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Home > News > India News > Article > Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla host glitzy Diwali bash

Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla host glitzy Diwali bash

Updated on: 16 October,2017 06:00 AM IST  |  Mumbai
Malavika Sangghvi |

There was a profusion of beauty at leading designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla's Diwali bash at their home on Friday night, and what's best of all, it was not restricted to the women

Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla host glitzy Diwali bash

There was a profusion of beauty at leading designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla's Diwali bash at their home on Friday night, and what's best of all, it was not restricted to the women. Exquisitely-attired, swan-necked, dreamy-eyed young men, clad from head-to-toe in the designers' finest Indian traditional ensembles, competed with the gorgeous female stunners that evening, many of whom were legends in the good looks stakes.


Shweta and Navya Naveli Nanda at Sandeep Khosla-Abu Jani
Shweta and Navya Naveli Nanda at Sandeep Khosla-Abu Jani's Diwali bash


From Dimple Kapadia to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, to Sridevi, to Natasha Poonawalla and Shweta Bachchan Nanda and Navya Naveli, Sara Ali Khan, Kaykashan Patel, Gayatri Oberoi, Sonali Bendre, Twinkle Khanna and Anu Dewan, the per-square-foot beauty ratio was arguably the highest that evening in the well-appointed ground floor flat in Juhu, than anywhere else in the world. And all this in a space already suffused with an array of beautiful art objects, lights, flowers and fabrics.


Sandeep Khosla with guests at the party. Pics/Sandeep Khosla Instagram
Sandeep Khosla with guests at the party. Pics/Sandeep Khosla Instagram

We spotted Abhishek Bachchan, Adar Poonawalla, Tanya Godrej, Karan Johar, Ashiesh Shah, Lubna Adams, Gautam Seth, Prateek Jain, Pratima and Gaurav Bhatia, Akshay Kumar, Masaba Gupta, Bhawana Pandey, Divya Thakur, Neeta Sinha, and many others, partaking in the general mood of cheer and bonhomie, fuelled by some excellent bubbly and wine and the household's famous nosh.

But the night belonged to one person: Shweta; all brooding eyes and long lissome silhouette in a moonlight-white, breath of a sari worn with minimal jewels, looking like she'd traipsed off an Amrita Shergill canvas. "From Jaya to Shweta, and now to Navya Naveli, we have stayed relevant and dressed them all," said Abu Jani to us at one point in the evening. "Sometimes even we cannot believe that."

That spirit of Mumbai
"Sooni's book is a winner on many levels," said actor-director and humanitarian Rahul Bose, when we bumped into him at the launch of Sooni Taraporewala's 'Home In The City', her excellent book of photographs on Friday.

"First, if like me, you are a Bombayite through and through, then the panoply of photographs that she unveiled over four decades, is the classiest trip imaginable down memory lane. Overarching that, of course, is the classic Sooni eye for the moment: measured, layered, often times ironical, but always suffused with the empathy and humanism great artists invariably have," he said.

Taraporewala is that rare artist, whose work span many genres but which is always, as Bose points out, imbued with her signature empathy and humanism. Whether it is the iconic Salaam Bombay, the screen play of which she wrote with her long-time creative collaborator Mira Nair, or Little Zizou, the film she directed, or the photographs of Mumbai in her latest book, she manages to capture the much talked about spirit of Mumbai, which in spite of all the challenges that almost break its back, still, mercifully and miraculously, exists.

Play time
"This is a really special show. It's a whole group of very creative people from Jaipur, some of whom never show, who are coming to my store, because they share our 'headspace', and because they also like to think that they make special things by coming from a special space. They have fun with what they do, and they truly believe that play is very important," said Srila Chatterjee, curator and space stylist, whose 'Everyday, Play A Little', in collaboration with an art gallery from Jaipur at her furniture and home store, we managed to catch on its last day, last hour, after its 12-day successful run in Mumbai.

Srila Chatterjee
Srila Chatterjee

"The show is two things: Firstly a presentation of eight great design centers," said the erstwhile ad film maker and aesthete, whose home is on the cover of a design glossy this month. "But more importantly, it is a reminder to everyone that no matter what we do, it is important to never forget that there must be time in our lives to just play," she said. These were not idle words. Stepping into the vibrant, quirky, intensely creative 'doll's house' that had been created, we were instantly enchanted.

So setting aside a carefully assembled evening plan, we found ourselves surrendering for the next hour to the show's abundance of riches, and being persuaded by Chatterjee to try our hand at spinning a handmade wooden top the way we used to as a child. And we are happy to report that not only did our top spin perfectly on our first throw itself, but it happened to be the most important spinning we had done that entire week.

The family gene
In March, we had dropped into a walk-through of a show flat designed by designer Simone Arora, where we had met both her mother Zarine Khan, and sister, designer Sussanne. This Saturday, though we could not make it to the preview of a sample flat in the same building, a prominent builder's new property, this time designed by Sussanne, we could well imagine its aesthetic appeal.

Hrithik Roshan with Hrehaan, Hridaan and friends
Hrithik Roshan with Hrehaan, Hridaan and friends

The Khan daughters, Simone, Sussanne and Farah Khan Ali, (who designs jewellery) have inherited their aesthetic sensibility from their mother and, though each has a different style of her own, somehow the family gene shines through. This is not the only thing the Khans have in common. Being a well-knit and close clan, they share more or less the same friends circle, and given their multi-faceted talents, one finds many of the same faces at their events.

Sussanne Khan
Sussanne Khan

Saturday's preview saw proud mom Zarine, Sussanne's former husband Hrithik Roshan with their sons, her sister-in-law Malaika and brother Zayed Khan, Sonali Bendre, Dia Mirza, Kunal Kapoor, Zeba Kohli and Krishika Lulla, and many others attend what we're sure must have been a glittering event.

Reflections on a Saturday afternoon
"I think we owe every work of art as much thoughtful and empathic attention as we can afford to give it. Hasty dismissal deprives us of aesthetic experiences." It was artist Jaideep Mehrotra on site at his 'Reflections in Mercury', at Worli's spacious and airy Tao Art Gallery, where we had dropped in on Saturday evening on the invitation of his wife Seema.

Jaideep Mehrotra
Jaideep Mehrotra

The culmination of over seven years of research and experimentation, and composed of a combination of metal, paint and various mixed media on canvas, the collection of striking abstracts, with their reflective surfaces afforded a meditative expanse, reflecting the changing colours of the day's rainy sunset at Haji Ali.

"Art is a reflection of its surrounding culture," said Mehrotra as we walked through his work. "Metallics reflect everything surrounding them and deflect any allusions to the artist's interior." And after wards, we drank coffee and nibbled at bespoke handmade dark chocolates spiced with sea salt and dates.

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