China House Turns Two & Yuvi Gets Jiggy With It!

missmalini and DJ Clement

The China House 2nd anniversary party at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai last night was quite rocking (even though by the time I got there it was well past 1am.) The good news is DJ Clement D’Souza is back on deck, in fact he flew back yesterday from South Africa after playing at the IPL closing party.

Rocky S.

Shamita Singha, Marc Robinson (far right)

Shamita Singha

Suved Lohia and Yuvraj Singh

missmalini & The Heiress

Bhisham Mansukhani

The first person I spotted in the crowd was Rocky S. (designer extraordinaire) who very sweetly wished me happy birthday with a hug. Marc Robinson and Shamita Singha meanwhile were having an animated conversation across the bar while Ashish Raheja was tucked away in one of his VIP boxes entertaining someone (undoubtedly of the female persuasion.) Suved Lohia (who always makes me feel like the sunshine girl) gave me another ego plumping pep-chat and The Heiress Aishwarya Nair was her usual happy-shiny self accompanied by the ever-smiling Bhisham Mansukhani who was quite pleased with China House’s selection of wines and raved about them a fair bit.

Anupam Sehgal

The Bouncers

Apart from one shiny happy PR manager Anupam Sehgal I even managed to get the bouncers to crack a smile as they played watch dog from the stairs (although I think one of them thought I was shooting someone behind him!)

missmalini and Yuvraj Singh

The crowning glory of the nights celebrity spotting however goes to Yuvraj Singh who’s back in boom-town to party it up as usual. (I didn’t see Kim Sharma though so unless she’s travelling maybe they’re not back together after all.) She doesn’t really strike me as the sort of girl who would let her man out and about to open bar and willing babes all alone so readily! But it was another case of camera cringe when I asked him to pose alone, he was already pretty suspicious when I took the birds eye view shot I think… and Ajaz Khan who claimed to be his bodyguard (I Googled him, apparently he’s a small time TV soap star from Ahmedabad.) piped up, “No Yuvraj, you never know on the Internet…” He finally agreed to let me pose along-side him (brilliant plan Ajaz but have you never heard of Photoshop?!) Funnily enough Ajaz was quite willing to pose all by himself when I told him I was technically the paparazzi. (What a cheeseball.)

Ajaz Khan

Funnily enough he called me today (in my defence I exchanged numbers with him in hopes of getting some fly-on-the-wall gossip which I’m hoping Malaika’s man Nilesh will give me too.) He said he called to see if I remembered him and after 3 seconds of awkward silence asked where I live, I vaguely said “town” and so he asked “do you have friends in Andheri?” confused I blurted out, “no, not really” to which I got the killer response, “you do now!” Uh oh.

GQ Bar Night glitterati turnout…

Pictures! Pictures! GQ’s bar night got the glitterati willing to sweat like horses (and around them) all for a chance to rub shoulders with Gerard Butler on Wednesday night!

Gregory David

Karishma Tanna

Gregory Gerard and Anthony

Pratima Bhatia

Raja Dodhy

RJ Tarana

Amrit Maghera

Srinivasan Jain

Che Kurien

Shruti Sharma

Yash and Avanti Birla

Ashwin Deo

Narendra Kumar and Chef Max

Yash Birla

Niketan Madhok

Ashish Raheja

Ramona and Bruno

Bunty Walia with wife

A.D. Singh

Gerard Butler

Gregory and the princess

Gautam Singhania and A.D. Singh

Gregory, Gerard and Anthony

And here’s the dope: Fantastic turnout. Hosted by AD Singh and Che Kurrien, the event saw the creme de la creme of the city. The highlight however was undoubtedly, Hollywood superstar Gerard Butler (of 300, Phantom of the Opera and Rock n Rolla fame.) Riding in on a motorcycle soon after Gerard was Gregory David Roberts (Shantaram) with wife, Princess (really?) Francoise Sturdza and the third unexpected guest of the evening was Anthony Mandler (renowned Hollywood Music Director known especially for his work with R&B artist Rihanna.) Other guests included Deveika and Suresh Bhojwani (recently spotted on their way back from Goa), Alex Kuruvilla, Gautam Singhania, Yash (that shirt) and Avanti Birla, Ashwin Deo, Raja Dhody, Niketan Madhok, Narendra Kumar, Farokh Chotia, Sreenivasan Jain, Ashish Raheja, Ananya Bannerjee, Pratima and Gaurav Bhatia and Ramona Narang and Bruno and several more from the fashion and entertainment fraternity were in attendance including RJ Tarana Raja Kapoor (love the cutesy half smile), Karishma Tanna, After Hours hostess Amrit Maghera, Shruti Sharma, Vipasha Aggarwal, Monikangana Dutta, Priya Reddy, Inder Bajwa and more. Others who were at the event included Farokh Chotia, Sreenivasan Jain, Ashish Raheja, Ananya Bannerjee, Pratima and Gaurav Bhatia and Ramona Narang and Bruno. The eclectic mix of people, surprise guests and the IPL and Football action enhanced by the GQ glam quotient made for an evening of devilishly haute fun. (Oh and the percussionist was the bomb.)

And guess what? You know how I’m always saying the press kit has all the posed out pictures? Well check it out they’re getting cheeky and I like it!

Bombay-Girl’s Birthday Bash!

Ash Chandler and Reshma Bombaywala

Reshma Bombaywala returned to the Mumbai party circuit with an intimate birthday party last night at Aurus, Mumbai looking absolutely stunning and accompanied by her hunky beau Dimi Lezinska (who used his bartending skills to rustle up some fabulous  shots.) Funnily enough a few days ago at a Swarovski soiree the shutterbugs got all excited to see her and assumed she and Ash Chandler are an item simply because they arrived together. I can tell you for a fact that’s totally not true. In fact Ash is quite head over feet about the charming stylist and designer Junelia Aguiar (who by far is on of the sweetest girls I have I ever met.) Remember you heard it here first!

Ash Chandler and Junelia Aguiar

Ashish Raheja (left)

Yudhistir (far right)

Farhan Akhtar (right)

Fahad Samar and Ash Chandler

Reshma Bombaywala and T.C.

Ash Chandler and Kishore F.D.

Reshma Bombaywala, Junelia Aguiar and Alon Mooleman

T.C. and Brian Brown

Also spotted, Ashish Raheja (who I will forever remember as “Sheesh”), Brian Brown (who just made it to my “lame lush list” with his dorky pick up attempt – which I think he thought was super funny – “Look, I’m married” with a wink. Ugh.) Espresso king Alon Mooleman (who’s promised to send me pictures of his futuristic espresso machine which has a fancy name and even comes in pink!),  Farhan Akhtar (Oh. My. God. I did a total double take when I realized this very chilled out chap hanging in the corner was the Rock On! eye candy himself), Kishore D.F. (remember Seijo and the Soul Dish in Bandra, Mumbai? I miss that place), Yudhisthir Urs (who had apparently just arrived from a very successful cooking-while-drinking session and seemed adorably plastered), Fahad Samar (who I had a delightful conversation with about books. I don’t mean to sound like a literary snob or anything but lets face, it on the whole glitterati circuit there is a fine line between people who can read and those who do read!), Nikasha Tawadey and T.C. and Nathalie Ressencourt De Sousa (who’s Cafe Goa you should check out the next time you’re in Bandra, Mumbai.)

T.C., Junelia Aguiar and Nathalie Ressencourt De Sousa

Celebrity Lost and Found (Part III)
Kamal Sadhana (Remember him?) who made his major debut opposite Kajol in Bekhudi (which I quite enjoyed back in the day) and then slowly faded into oblivion through a series of random movies titled Rang, Baali Umar Ko Salaam, Hum Sab Chor Hain, Rock Dancer, Angaara, Hum Hain Premi, Nirnayak, Mohabbat Aur Jung, Kaali Topi Lal Rumaal, Kasamh Se (a TV series) and Victoria No. 203: Diamons Are Forever also why do I feel like he was in Maachis? (Don’t him and Chandrachur Singh have the exact same slightly “lost boy” vibe?)

(circled) Kamal Sadhana

Fahad Samar and Kamal Sadhana

Chandrachur Singh

Sheesh Ashish.

Ashish Raheja

Here’s the scoop on my Goa run-in with the notorious Mr. Ashish Raheja. After introducing us to his “wife” Monique (a pretty Australian model he’s been seeing lately) he proceeded to make a variety of wildly inappropriate sexual comments – involving her – for (what I can only imagine was) entertainment value and went on to insinuate that any girl who didn’t throw herself at him was probably a lesbian (or just a little out of touch with Page 3 perhaps?) At any rate for someone considered to be one of India’s most eligible bachelors I’m really not that surprised he’s single!