The Dare To Bare Party, Powered by Ekta Kapoor

Televisionpoint.com Special by Anu Ranjan
There's this gentleman who lives in New Delhi... a guy whose full of life, has a great sense of humour, unbelievably successful, has the swankiest address in town, loves kids and guess what... he's a bachelor too! I hap pened to witness him briefly at an otherwise lacklustre affair recently... I thoroughly enjoyed his charisma and I really wish the media would write and talk about him more...!

Ok, I'm talking about our President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam -- He was the guest of honour at one "green building" conference organised by the CII which was celebrating and honouring some companies and architecture firms for responding to the need of the hour and for coming up with super energy efficient and environmentally friendly buildings. It wasn't much of a star-studded affair other than eminent guests such as the President, Delhi's CM Sheila Dikshit and ITC's head honcho's Habib Rehman and Nakul Anand, who were there to receive a "Platinum Award" from the President, for spearheading this movement and for coming up with the largest green building in the world till date... their new headquarters, the ITC Centre at Gurgaon.

A brick, white sand stone and high performance glass structure fashioned by Delhi-based architect Rahul Kumar and the design teams of Rajinder Kumar Associates, a firm that I'm told has been responsible for designing most of ITC's existing landmark projects across the country! Anyhow, the President with his witty remarks and great sense of humour had many of the otherwise uptight corporate heads there in splits! He spoke about some funny experiences when he moved into his current home and about wanting to make his current home, as in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, a green building soon. Finally, while presenting awards to some students of architecture, he promptly noticed that all three recipients were girls, and he wondered out aloud, as to where all the boys had gone? He's adorable... If only he'd someday wonder out aloud as to where all the lovely eligible ladies are, line lag jayeegi I'm sure!

MET LIFE
A new Met Lounge (whatever that actually means!) named Rio threw open it's doors recently... The bar, situated in Versova, Mumbai opened last week to a mob, hosted by our very own Evita, Sharon Prabhakar! The lady in red sure was a crowd puller that night -- We barely managed to make our way into this place already filled to capacity and before we knew it, in the dhakka-dhakki, we suddenly found ourselves back outside where we started from... we had to leave almost immediately, to make way for the next lot that had obediently lined up outside! In my few precious moments there, while I chomped on some yummy salt and pepper fried prawns, I spotted designer Kanwaljit Singh, TV actress from yonderyears Kamiya Malhotra, desi pop star Baba Sehgal, Sidharth and Geeta Kak... Other exciting visitors who I'm told arrived after we were jostled out included the lovely ladies Amisha Patel and Udita Goswami and the mast boys Adnan Sami, Alyque Padamsee and Sanjay Gupta. Yes, the food, drinks and brilliant tunes doled out by DJ Suketu apparently flowed all night and many determined merrymakers hung on and clung on till daybreak!

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
Like last year, once again this year she was feelnd under the weathergo decidedquiet to celebrate her birth ing and not little eatery in Mumbai's suburbs).aWell, word obviouslyout for aout very, very to Mahjong (a friend decided to dinner did get fast about this quiet, spur-of-the-moment, non-celebratory affair because -- SURPRISE! ­ suddenly in attendance were the A-list invitees of every Bollywood star; the photographers and correspondents of Zoom, The Asian Age, The Times of India, Mumbai Mirror, Midday, DNA, HT Style, and many others publications! The only celebrities that it seems were not "invited", or that the Chinese whisper didn't manage to reach in time were perhaps The Maharashtra Times, Navbharat Times and maybe Ontrack Surburbs! Poor Mahima, to have her calm and silent plans shattered by a pack of mikes and flashes... and to find herself splattered across every single newspaper, tabloid and online newsletter the next morning... not fair! Tch... Tch... Next year I hope she does decide to celebrate and she does have a party, that way at least all of us friends can come to her rescue (pose for some photographers and respond to some questions) when something like this happens!

DARE TO BARE
"Dare to bare" was the theme of a mega-sexy bash that Ekta Kapoor threw last weekend -- a shindig for the coolest hunks and the hottest babes of desi telly-land! No wannabe's were allowed, just the wanna-bares! The invitation stated 11 pm onwards, which translated into TV-brethren lingo means do not arrive before 1 am! Unfashionable me, I landed up at midnight, luckily I wasn't the only one there! Soon enough the place filled up with super energised guys and gals, coming straight from their shoots, ready to unwind big time... or just enough for them to rejuvenate, refresh and be back at work again the next day! Party animals, yes, but hard working and dedicated souls like you've never seen -- hats off to this fraternity! By the time I left, Ekta had yet to show up -- I'm told that once she did, the place rocked like no man's business!

Bombay rockers from that night included Aamna Sharif in her off the shoulder top and micro mini, Ronit Roy, Rohit Roy, Hiten and Gauri, Deepak Prashar (who I feel deserved an award... He actually dared to show up in tiny black shorts and a sleeveless vest). Shabbir Alhuwalia was there too as were Chetan Hansraj, Anju Mahendru, Achint Kaur, Rucha Gujrati, Keshwar Merchant, Ritu Chaudhry, Sameer Sharma, Gaurav Gera, Vikas Bhalla, Tina Parekh, Neeta Shetty, Narayni Shastri, Gaurav Chopra, Neha Bamb, Hiten Paintal, Vandana Pathak, Jasweer Kaur, Chaitnya, Karishma Tanna, Amit Tandon, Urvashi Dholakia, Vikas Sethi and loads more! For a change, all the hunks dared to bare a lot more than the babes, so for us girls it was a very pleasant evening after all!

X-FILES
The ex-Ms Vijendra Ghatge and now the ex-Ms Dan Dhanoa, specifically exactress Niki Ghatge Dhanoa is refreshed, once again single and ready to mingle... but this time she's only getting involved with her cousin and partner, the expert make up artist Cory Walia, in a new spa venture called BioCella. Niki hosted a dinner party recently at Vie Lounge and Deck in Juhu, to launch a line of beauty products that come from Los Angeles and that go by the same name BioCella... very imaginative! The first of numerous spas that they plan to open is located at Kishore Kumar's exbungalow in Mumbai. The spa promises complete mind and body relaxation by means of many special massages and lots of facials that pledge to get those worry lines off your brow... Yes, I'm talking of Botox fillers and treatments! Those that attended this do were her two very ex-husbands supportive Vijendra Ghatge and Dan Dhanoa, and her son Tarzan. Others at the party included Geeta and Jay Morar, medical director Dr Keith Caughell, singers Anaida and Gary Lawyer and models Mansi Scott and Aarti. Of course Niki was the heart and soul of the party -- hats off to her enthusiasm and energy levels for managing all that she does, so easily!

Gosh, what a week it's been... with Baba Log No. 1 proudly asserting to Tehelka that he could have been the PM of India at the age of 25, if he wanted to! Yeah, right! Salman Khan receives a verdict of not-guilty in the tape scandal... Interesting! Wannabe superstar Preeti Jaiin and bar dancer Tarannum are arrested for alleged con nections to the underworld... Hmmm! Saurav Ganguly after taking off his shirt first, now decides to air his dirty chaddi's in public... Phew! Barkha Dutt and Vikram Chander must be pleased, so much fodder for deliberation! So, on that happy note, I take your leave too... Will be back same time, same place, next week... until then, please stay tuned and rukaawat ke liye khed hai...!