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Bollywood and culture in an emerging India

September 22nd, 2009
Fashion overdose: Do we need so many expensive clothes?
Posted by: binod khadka

Whenever I have attended the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai, it has always struck me as an event that is a little out of my league, but something that always gets the eyeballs.

After all, isn’t fashion, at least some form of it, an increasingly essential part of urban living?

Sometimes a random occurrence is the best way to get things in perspective.

On my way to the venue this week, I overheard two college girls in the local train, planning a shopping expedition to Linking Road in Bandra, a Mumbai shopping street known for funky accessories and clothes sold on the footpath.

From their conversation, it seemed like they were on a tight budget (like most college students) but couldn’t stop talking about the kind of shoes they hoped to buy.

I looked at their excited faces and thought about our destinations. Both were about fashion but so far removed from each other.

Where I was going, fashion was about high-end clothes (some of which were even hard to like), air kisses, Louis Vuitton bags and haute couture.

Where they were going, fashion was about affordability, comfort and value for money.

In a country where most people favour the latter, it makes me wonder whether we need to re-examine why India has four or more fashion weeks each year.

Who are we catering to?




How to walk the ramp? Ask Shah Rukh Khan


Ever looked at those picture perfect fashion models walking on the runway and wondered how they do it? Well, actor Shah Rukh Khan has the answer.---“I was told the secret was to suck your cheeks in, pout your lips and look really angry, when you walk the ramp,” Khan told a wildly cheering audience after he walked the ramp for Manish Malhotra at Mumbai’s Lakme Fashion Week.

Looking dapper in a black-and-gold jacket and cheered on by celebrities Arjun Rampal, Preity Zinta, Kajol and Karan Johar, Khan was clearly the show-stopper on Monday night.Khan’s tongue-in-cheek humour was also in full form, because he thanked Malhotra for being the first fashion designer ever “to design a sling” — referring to the matching gold-and-black sling he wore for the show.

Doctors have advised the 43-year-old actor to keep his arm in a sling for at least six weeks after he underwent shoulder surgery last month.Of course, Khan wasn’t the only Bollywood attraction at the fashion week.Earlier on Monday, Akshay Kumar walked the ramp for designer Tarun Tahiliani and asked wife Twinkle, seated in the front row, to unbutton the fly of his jeans.Bollywood stars sure are getting bold on the ramp.






Does Indian fashion really need celebrity showstoppers?


When designers Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna were asked why they didn’t use any celebrity on the catwalk at the India Fashion Week, a nonchalant Khanna replied: “Our clothes are our showstoppers. It’s a business event, let’s keep it that!”

But in a world of glamour where media visibility is almost a prerequisite and most of ‘what’s hot’ and ‘what’s not’ is measured by the number of shutterbugs and roving video cameras present, does having a movie star or two sashay in front of a celebrity-hungry media really make bad business sense?

While a few other designers publicly seconded Khanna’s lines, many others at the fashion week were happily posing for the cameras, hand in hand with their celebrity showstoppers.And the media is often just a means to a (business) end.
“Yes, he (buyer) does get helped by the publicity surrounding the designers. If there is a star wearing the clothes, it helps him sell the product (to customers). So in that term, yes, indirectly, they do help,” says Rina Dhaka, one of India’s most popular designers, at home and abroad.And publicity is one thing that always tags along with celebrities, who are as talked about, if not more, than the actual designs on the runway.

Off the stage, if you happen to see a crowd in the corner, you can be sure that a Bollywood star or a beauty queen is at the centre of the melee, posing away in front of the flashbulbs.The Indian fashion design industry’s overall production was just around 2.7 billion rupees in 2007,  with the majority of customers being Indian.

And even though international buyers have increasingly been drawn to the industry by the handicraft and detailed embroidery, most of the foreign buyers I’ve spoken to say Indian designers need to be more market-savvy about promoting their products.

And the use of celebrities seems to be one such tried-and-tested method.“If celebrities are walking, people identify the success of the designer with that,” says Sunil Sethi, president of the Fashion Design Council of India.So is it any surprise that the ongoing Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai, which is usually chock-a-block with celebrities, receives more media coverage than the India Fashion Week and the Delhi Fashion Week in the Indian capital?

As Rina Dhaka points out: “They (celebrities) do make a difference, unfortunately!”What do you think — are you interested in buying an outfit only if a Shilpa Shetty or John Abraham look good in it?