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Manish at Antillia
''It’s a very special collection, created especially for the occasion — eveningwear with threadwork. It’s not your typical traditional bridal wear, because that’s so passé — and Indian weddings are so international now,'' said Manish Malhotra, when we spoke to him last night about his forthcoming fashion show at Antillia in the first week of December.

Manish Malhotra and Alia Bhatt

''There will be a lot of gowns and resort wear,'' said the designer on the eve of his departure to Florence for another wedding. The Antillia evening is being hosted by Kokilaben Ambani and family, on the occasion of a close friend’s wedding and was already the talk of the town, given that Malhotra’s designs are the cynosure of all eyes. And who would be the showstopper, we asked the beatific-looking designer.  '' Alia Bhatt,'' he said. ''We will be officially announcing it in a couple of days, but you can go ahead and print it.''

Fifteen years of Sula
It would not be wrong to say that India’s party going, highlife- living, young and restless universe can be divided in to two parts: the pre Sula era and the post. Fifteen years ago when Stanford trained engineer Rajeev Samant through a serendipitous journey decided that Nashik, where his family owned a 20-acre estate had the perfect climate for growing grapes and went ahead and established the Sula Vineyards it was a game changer.

(From left) Anna Da Costa, Cecilia Oldne, Rajeev Samant, Bruno Yvon

Until then, wine awareness and culture hadn’t really seeped into Indian consciousness. Samant’s enterprise and marketing dash not only founded an industry but put Nashik on the map as India’s wine capital.  In 2002, Sula was the first Indian winery to be featured in the Wine Spectator, and since then there’s been no looking back. Sula has become an important part of India’s coming of age, and so this Saturday on a long and boisterous table at the Bombay Canteen, the good people at Sula celebrated their success with friends and colleagues by raising a toast in the presence of Master Wine Maker Kerry Damskey from Sonoma. And to the accompaniment of Chef Thomas Zacharia’s meticulously-paired menu a galaxy of Sula’s finest produce was imbibed by the likes of Sameer Seth, Bruno and Rohini Yvon, Namita Devidayal, Narendra Kumar, Amitabh Nanda and Anna Da Costa, amongst others. And so much was the celebrating and toasting, and wine quaffing on the occasion that unsurprisingly Nanda seated on our right was heard asking Sula’s VP marketing Cecilia Oldne on our left, if there was any preventive measure for a morning-after wine hangover. Alas, we didn’t catch her response, but believe us, we wish we had.

Better with the men
We were travelling when Shilpa Shetty had her star-studded book launch which saw the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Varun Dhawan share the stage to promote her book. But on Friday evening when we bumped in to her, we couldn’t help but tease:  ‘You made sure you had a line up of the most gorgeous men around you.

Varun Dhawan, Amitabh Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty and Anil Kapoor at the book launch

''I wanted the line-up to comprise only top male actors or actresses. But getting actresses together on stage is not that easy,'' smiled Shetty, alluding to the monumental egos and vanity issues that such an exercise would warrant if say she’d invited some of our top actresses to participate in the same way. ''It’s easier with the actors,'' she said sweetly.
An understatement if there was any.

Mistaken identity Mumbai-istyle
Even while Mumbai in general and Bollywood in particular was in the throes of the Masaba Gupta-Madhu Mantena nuptial celebrations, over the weekend,  our Oolong tea-favouring Sobo hostess appears to have put her foot in her mouth. ''They make an adorable couple don’t they — and she’s absolutely glowing,'' she said of the bride who  now has what’s easily the coolest name in town: Masaba Mantena. ''And what’s so sweet is that her dad, the legendary cricketer, took the trouble to fly down for the weekend and we met him at dinner,'' said the OTFSH.

Masaba Gupta and Madhu Mantena

Huh, we said, Sir Viv Richards was in town this weekend?

Gary Sobers

''Who’s that?'' said the Oolong tea favouring Sobo hostess. ''I was talking about Sir Gary Sobers who I met at a dinner and congratulated on his daughter’s wedding …'' said the OTFSH but stopped when she saw the look of absolute horror on our face...

Viv Richards

Overheard

Protesting against growing intolerance Robert Vadra to do land wapsi #LandWapsi

— Posted by the Twitter handle @therightgame