Saturday, November 6, 2004 was a day of prime importance for the Indian fashion industry. For, it was on this day that the premiere event of the F Awards, to celebrate excellence in Indian Fashion was held. A night where the industry voted for the best of its own! And everyone came out a winner.


The open-air event at the lawns of the Taj Land’s End hotel in Bandra was all glitter and glamour. Although the turn out for the function was not all that great, with a great number of seats left empty, the happenings on stage made up for that loss.

Compere Kamal Sidhu did a commendable job, guiding the event grandly through its premiere night. A razzmatazz of awards, a fashion show with a walk down the ramp, a dose of entertainment... they were all there that night. It was a night of fashion, fizz and frolic.

The entertainment came in the form of dancing and singing on stage. Celina Jaitley and Zayed Khan rocked on stage to Hindi and vintage English numbers. Zayed entered on a bike and stayed on to play basketball, well, that was a choreographed number. Very creative choreography! The Pakistani band Strings did their bit with some good numbers. By the way, designer Vikram Phadnis designed the costumes of both Celina and Zayed.

Of the winners the main ones were Upen Patel (won two awards, thanked a long list of folks the first time and after the second award said, “I’m not going through the entire list again”), Nina Manuel (who told the judges, “You’ve got taste”), Rohit Bal, Ritu Kumar who won the Hall of Fame Awards of outstanding contribution to Indian Fashion. Ritu said, “Whoever sees a fashion show sees only the glamour. But this is a very tough line.” But Raman Lamba’s comment was by far the most original one. He said, “I’ve never won anything before in my life so I don’t know what to say.” The Bollywood winners were Aishwarya Rai (Celebrity Model of the year – Female), Sushmita Sen (Most Fashionable Film Star – Female) while Shah Rukh Khan (Celebrity Model of the Year – Male).

The presenters for the awards were drawn from a wide range of celebrities. You had cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, Feroz Khan, Arjun Rampal, ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton, Strings, Arshad Warsi, Tushar Kapoor among others.

The evening ended with a bang, with a huge gathering of beautiful people on stage and firecrackers whizzing up in the sky, to burst into a myriad colours. A memorable evening for the fashion industry. To be repeated annually, one hopes.



quote, unquote!

Besides the action on stage I happened to sit in front of a trio (two gals, one guy) who had their personal take on everything that happened at the show. Their quirky, sarcastic, cynical comments were by far quite entertaining to say the least. Judge for yourself.

u On-stage: Celina Jaitley comes to perform.

u The trio: “No wonder Feroz Khan has come here this evening.”

u On-stage: Compere Kamal receiving the award on behalf of Shah Rukh and saying, “I’ll see that it’s personally delivered to him at home.”

u The trio: (noting that the Khan lived a stone’s throw away from the venue) “You don’t have far to go baby.”

u On-stage: Zayed Khan and Celina Jaitley come to present an award and as a routine, “So, should we do the honours?”

u The trio: “No. Let’s wait.”

u On-stage: Singer-presenter Suneeta Rao says, “My career started with doing filler items in-between fashion shows…”

u The trio: “And stayed there.”

u On-stage: Arjun Rampal strolls on to present an award.

u The trio: Gushing, “I want to take him home.”


From the Awards brochure:

India began with the art of drapery,

Unfazed by the absence of the tools of fashion,

Continuing with the art of beauty,

Creating, patronizing and adorning herself,

With the clothing of kings,Enrobing the world with her embroidery, intricacy and detailed tailoring,

Stitching the world together, mesmerizing it with her power to create

Today Indian fashion weaves her name into the very fabric of the globe.

Today she reigns on the ramp, in the studio and behind the cameras.

Today India needs a credible platform to recognize these talents.

Thus we launch the F Awards,

Where the best in the business vote and the best in the business win,

Where true talent and dedication to the cause of Indian fashion is rewarded with glory and honour,

Let us begin to shine this spotlight.

Bollywood’s new glam doll

Former Miss India Celina Jaitley, who is making her debut in Bollywood, is a smart girl with an attitude, finds out JYOTHI VENKATESH

Celina Jaitley, who is all set to make her debut as an actress with Feroz Khan’s Janasheen opposite his son Fardeen Khan is very thrilled to have bagged yet another film with yet another Khan, even before Janasheen has been released. She has been paired in Idiot opposite Fardeen’s cousin Zayed Khan, with Deepak Shivdasani as the director.

According to Celina the film Idiot is essentially all about the youth of today, their aspirations, their trials and tribulations. “Zayed plays the role of Chintu who is in love with me in the college. The hero’s characterization is very innocent. Zayed plays an honest guy with a poker face. Idiot is actually the remake of the super duper Telugu hit Idiot whose original Kannada version Appu directed by Puri Jagannath also proved to be a stupendous hit. Producer A Poornachandra Rao is making Idiot.”

Besides Janasheen and Idiot, Celina will also be seen very soon in films like Hansal Mehta’s Shaadi Dot.Com, in which once again Fardeen Khan happens to be her leading man, and Suneil Shetty’s Khel directed by Yusuf Khan. “In Khel I have been teamed opposite both Ajay Jadeja and Sunny Deol. People ask me whether I am comfortable as far as acting is concerned. Luckily I was not a model but Miss India, and hence one cannot dub me as a wooden model trying her level best to act. To know whether I am capable as an actress, I guess you will have to wait till Janasheen is released.”

Celina has no qualms as far as appearing in a bikini is concerned, like she has done in Feroz Khan’s Janasheen. However she asserts that she knows where to draw the line of demarcation between vulgarity and sensuality. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. It is the script, which dictates the kind of costumes the actor has to wear to suit the role. In Janasheen I play a blind piano singer. If I appear in a bikini on the beach what’s the harm? It was Khansaab’s concept as the director of the film and I have implicit faith in him to present the scene in an aesthetic manner.”

What exactly is Janasheen all about? I ask Celina. “All that I can say at the moment about Janasheen is that it is a part thriller and part explosive drama with a mind blowing theme, the kind of which has never ever been attempted before at least as far as India is concerned.”

Celina confesses that Feroz Khan had been kind enough not to bind her by any contract forbidding her from signing any other film till Janasheen is released. However Janasheen will be her first film to be released, though she has at least three more films up her sleeves as an actress.

What is her role in Khel? “I play the central role in Khel. I am the only love interest of the actors in the film. I have been teamed in the film opposite Ajay Jadeja. My other co-stars in the film are Sunny Deol, who plays a tough cop and Suneil Shetty who plays a smart and suave industrialist called Mr Mallya.
Celina is happy that though it has not been her conscious effort to sign only those films where she is the only heroine, all the films in which she will be appearing have her as the solo heroine. “As an actress, I do not want to be bracketed just as a glamorous girl. Time and youth are on my side and I am determined to forge ahead in my career and carve a special niche for myself on my own as an actress who can deliver the goods to the satisfaction of her directors.”

TEMPTATIONS 2004

By Fareed-ud-Deen

Billed as an awesome show Temptations 2004 is Shah Rukh Khan's road show which is touring internationally. This is a concert that has taken the Bollywood world by storm as it has been taken on its 2004 World Concert Tour.

To date Temptations 2004 has performed no less than 14 concerts internationally and September saw the show take to London with more than 3500 people being turned away at the show in Manchester. The show then moved to Houston and the Toyota Centre with the entourage performing to capacity crowds.

On the 26 September the show moved to Toronto Canada and due to the overwhelming demand, an extra show was put up on September 29 in Canada.

More than 15 000 Toronto fans gathered together to see their favourite Bollywood stars perform on stage. The Sunday show was scheduled to commence at 7.00pm but was delayed because of technical reasons for an incredible 3 hours during which the fans got impatient and had to be consoled by the Baadshah Shah Rukh Khan himself as he requested the crowd to be patient as technicians went about fixing the problem.

The Toronto leg of Temptations 2004 saw Priyanka Chopra, Aarjun Rampal, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee and Saif Ali Khan together with Shah Rukh Khan entertain their fans. The show moves on the Atlanta and New York in the United States before coming to our shores.

South Africa will have its fair share of Temptations 2004 on November 27 & 28 at the Sahara Kingsmead Stadium in Durban and the Sun City Superbowl in Johannesburg respectively.

The entourage which will be heading for South Africa will be made up of 71 artists including dancers, production crew, singers, musicians, actors and actress.



It will include the King or the Baadshah of Bollywood and the Superstar of the new generation Shah Rukh Khan, with the award winning queen, the beautiful and ***y dimpled starlet Preity Zinta.

Also in the entourage is the new dude on the block, a winner of many film awards in the last 2 years Saif Ali Khan and the bashful star from Main Hoon Naa, Zayed Khan. The ***y ex Miss World and film star Celina Jaitley will also form part of the South African entourage with film star and model Malaika Arora who will compere the show

eh hot !!

An interview with Celina Jaitley

   By: Geety Sahgal
   September 4, 2003
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She has been making waves ever since the promos of Janasheen showed her emerging from the sea in a lilac-coloured bikini. And with the slick songs of Khel also on air, the audience is eagerly waiting to see Celina Jaitley on the silver screen.

Ask the former beauty queen which one of the two movies will be her debut and she shakes her head. “I don’t know which one will release first, but I am very excited about both the films.”

While Feroz Khan’s Janasheen has her playing a model, in Khel she plays an interior designer who is caught in the game of love between two men.

“My part in Janasheen is definitely more glamorous. I know people have already slotted me as a bikini beauty but watch out, my role is not frivolous; there is a lot of intensity in it. Khel, on the other hand, is a romantic thriller and though it has three heroes Suneil Shetty, Ajay Jadeja and Sunny Deol my character is very central.”



A still from Janasheen, where Celina Jaitley is paired with Fardeen Khan
After winning the Miss India crown in 2001, this commerce graduate went on to bag the fourth runner-up place in the Miss Universe pageant.

There was a time when this daughter of an army officer was preparing for the Combined Defence Services examination as she wanted to join the armed forces.

It was after winning a beauty contest in Kolkata that she turned her sights to the modelling world. “I was always confident of my abilities as an actress because during my college days I have been a member of a Shakespearean Society for six years. And I’ll be honest today I don’t have any qualms about becoming a commercial Bollywood heroine.”

Her forthcoming projects include Abbas Mastan’s next film with Akshay Kumar, and IDIOT (I Do Ishq Only Tumse), a remake of a south Indian hit with Zayed Khan.

The Versova girl has been busy with her modelling and film assignments ever since she shifted base to Mumbai nearly three years ago, but says that whenever she is free she rushes home to Bangalore to be with her family.

“I have been literally living out of a suitcase. I have not had the time to explore the places around my locality. When things settle down a little I will definitely do so.”

so thats how she keeps her self in good shape...well all the girls should follow...
i like her alot

i personally dont like this girl celina .. huh ... i dont need to follow her track i have my own track
                        she is a good model but not a good actress ,.. thats my opinion , no offense
regards
     Pari ~

http://www.mod.nic.in/samachar/jan01-04/html/imga.htm



Spotted Celina Jaitley and Namrata Shirodkar at Zaha recently, joining Shahid Amir’s birthday celebrations. Who hosted the party? Now that would be telling!

Unhappy together






In Mauritius: Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta, Celina Jaitley, Esha Deol
Why is it that Mumbai’s Bollywood and society people always complain about how the overkill of seeing the same people over and over again at parties just gets to them, and then they go on holidays with huge coteries or to places they know will be great for spotting the same crowd?

Who can pretend to understand the more than slightly eccentric ways of the rich and famous…

New Year’s vacations this year make for a prime example. A chunk of Mumbai’s phoo-phoo kissers were in Goa, while the seriously high-profile Bollywood types (the SRKs and the Hrithiks) were in KoSamui, Thailand.
Strangely though, while thronging together by design may be the way most people like it, some folks are keen to get away.

Overkill demanded that a friend of ours take off, and his chosen destination was Mauritius. Just when he was getting comfortable in his shorts and settling into a lounge chair, beer in hand, he discovered Mumbai had taken over the island city.

“Guess who else is here,” he moans over the phone. “Bipasha, Lara, Celina, Esha Deol, Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Salman, Akshay Kumar, Twinkle and Rocky S. Shilpa Shetty is soon to arrive. Three movies are being shot in the same hotel and it feels like Film City!”

Now while he isn’t overjoyed, we know at least a dozen people who would be…

Sweetness and light
   By: Anita Raheja and Heena Agarwal
   November 2, 2003
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Celina Jaitley is so gorgeous; she has men eating out of her hands. The beauty can be traced back to her genes. She says, “My grandmother is Kashmiri (we still have apple orchards in J&K), my grandfather Punjabi. And my mother’s parents are from Afghanistan.”

Compelled to cook because she lives alone, Celina find cooking a great stress reliever.

The sensuous beauty who possesses an innocent smile, will be seen next, as Fardeen Khan’s love interest in Feroz Khan’s Jaanasheen. This week, Celina steams up the kitchen with her recipe, and the conversation with her infectious warmth.

Thought for food

I begin my day with a glass of hot water laced with honey. Later, I say my prayers in my heart.

If I have a 7 am shoot then I wake up at three in the morning for my make-up and all, but if I am not shooting then I wake up around 8 am.

I generally don’t eat breakfast but my dietician Ira Samanthan (she is from South Africa), insists that I follow a chart. So I am forced to eat a bowl of muesli with hot or cold milk. It gives me a lot of energy and I don’t feel like snacking till lunchtime.

I either go to the gym or work out at home. I walk the treadmill regularly.
Sometimes I am very tempted to eat the unit food specially when there is fish made in mustard. I love unit food, it’s very heavy on oil, but I don’t mind it once in a while. Usually, I like eating homemade iceberg lettuce salad with toast, butter and soup.

I keep varying my lunch menu otherwise you get bored of your diet and then you want to eat everything on earth.

Juices or fruits are healthy but I need salt, pepper and spices in my diet. So I make sure that there is a lot of vinegar and paprika in my salads — it tastes like chaat.

My mother makes excellent rajma chawal. On Sundays, earlier, mama would make excellent Mughlai biryani.

My father is a disciplinarian so there has to be one green vegetable and one aloo dish with chapatti and dal for lunch.

We hated baingan and tinda but my father would force us to eat it because he liked them. We preferred eating white small rajma (roongi) and prawn curry with rice. In the evenings we generally had only a baked dish.

Since my father is an army man and has travelled a lot, he likes to try out different cuisines. He is fond of Russian salad with toast, my mum’s home-cooked pizzas, egg soufflé and vegetables steamed in sauce.

I became a tea lover ever since our posting to Assam. I drink eight-nine cups of tea a day. Coffee gives me severe acidity.

I dig chaats and paani puri. Once in a while I love to have jhaal moori. I have taught my cooks to make moori with boiled potatoes, chopped onions, green chutney and masalas.

My favourite fruits are papayas, mangoes and strawberries.

I relish fresh watermelon juice and a cocktail of orange and carrot juice.

I love the Shetland prawns of the south. The Kimonos make their meat with a lot of spice. While in Sikkim, I relished momos and thupkas. The ghosht and rice with dry fruits is worth trying in Kashmir. We used to wait for the apples in our orchards to turn green because we loved eating them when they are sour. I also savour Kashmiri tea.

I am not a restaurant person any more. In Calcutta’s China town, you get the best authentic Chinese food cooked by Chinese families.

Angithi, Bangalore has a village-dhaba ambience and amazing Punjabi food.

You get the best food in the country in dhabas.

In sweets I am partial to seviyan ki kheer, khoya burfi (without any flavours and nuts in it), rasgollas and mishti doi.

I am happy if my meal includes one of these — methi aloo, jeera aloo, stuffed karela, biryani and tandoori chicken.

My favourite beverage is a black drink — Coke, Pepsi, and Jaljeera.

I enjoy sipping a glass of French wine with food.

I can’t sleep without having a cup of Horlicks.

On a hot summer’s day I would like to fill myself with a bowl of chilled, cubed papaya and a big glass of lassi.

On a rainy day, I would like to eat hot samosas with chai, and paani puri.

On a wintry day I look forward to my mum’s gobi ka paratha with white butter and mirchi achaar.

I remember when I was in the Xth standard I made ras malai. The pedha became hard as a rock but I forced my brother to eat it. I cannot make sweet dishes but, by and large, I am a good cook. From the age of 17, I’ve been living alone so I learned to cook.

I can’t cook without my special set of knives that I bought from Ikea. My kitchen has to be very spic and span.

I think I resemble a green chilli.

Prahlad Kakar’s Papa Pancho, Indigo and India Jones at the Oberoi’s are the Mumbai eateries worth visiting. Once in a while I order food from Only Parathas.

For the best seafood in the entire world, I recommend Cape Town and a chain of restaurants called The Ocean Basket.

In Australia, we stayed next to the bay and I freaked out on seafood. I ate a lot of steaks and drank some fine wine too.

The unit food of Feroz Khan’s Jaanasheen included interesting stuff like paaya and biryani.

I love Swiss wines and food, especially fondues.

Scandinavian food is very bland. The closest they come to a spicy dish is mushroom sauce with a dash of pepper. Also they are very much into raw meat. I don’t have a palate for that.

My idea of a romantic meal is a wintry ambience. I don’t fancy a candlelight dinner because I like to see what I am eating. The meal could be mussels with onion sauce and a famous French white wine or a steak with vegetables. The venue should be a restaurant amidst the mountains. I have enjoyed many such romantic dinners with my boyfriend at St Moritz, Switzerland.

Egg soufflé

6 eggs
1 tsp red chilli sauce
3-4 drops soya sauce
2-3 drops chilli vinegar
50 gm Mozzarella cheese, grated
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp pepper, freshly ground
Salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and pour it in a microwave dish. Place it in the microwave oven and wait for the soufflé to rise. It will rise on its own. It will take four minutes. After that it can be poured in individual egg bowls and baked. Serve with brown bread and white wine.

All that glitters…

Tuesday evening saw international jewellery brand D’damas launch a collection of 18 carat gold and diamond jewellery inspired by a couple of Bollywood’s leading stars. What’s special about this collection is that a portion of the profits will be donated to the International Indian Film Academy’s charity fund.The front row seats were occupied by the likes of Akshay Kumar, Celina Jaitley, Mahima Chaudhary, Suniel Shetty and South Indian star Simran — all on hand to lend support to the IIFA cause.So do these stars really go for gold, have a passion for platinum or salivate for silver? Here’s what some of the stars we asked had to say:

Akshay Kumar: “I’ve never had a passion for it. It was only after I got married to Twinkle that I began to shop for jewellery — for her. However, my favourite piece of jewellery is a ring that Twinkle gave me and though I may take it off at times, what I never take off is a string of Buddhist prayer beads that I wear around my wrist.”

Celina Jaitley: “I wish I could own every piece here as they’re all so beautiful. But the one piece from my personal collection that has the most sentimental value for me is a ring given to me by my brother three years ago when he got into the army. It’s one piece of jewellery I never, ever take off!”

Suniel Shetty: “I personally wear a lot of jewellery in white gold. I love wearing rings, chains and bracelets. Yet, the only piece that is invaluable and priceless to me is my wedding band, which has a diamond set in it. It is my favourite and I never remove it from my finger.”

Simran: “My favourite piece of jewellery is a diamond ring, which I picked up from Khazana in Mumbai. However, while I might not wear it often enough, I never take off my engagement ring.”
As told to Ranjit Rodricks

cool pics again...

kiya cheezzz hai !!!

tum batao

lock kar diya jaye...

to chord diya jaye phir yaani ke

@ deepal shaw's bday party: