Stamp Duty Annoys & Wild Party Rocks

Televisionpoint.com Special by Anu Ranjan
Ok, Maharashtra's not-so-maha government has done it yet again... The classic bureaucrats have now gone and imposed a new levy... a .25 per cent stamp duty -- to be paid on every event, TV and film contract being executed in the state! Considering the entertainment industry is one of the largest job providers and revenue generators in the country, one would imagine the government would at least think twice before imposing such an unreasonable and unjustified tariff. As though the state of affairs here isn't already ghastly enough... To begin with, to have an event here we first need to get anywhere between 60 to 70 different permissions and clearances from 16 different offices -- and this process takes anywhere between 30 to 45 days -- a prime reason that most big shows are now being held outside Maharashtra.

Then, if we do decide to go through all the hassle, we don't even have an auditorium here... The majority of big TV and film events have to be planned and held on open grounds... which are more like sand dunes... with no provision of electricity or power or water or anything considered a "public convenience" in today's day and age!

We squander mega resources renting all these conveniences and arranging other basic requirements like seating and parking etc... Resources that run into many thousand crores... Wealth the state could have earned some part of and that we could have saved some part of... but oh-no... They will not give up... they would rather continue to cause inconvenience to us, give us nervous tension and top off our toil with a new toll! Nobody's crying about paying the tax per se... we are happy to pay more tax provided it's a give-and-take arrangement -- If you administrators care, let's work out a solution together... If not, what you are choosing to be blind to today, tomorrow is bound to end up as your loss and some other state or some other country's gain! For all concerned, I sincerely hope some policy maker is listening...!..and to protest a press meet was held at The ITA office by Mahesh Bhatt, Shashi Ranjan and Ashok Pandit.

VARIETY IS THE SPICE
Considering the rate at which more and more of this new generation, of this hard-working, wellpaid youngsters lot are opting to eat out rather than cook in, it's no surprise there's a new restaurant mushrooming, one-a-day, in all metros across the country. During my last visit to Delhi I ate at three new places, one was called Urban Pind, another was called Laidback Waters and the third was called Opera... all were spanking new and fully occupied! The latest to come up in Mumbai is MahJONG... a Chinese eatery opened at the Ramee Guestline Hotel, by Raj Shetty and his stunning, of Moroccan-descent wife Hafida.

Hafida who also happens to be an extremely talented singer sang some amazing Arabic songs at the restaurant opening and had us all ears, awe-struck! The ribbon cutting was carried out by another stunner Mahima Chaudhry... looking all glam! Having a blast at this do was yet another beauty Celina Jaitley and the drop-dead gorgeous model Upen Patel, with his funky-punk hairdo and the cutest accent ever! Others among were Nilofer and Tajdar Amrohi, Harry Anand with wife Dimple and of course, yours truly!

SOULMATES
While I'm still on the topic of bothersome bureaucrats who give 'em all a bad name... A thought just struck me as to where our country's politicians should actually be looking to imbibe those secular juices they're all craving... where they should be turning to for secular inspiration... it's definitely not the temple building Musharrafs or Jinnahs or Muslim-community appeasing Lalus of the world, but it's all the KHANs that exist in our very own backyard... in the heart of Mumbai's Bollywood! These people are as secular as it gets... to the very core!

Think about it... the original three Khan brothers Sanjay, Feroze and Akbar Khan all married nonMuslim girls; Zarine is Parsi, Sundari is Hindu and Mariam is a Sikh! Moving on to generation-next; Sanjay's daughters Suzanne and Simone Khan are married to Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Arora respectively. Feroze Khan's daughter Laila Khan is married to a Dilliwala Punju boy Rohit Rajpal whereas Fardeen is all set to marry another Hindu girl Natasha! Besides that family there's also Shah Rukh Khan married Gauri, who is a Hindu, Saif Ali Khan initially married to sardarni Amri ta Singh (and now halfway up the aisle with Italian Rosa)...

Similar is the case of Aamir Khan who was married to Reena. Then, there's also Salim Khan married to Salma aunty who is a Maharashtrian and their kids.. Sohail Khan married to non-Muslim Seema, Arbaaz Khan married to Malaika Arora, their sister Alvira Khan married to Atul Agnihotri and of course, the most-loved bad boy of them all Salman Khan, who hung loose first with Sangeeta Bijlani, then Aishwarya Rai and now Katrina...

Isn't that just wonderful! Instead of the cigarette smoking SRK or Saif Ali, isn't it matters such as this that our bureaucrats need to be pointing out when they talk of influential role models... Ooof... When will they learn...!?!

DRIVING US WILD!
I was in the capital again last weekend to grace with my presence the launch of a new automobile, namely Bentley's Continental Flying Spur, supposedly the fastest four-door in the company's history, and the fastest car in the world, with a top speed reaching a whopping 312 kmph...! The mega launch affair was the brain-child of Bentley's marketing consultant in India, the multifaceted Tanu Kapoor and it was hosted by their sole distributor Satya Bagla, at the Maurya Sheraton Hotel.

The show, the car and the event was presented by TV's apni Simone Singh and the unveiling was done by H.E. Sir Michael Arthur, the British High Commissioner to India. The affair was starstudded with Delhi's A-list present in its entirety... High flying industrialists included among many others the PVR brothers Ajjay Bilji and Sanjeev Bijli, Dabur's Chetan Burman, Harshpati Singhania of JK Tyres, Puneet Beriwala of Vipul Constructions, Mohit Singh of the Shipra Group, Raju Chadha of Waves Cinema, Ashok Chaturvedi of Flex Industries (also famous for being a bosom-buddy of Shri Amar Singh), Umesh Saraf of The Grand Hotel and Pradeep Somany of Somany Tiles.

With that beauty-of-a-car put on view, under dazzling spotlights, and with the pleasing music of the four piece string quartet drifting around the room, all easily let their hair down, ate, drank and made merry right till the wee-wee hours.

And, another week is over... gosh, actually the year's just flying by... summer had barely just started now it's over... summer vacation's done... school's have reopened... the good part being that all channas wey ghar aa gaye rey... so there's going to be lots more excitement happening -- will give you the run down on it all, as usual, same time, same place... please stay tuned and until then rukaawat ke liye khed hai...

TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Heartbreaking but true... The much adored Abhay in Ekta Kapoor's much loved Kkusum, Anuj Saxena, the debonair doctor who turned enterprising businessman who then turned TV actor married the lovely Ishmit just about one year back. All gave the impression of bliss and well-being until recently when rumour-mills started to work overtime... word suddenly had it that Anuj was filing for a divorce...!

What brought about or justified this application for divorce is not known precisely ... Anuj declines from discussing anything with the media... In that one year that they were a truly wedded couple, Ishmit's presence was never witnessed at any social gathering or occasion alongside Anuj. At first all and sundry didn't give it a second thought, accepting that since she was a stranger to the industry so was probably not too comfy attending industry do's... Then recently Anuj launched his own TV production house called Maverick and threw quite an impressive party for this launch... Of course Ishmit was most conspicuous by her absence at this do ... When asked about her non-attendance, the media was notified something to the extent that she was at home recovering from the flu. Within a few days the report that he had filed for a divorce was confirmed! Reasons for it are still unknown... giving both the benefit of the doubt, we'll leave it at the usual "irreconcilable differences"... And, good luck to both from here on.