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The weather may be limping towards
summer and Indian tourists are swamping London, like every
year. With Sensation 2005 taking place we have also had
an overflow of Bollywood stars, including Shah Rukh Khan,
Salman Khan and Rani Mukherjee. The other day, while travelling
in a minicab, the Afghan driver, seemed delighted that
I was an Indian and went on to tell me how he sees every
Bollywood film and loves Indian actors. His favourites
were Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor, he informed me
very thoughtfully.
Then, suddenly he yanked out his mobile
and after fidgeting with it for a while I was getting
nervous that his interest in his mobile may be a traffic
hazard for me, he showed me a photograph of Shah Rukh
Khan. But his aim of showing the photograph, which he
clicked while waiting to collect a passenger at Heathrow,
and saw King Khan arriving, was that he felt let down.
I always thought he was a big man, but he isn't, moaned
the driver. He is not as good-looking as he seems in the
films. "It's really upsetting," he said. Although
he was not prepared to delete the picture from the phone,
he said, he'd rather keep the big-screen image of Khan
in his heart.
One star tale that is about to be unveiled
and will be eagerly awaited will be the biography of none
other than Amitabh Bachchan. The news that his younger
brother Ajitabh is working on a biography of the Big B
has naturally taken the media by storm. Although there
have already been about five biographies on the superstar,
voted as the most famous actor in a BBC poll beating even
Lawrence Olivier, the forthcoming one will naturally stand
out because it will be written by a person who can be
described as the wind beneath the wings of an executive
from Kolkata, who gave him flight to become an icon of
modern-day India.
Also for serious-minded readers it will
come as a revelation to learn of the close relationship
and then the falling out of two of India's premier families
- the Nehru-Gandhis and the Bachchans. Some in the media
are speculating it would be a hatchet job by an embittered
brother - that the two brothers are no longer close is
a known fact - but friends close to Ajitabh believe that
will not be the case. Instead, it is a mammoth task taken
up by the brother of one of India's most admired national
figures and the son of the highly renowned poet, Dr Harivansh
Rai Bachchan.
Right now, though Britain's Bollywood
and India craze continues. High-street fashion is dominated
by India. Embroidered lehangas are the popular long skirts
of this season. All fashion conscious females have a range
of jootis, but of course bought at exorbitant prices.
It is shocking to see the profit shoe-stores are making
on these items. A few months ago I picked some jooti's
from Delhi's posh Khan market at below Rs 2,000 a pair,
which definitely have been cheaper if I went looking for
them in Lajpat Nagar, but here stores like LK Bennett
are selling similar pairs priced at £69. And believe
me they are selling like hot cakes this season. But are
these shoe companies paying a better wage to the poor
workers that are making them in India or Pakistan? I doubt
it.
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