Sealed with an air kiss

Karan Johar greets Sidharth Malhotra at his book launch, as Alia Bhatt looks on

The big wedding

TrishyaScrewvala, daughter of Ronnie and Zarine, is getting married this Thursday to her long-time sweetheart and leading sports commentator Suhail Chandok. Chandok belongs to a family of racers – his father Vicky was one; his brother Karun races overseas at the moment – while the elegant Trishya runs the Lighthouse Project that connects mentors with street children. The wedding will be held at the Turf Club, in Mahalaxmi, and big names from both the film and sports fraternity are expected to attend. Congratulations are in order for the couple.

The good doctor

IssacMathai, the Bangalore-based holistic and integrated medicine expert sought after by the likes of Sting and Camilla Parker Bowles, was in town recently, and told this diarist that he is on the verge of announcing an ‘international’ institute of integrated medical sciences. Mathai, whose healthcare model has drawn the attention of Barack Obama (and WHO and Harvard), told us that doctors from different countries will be taught about different systems of medicine at the institute that will come up in Bangalore, and the focus would be on preventive care and sustainable, long-term health solutions.

Lucky day

Januaryseems to be the month for marriages. Supermodel Candice Pinto got hitched to her beau, kickboxer and fitness trainer Drew Neal, last Friday (the 13th). Pinto and Neal met through a common friend on February 13 two years ago (also a Friday); and Neal proposed to her on May 13 the next year (no prizes for guessing which day of the week it was). Fashion designer Manish Malhotra, who has known the new bride since 2004, threw a party at his Bandra residence on Sunday for the couple. The newlyweds are now gearing up for a beach wedding in Goa in February.

Competition hots up

Two of Bollywood’s top divas are at war over a coveted role in Majid Majidi’s under-production film. The Iranian maestro, who is at present shooting in Mumbai, is looking for a perfect ‘dhoban’, and his Indian producers are keen that a top star essay that role. A leggy glamazon with Hollywood ambitions was short-listed, but her current commitment to a superstar director-- no less a prima donna himself--may jeopardise her chances. Meanwhile, this fair beauty, a well-known spitfire who has had several run-ins with the leggy glamazon in the past, has jumped into the fray, assuring the Iranian director that she can play the role of the ‘dhoban’ far more realistically than her rival, because during her struggling days she actually washed her own clothes.

Even as this game of one-upmanship continues --we’ll let you know who gets the better of the other -- we’re happy to report that young director Amar Kaushik has been selected to assist Majidi on the project. Kaushik’s moving short film Aaba has just been selected in the competition section at the Berlin Film Festival. Majidi, we hear, loved the film, and offered Kaushik the job on his film.

Tailpiece

This director, who is known for his grand sets and has a penchant for being highly secretive about his projects, has issued a new diktat. His stars’ managers are no longer allowed to step out of vanity vans during shoots. Only after the shots are canned are they allowed to come out of the vans. This is only the latest in a long list of strange rules the filmmaker, currently working on a historical, has issued.Read more at:http://www.queenieprom.co.uk/prom-dresses-2016-online