with a photograph of herself all decked up for her special day.

For her engagement, Masaba flaunted an ebony and ivory neoprene lehenga by designer duo Shivan and Naresh. The ensemble, though elegant, was a far cry from the blast of colours that the young designer often uses on her own creations.

Masaba, a former fashion director at label Satya Paul, had been dating Mantena — who has produced films like “Ghajini” and “Rann” in the past, and is associated with Phantom Films — for some time before they got engaged on Tuesday.

Their engagement celebration, held at rooftop restaurant and lounge Asilo, was attended by celebrities including Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt and Huma Qureshi. Huma stepped out wearing an Anita Dongre creation for the engagement.

“We loved hosting -@MasabaG& -#MadhuMantena’s engagement at -#ASILO last evening. Congratulations to the lovely couple,” read a tweet from the official Twitter handle of Asilo.

Masaba will now get back to preparations for her show at the forthcoming edition of the Lakme Fashion Week here next week.

IANS

The Ek Paheli Leela actress has pulled off an act that Dippy is famous for. Read on to find out the full story!
Sunny Leone is currently gearing up for her next erotica, Ek Paheli Leela and we hear Deepika Padukone was an inspiration for one of her sensuous acts in the film. Yes, that’s right! Dr Zeus, who had composed Deepika’s Lovely track in Happy New Year, made this recent revelation stating that he has tried idolising Sunny as Dippy, in his latest chartbuster Meri Desi Look from Ek Paheli Leela.

Talking to a leading daily, the popular singer reasoned about the same and said, “In its idea, drum beats and choice of instruments, Meri desi look is strongly inspired by Happy New Year’s Lovely. I have plenty of other sounds in my repertoire too, but since I’m new to Bollywood, after seeing the Lovely visuals of Deepika (Padukone), I felt Sunny Leone too needed a song with the same swag and swing.”

Well, the idea certainly seems to have worked big time! Fans are totally loving Sunny in Desi Look and is getting massive hits on YouTube. However, it’s to be noted that this isn’t the only Sunny Leone number that’s borrowed its inspiration from an original track. The Ragini MMS2 actress has also reprised Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Dholi Taro in another track from Ek Paheli Leela. This only makes us curious, who’s next on Sunny’s list?

Soni Razdan’s Love Affair, a fictionalised version of the infamous Nanavati murder case that rocked the nation in 1959, is going on the floors this month. And leading lady Kalki Koechlin is prepping to step into the glamorous shoes of the leading lady, a character inspired by Sylvia Nanavati.

Sylvia, the English wife of Indian naval commander KM Nanavati, found herself at the centre of a passion crime, after her extramarital affair took a violent turn when her husband, caught her and her paramour redhanded and gunned him down.

Soni says that Kalki is the perfect fit for the complex role. “The character is a sexy siren who battles intense loneliness. Her marriage is on the rocks and she’s pushed to a point where she seeks companionship outside marriage. The film examines the nature of a marriage and what we, as individuals, expect from it.” When asked whether Kalki, whose parents are French expats, was cast because of her foreign lineage, Soni replied, “Yes. Kalki is of foreign origin, yet speaks great Hindi. That’s a rare combination. Also, I was impressed by her previous performances and knew she could carry off the part.”

The film will see the actress pair up with Ali Fazal, who plays her lover and Gulshan Deviah, who plays her husband. Ali Fazal replaced Arjun Rampal who opted out over remuneration issues. Did the change in cast lead to any script rewrites? “Absolutely none!” retorts Soni.
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Did Naomi Campbell and Cara Delevingne get into a physical fight over Rihanna? Sources claim the models were involved in an altercation during a Paris Fashion Week party on Sunday. Campbell has since denied the allegations.

A witness told Page Six that Campbell got upset when she thought Delevingne said “something negative” about their mutual pal Rihanna. Campbell allegedly pushed her fellow model, and Delevingne unsuccessfully tried to pull off Campbell’s weave in response.

“It was a noisy and packed party,” one source said of this alleged catfight at the Castel nightclub. “Naomi was saying all these nonsensical things, she was ranting. There was a messy pushing match. Cara didn’t understand because there’s no problem between her and Rihanna. Cara didn’t want to be involved and was telling Naomi, ‘Get away from me!’”
But another insider defended Naomi Campbell’s actions at the bash for Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Magazine.“Naomi didn’t do anything wrong.,” this source added. “We are talking about a very tiny club in Paris with a very busy table — if someone pushes someone, it’s because there is no space.”

Cara Delevingne didn’t seem too fazed by the allegations when she walked in a Chanel show on Tuesday. And both she and the Empire actress denied the rumors on their Twitter pages.

Los Angeles: Actor Ryan Reynolds has praised “The Voices” co-star Anna Kendrick for her kissing skills.

When a tweeter reached out to Reynolds asking what it was like to kiss the “Pitch Perfect 2” star, he said: “It was like taking your face to Awesometown”, reports people.com.

In “The Voices”, Reynolds plays a factory worker who meets a bubbly love interest (Kendrick) at the office. He turns out to be a serial killer whose talking pets convince him to murder people.