Mumbai’s nightlife goes into pre-monsoon overdrive!

So now that I’m all caught up on my blog let me just tell you what an amazingly hectic weekend I’ve had! Friday night: Cafe Goa, Poison, after-party @ Ken’s. Saturday: (Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, Aroma Thai for foot massage) Zenzi Mills, China House, Bling, 7am breakfast buffet @ Leela Kempinski (again!)

For some reason Saturday night in Mumbai was just a little extra rocking. In fact everywhere we went was PACKED beyond belief. I even asked some of the club owners if they knew why. Jehan from Blue Frog explained that the 905 people that showed up were on account of French trance DJ Neuromotor who flew down especially for DJ Asad’s birthday (who played the opening set) what a cool birthday prezzie eh? We unfortunately never made it in the line outside looked a little too daunting! Matan Schabracq who’s new branch of Zenzi next to Blue Frog dubbed “Zenzi Mills” joked, “I think it’s because they heard I’m in town again!” (love him!)  and then went on to explain, “No seriously… I have no idea. Maybe because its almost raining and people are gonna be stuck at home then?” Point. Rishi Acharya who’s new club Oba (which has and I repeat; the best hip hop DJ ever) said, “Place was rocking, the whole older social lot were there for dinner and then in the lounge for drinks. Suresh & Meena Raheja, Sidharth Bhandari, Suzie & Deepak Mirchandani and even Upen Patel.”

Naved Jaffery

P.S. I briefly saw a slightly scruffy-cute looking Kelly Dorji at China House (amid the constant stream of people walking up and down (why do they do that?) perhaps not having bothered to shave since ex girlfriend Lara Dutta and ex best friend and Lara’s new boyfriend Dino Morea are still in Macau) and later at Bling last night Naved Jaffery (was wandering around, not really getting noticed but now that I know he was at the opening of the new Indo Afro restaurant earlier that night, the waistcoat makes more sense) Sohail Khan walked in past 2am (flanked by groupies and bodyguards) and Gautam Singhania was the last to leave. Well maybe technically we were, but I saw Rishi Acharya enjoying the Leela breakfast buffet just like us, what a spread and for 800rs  ($17) what a steal! Tonight I had every intention of attending as Chef Max unfurled his monsoon menu at Olive, Bandra (and as I mentioned A.D. and Sabina Singh played host come rain or shine) but I’m just too partied out! As Garfield once wisely said; “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!” Tomorrow night I’m on air on 94.3 Radio One with Twitter Tunes, my buddy Chetan’s cricket commentary and live Tarot readings with Lara Shah so tune in, we’ll party. This Wednesday Shamita Singha is hosting the launch of another Sobo (i.e. South Mumbai for the uninitiated) lounge and Something Relevant are playing are Blue Frog (Yesssss!) I’ll be there and not be square.

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!

Socialite Supercars

Arjan Bajwa posing with Gallardo Coupe

Adar Poonawala with his Ferrari 430 Spyder 2

BMW M6 Cabrio

Rolls Royce Phantom

Ariel Atom 3

Raj Kundra with his Audi r8

Gallardo Spyder

Narain Karthikeyan

Lamborghini Galloardo Coupe

Vijay Path,Guatam Singhania with Arjan Bajwa

On a sweltering Sunday morning people actually ventured out of there air conditioned homes for an adrenalin rush powered by some of the cities big boys in their fast cars. The Shell Helix Motor Oils, Parx Super Car Show had the cities rich and restless and over 60 real life hot wheels all gathered at the Kala Ghoda circle in a spectacular display of super cars (everywhere you looked there were Rolls Royces, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Maseratis, Bentleys, Audis, BMW’s you name it!) before Narain Karthikeyan flagged off the rally (which was more like a parade really) and as all good things do, the afternoon ended with brunch at Joss.

(P.S. Looks like Shiny Ahuja and John Abraham had a last minute change of heart and decided not to show up. I can only imagine what would keep boys from playing with a fleet of sophisticated cars. Either there was a simultaneous bike race or a girl is involved!)

Teejay Siddhu and her husband Manoj Bohra & Chetan Hansraj

Indigo 10th Anniversary Brunch Debrief

I confess I overslept and missed the car rally. In my defense it was because I’ve recently discovered a fantastic party mixer game (delightfully) called Partini and just had to take it for a test run last night. Think of it as a combination of beer pong, charades, karaoke (humming style) and truth or dare which I was playing till almost 5am at a friend’s house (amidst some interesting insights from the boys on their theories on whether “to call or not to call” after a drunken encounter with the opposite sex, simply to provide closure/be a gentleman. Highly classified but oh-so-juicy.) Meanwhile the glitterati (which never rests) was at Good Earth in Parel, Mumbai courtesy Tanya Deol (Bobby Deol’s better half) for a pre-celebration party for the Akerkar’s. So I will get all the speed demon snapshots up here tomorrow, but for now all I can report is what I heard from Gautam Singhania, that it was off the hook!

(As cheesy as that commercial was its actually a LOT of fun.)

Dilip Joshi, Ash Chandler & Gautam Singhania

TC,Pooja Advani & Nathalie

Eventually I made it to Indigo brunch which turned out (as expected) to be another epic afternoon. Narendra Kumar Ahmed rightly pointed out that it is in fact the “best brunch in the city.” Everybody (and I mean everybody) was there. Off the top of my mind I remember; Nina Manuel, TC & Nathalie, Shamita Singha, Dilip Joshi, Rohan Sippy (who while we were on the topic of financial meltdown mentioned some interesting theories on Global Warming more on that soon…) Ashutosh Pathak, Akanksha & Amitabh Nanda, Nico Ghoghavala & wife Kamal Sidhu (did I hear right, she’s  having a baby? I noticed that people kept saying “Don’t smoke near the pregnant lady” but she had her back to me most of the time so need to confirm this!) A.D & Sabina Singh, Divya Mohta, Anish & Vineeta Trivedi (who’s off to Canada with the kids for a break), Kishen Mulchandani (who’s heading to Malaysia tonight right after he pops into the Miss India 2009 after-party)… I’ll post the full attendance roster along with the “official” party pictures as soon as the PR machinery wakes up tomorrow and flurries into action.

Ash Chandler

Despite the heat and body count brunch lasted well into the afternoon and consisted of banana shooters, a sublime buffet and lots of singing, dancing and mingling. Ash Chandler did an impromptu performance (and boy the man can sing.) Full form after his 40 days of lent a few glasses of bubbly and he was rocking the microphone to Sweet Home Alabama to which Henry Tham pointed out jokingly the new lyrics should be…

From Khar to Colaba

Where the skies are so blue

from Khar to Colaba

Lord, I’m coming home to you!

Who's your daddy?!

Jamal Mecklai and his daughter dance up a storm!

Ashwin Deo

Aarti Surnedranathan and her son

Myra & Bandana Tewari

The ever smiling (and usually color coordinated couple did full justice to the dance floor (grown up kids in tow) as did Ashwin Deo. Proud and happy Aarti & Kailash Surendranathan introduced their somewhat shy son around as did Bandana Tewari with her adorably precocious daughter Myra (clearly ready to follow in mommy’s fashionable footsteps) while Rahul & Malini Akerkar played hosts to perfection. This is probably the first time I’ve seen the glitterati break out their own clickers for some memories. (I got a few action shots myself as you can see, note to self though: balancing a glass of champagne, a camera and a clutch in high heels is much more complicated than it looks after two banana shooters in a test tube.)

Nina Manuel

Rahul Akerkar

Nikhil Chib asked me an interesting question at brunch. He wanted to know if I’ve found that people with the same name tend to have similar personalities. I guess you could say so; the ones I know in Bombay would be Malini Akerkar and Malini Ramani (also I remember a Malini Rao I had the pleasure of meeting when I used to work at those auto expos at Pragati Maidan in Delhi a decade ago. You know the drill; pretty girls in snug dresses standing next to cars they know nothing about. good times.)  He pointed out that all the Nikhil’s he knows tend to be pretty skinny.

A.D. Singh & Ash Chandler had a hilarious conversation about fashion (and fashion week) where apparently some “dude” was being a little too touchy feely with the other “dudes.” Its true that at that point any woman could scream blue murder but what’s a guy to do if he’s not looking to pick a fight? (With any luck there will be a comedy bit in Ash’s next show called “vogg” aka victims of gay grabbing!)

All in all the social event of the season. Next stop Hard Rock Cafe on Thursday night where Luke Kenny and I are emcees at the Rolling Stone magazine first anniversary followed by Zenzi mills (i.e. the new one in town) where Matan Schabracq is throwing the official opening party.

Super Car Sunday

Narain Karthikeyan

Gautam Singhania and Narain Karthikeyan

This Sunday at 10am Narain Karthikeyan will be flagging off some of Mumbai’s big boys in their fast cars from Kala to Siddhivinayak as part of The Parx Super Car Show presented by Shell Helix Motor Oils arranged by Autocar Magazine in association with Bellset Entertainment to launch India’s first Super Car Club.  A presentation of 40 of the finest performance and prestige cars along with their owners. Celebrity guests include Shiny Ahuja (who’s contemplating getting behind the wheel) John Abraham (who’s not) and Akshay Khilachand, Adar & Yohan Poonawlla, Sunny Dewan, Anil Ambani and  Gautam Singhania who are raring to race. Once they finish the rally they’ll head to Joss for brunch and post drive drinks. I wonder if Ajay Devgan wants to take his new wheels for a spin?

Singhania's Lamborghini

Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe

Audi R8

Some of the cars present for display will be Lamborghini, Porsche Caymen, Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe; BMW X-6, Bentley Continental GT, Nissan GTR and Audi R8.

Last I heard Vijay Mallya was going from bikini calendars to special edition sports cars associated with popular brands. Raymonds MD Gautam Singhania was planning to join Mallya’s club by associating his Parx brand with an exclusive line of sports cars. Singhania has initiated talks with a Maharashtra-based family, engaged in the business of making exclusive sports cars for select clients, to produce the range of Parx Roadsters. Incidentally, Singhania was himself among the first clients of this family’s indigenously produced sports car – Chinkara.

Chinkara

Priced at Rs 6.7 lakh, the two-seater Chinkara car has borrowed its suspension, steering system and brake columns from Maruti and is powered by an Isuzu 1.8 litre petrol engine sourced from Hindustan Motors. This makes the car easy to maintain and can be fixed by any mechanic or garage owner. Prior to this, Mallya had joined hands with the Goa-based San Motors to launch a limited number of sportscars (using the company’s in-production model Storm) under the Kingfisher Sports brand. Meanwhile, Bothe is now building a three-seater version of its sportscar. Besides, she is also working on an amphibious vehicle based on HM’s RTV platform. While HM will provide the chasis and the RTV body, Chinkara will design and produce the amphibious vehicle.