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Are You Going To South Africa For The World Cup?
The coming month-and-a-half will decide between the haves and the have nots. Will it be India? Or Australia? What about South Africa and Pakistan? Even as a cricket-crazy country is swept by the wave of fanaticism, who are the lucky ones that will be on that flight to South Africa to watch Virender Sehwag's searing fireworks and Zaheer Khan's crushing yorkers. In its 8th edition, the 2003 World Cup is bigger than ever before. Who from Bollywood's bold and beautiful and India Inc's hot 'n' happening will be taking in the cricket safari? Read on.
Sunil Shetty
actor
I didn't make it for the '99 World Cup because I was tied up with too many assignments but this time around I made it very clear to my producers - depending on how India does at the World Cup, I will need to take time off! Initially, I'm going for the India-England and the India-Pakistan matches and thereafter for the Super Sixes if India qualifies and all the way to the finals if they make it to the last stage. I think India have a great chance but Sehwag and Sachin should open. If we have the two of them firing away, they could demoralise any opponent.
Sanjay Narang
restaurateur
I'm definitely going to be there. I will be watching the India-England match and the biggest of 'em all - the India-Pakistan battle. I'm flying to South Africa especially for those two matches from February 24 to March 1. I'll be there to catch the cricket action for a week. Unfortunately, I have to be in Bali for a conference from March 18-21 and I can't make it to the final. Right now, I'm just looking forward to my trip but if India does well in the first couple of games, I'll be extremely excited as that would make my trip even better!
Arbaaz Khan
actor
I'm going to watch at least one of the matches live - either India-England or India-Pakistan. ESPN-Star Sports is planning to rope in some Bollywood stars and I just got to know about it on Saturday. So hopefully, I'll be there. It's foolish to make any predictions about the One-day game but I believe India-Pakistan will be the most exciting match in the preliminary rounds. It helps that we've never lost to Pakistan in World Cup matches before as we will definitely go into that game with a psychological edge. Though I would love to be there for the finals and will try to wriggle out of my shooting assignments, I don't think it will be possible. During the '99 World Cup, I had a blast. I travelled around and watched seven of the matches including the finals. My dad is as crazy about cricket as I am but he hates to travel and unfortunately Salman and Sohail are not as passionate about the game as I am. I can't wait for the excitement to begin!
Aqeel Ali
disc jockey
As a hardcore cricket fanatic, I'm just counting down to the day I'll be in South Africa. I will be watching the first phase of the tournament in Mumbai following which I will be in South Africa for the Super Sixes, which start on March 7. My line-up of semi-finalists for the World Cup are South Africa, India, Pakistan and New Zealand. I really believe that our team will spring back to form during the first round of the World Cup. I think India has a 60 per cent chance and South Africa the other 40, so I guess we just have to wait and see which way the scales tip. I am confident India will be in the Super Sixes and I am really looking forward to cheering them on in the South Africa.
Shekhar Suman
television presenter
I will be in South Africa to watch the finals. With or without India, I'm sure it will be nail-biting edge-of-the-seat stuff. Of course, it would be much more exciting if India were playing the final but trying to speculate whether India will make it to final is like wondering whether Devdas will win an Oscar! If India wants to make it to the final, India will have to pull three S's out of its sleeve - Sehwag, Sachin and Sourav!
The Big Dinner Show!
At China Garden in Bombay, FARZANA CONTRACTOR encounters the world's tallest and heaviest entertainer, the wrestler they call BIG SHOW. When she asked him what was the biggest meal he had ever eaten, he scooped her up in his arms and threatened to eat her then and there!
THE closest I had ever come to getting into a full-contact tangle with any muscleman was when I arm-wrestled Hrithik Roshan for an UpperCrust cover story in the monsoon of 2000. Hrithik, 6 feet tall and pumped up with iron and Myoplex, was no pushover. But I held my own. Long enough for a picture to be taken, anyway. However, Bollywood's macho man was no match for WWF's pride, the wrestler called Big Show.
At 7 feet 2 inches tall and weighing a frightening 500 pounds, Big Show is easily the biggest and heaviest man I have ever met. And with 22 inch biceps, a 62 inch chest and 46 inch waist, physically also the most awesome. His shoe size is 17; his neck, 22.5 inches; and his wedding ring size is 22.
Drinking in this information while I waited for Big Show to arrive for his meeting with me, I wondered what kind of woman would want to be married to this giant wrestler. And whether marital disputes were settled at home or in the true fashion of the ring, with chills and spills and Big Show applying the stranglehold when things got ugly. I was to soon find out.
We were meeting for dinner at Nelson Wang's China Garden at Crossroads in Bombay. Big Show, who was brought down to India by the Australian television company Ten Sports, had other engagements at the shopping mall. I believe he was smashing television sets with his bare hands as part of some promotion! At 8 o'clock I heard a commotion enter China Garden and looked up to see my colleague Mark Manuel leading Big Show into the restaurant.
I gaped at the wrestler in amazement. Nothing had prepared me for his sheer size. He filled the restaurant and blocked out the few dozen photographers who trailed in his wake. Mark is no pygmy, but he was completely dwarfed by the hulking giant who lumbered behind him, a broad grin on his big, pink, humourous face. "Hi, I'm Pail Wigha," said Big Show giving out his real name and offering me a fist to shake that had fingers like bananas.
He drew two chairs to my table and gingerly lowered his 500 pounds onto them, one massive buttock resting on each seat. He was dressed in black shorts and a singlet, massive tattooed arms and muscular thighs spilling out of them, like he had come straight from the ring. Edward Wang, Nelson's handsome restaurateur son, came up with a special dinner prepared for Big Show, and I got ready to see how much food the WWF entertainer could put away at one sitting.
The dinner was extravagant. Big dishes of tiger prawns in hot garlic sauce, chilli fish in soya wine, stir-fried vegetables, pepper chicken, corn cream, and vegetable hakka noodles. Plates and plates of it. Edward Wang produced the dishes like a showman. "Big shrimps for a big guy," he said, uncovering the gigantic tiger prawns. He paused, then tentatively reached for Big Show's bicep with both hands. "Wow!" said the excited Chinaman, squeezing the full 22 inches of muscle.
"What's your wife like," I asked Big Show to get the interview rolling. "Oh, she's like Hitler at home," he replied, rolling his eyes. "Her name's Bess. She's Greek, 5 feet 9, blue eyes and gorgeous. And guess what? She's a chef! The way to my heart is really through my stomach! Every night she asks me, 'Honey what do you want to eat?' And I give her the menu! I'm really a steak and potatoes guy. But because Bess is Greek, we often have Greek food at home. I love to go eating out at restaurants. But I get mobbed all the time. So I married a chef! Now I don't have to go out to eat good food, I get it at home! Cooking for me is a full-time job, Bess complains!" He tucked into the Chinese food with such gusto that Wang looked at the near empty dishes somewhat anxiously. "Most nights I don't eat dinner," Big Show said. "I just grab a sandwich.
It's a tough life being a wrestler. Wrestling takes my mind away from everything else. I'm travelling most of the time. And at the end of the day, I am so drained, that I just want to hit the bed." When he was not fighting, he was training, Big Show said. Or licking his wounds! Wrestling was a profession where the worker was very prone to injury. "My neck, legs, back, shoulders, my whole body has taken a beating. Over time anything that can be twisted or broken in the body, goes," he said.
He might have been a top-ranking NBA basketballer instead of a wrestler. And playing alongside or against such American greats as Michael Jordon. When he was 13, Pail Wigha showed great promise of being a good hooper. Then his father who was also his basketball coach passed away. And Pail's life was shattered. Depressed, he gave up basketball and was drifting along until a chance meeting with WWF champion Hulk Hogan changed his life.
"You look like a wrestler," Hogan told Pail Wigha. And that was that. He's been wrestling for the WWF since then and at 30 today, is one of the big draws of the ring. Children around the world adore him because he gives them a show they won't forget. His size (the fearsome Undertaker only comes up to his shoulder!), raw power, charisma and ability to rip up the ring and toss his opponents out, have won Big Show fans around the world. He's been rated as the hottest wrestler on WWF this year. And the most friendly.
What kind of food did he eat to get that kind of awesome strength, I asked Big Show. As I suspected, he said: "A breakfast comprising a 20-egg omelette, a big jar of milk, plenty of juices and a tub of ice-cream. I don't have three main meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. But I eat five small meals. That keeps my metabolism going. Breakfast can also be a huge dish of bacon and potatoes, fresh fruit, cornflakes, a big pot of coffee. Lunch and dinner depends. I get a lot of protein in my diet, I eat plenty of green, leafy vegetables. I get carbohydrates from pasta, sweet potato. I tend to overeat when the food is good, but I'm not a glut. I don't drink though an occasional glass of beer makes me happy! The thing is to be hungry all the time. I've got the power to keep my hunger under control. Which is great because I want to lose weight. I want to come down to 430 pounds. That's easier on my knees and my performance in the ring."
"What was the largest meal you ever ate," I asked Big Show. He chortled heartily. "It lasted from 5 o'clock in the evening to midnight," he revealed. "I was meeting Bess's parents for the first time. They're both chefs and they have a Greek restaurant in Toronto where we ate. For seven hours, the food just kept coming. I had to make a good impression, so I ate everything they put before me".
But there were the advantages and disadvantages to being the heaviest and tallest wrestler in the world, he admitted. Getting clothes and cars that he could fit into was always a problem. "My wife's driving a Corvette convertible that I paid for but can't get into," he complained. And then, when he travels, airlines have to remove three seats to accommodate him or get him to stretch out on the floor! Hotels, likewise, either make a special bed to take his weight and size or invite him to sleep on the floor. "But good or bad, we all have our crosses to bear, I'm not going to bitch about them, I count my blessings."
Man On The Move Hugh Grant Gives Audiences 'Two Weeks Notice'
The master of romantic comedy is all set to strike again with his latest release 'Two Weeks Notice,' in which the 42-year-old actor stars opposite the gorgeous Sandra Bullock.
BY A STYLE WRITER
When it comes to playing the shallow cad, Hugh Grant seems to have that market cornered. At least lately. He has played that kind of character in Bridget Jones Diary', and now returns in fine form as the selfishly egotistical, wealthy corporate boss opposite Sandra Bullock's idealistic lawyer in Two Weeks Notice.
"Yeah, maybe I am good at playing those kind of roles," says Grant in a New York hotel room. "But I think it's bizarre, because I think of myself as a rather deep and meaningful person and am not really interested in the superficialities of life." But he clearly relishes playing the comic rogue on screen, though. "Actors tend to like anything devilish, which is always more fun than being Mister Goody-two-shoes, of which I've done my fair share, and let me tell you that stuff is really hard." Such as those characters in Notting Hill or Four Weddings and A Funeral, which Grant says are "really based on the guy who wrote them, Richard Curtis. It's really hard to pull off and not be obnoxious. On the other hand, if you're being slightly devilish, shallow and womanizing, audiences are much more sympathetic towards you," Grant laughingly admits.
The 42-year-old Brit, fits snugly into the film while doing a certain type of romantic comedy. But finding a good script is often the greatest challenge. "I reject everything that isn't incredibly well written; that's my only real secret in this game," admits the actor. "It means I turn down 990 scripts out of a 1,000, then when I find one that's good I grab it with both hands.
After that I keep working at it, keep bullying the writer and make sure it's as good as it possibly can be." And then of course you need your perfect comic partner. In the case of Two Weeks Notice, it's old friend Sandra Bullock. "Sandra and I have been trying to do it for years and years (work together, that is, let me clarify that)," Grants says laughingly. "I don't know why she'd want to work with me, but I wanted to work with her just because I've always admired her, thought she's the girl, queen of that kind of stuff. She's a brilliant comedienne, gorgeous and charming and I think there's chemistry between us," he adds.
Grant may come across as a good-humoured, nice guy, but the one thing that riles him is the press. There have been moments where he feels the media has gone too far. Rumours were flying thick and fast, for example, that all was not well on the set of Two Weeks Notice. Though Grant admits that there's nothing one can do about what is written by misinformed journalists, nevertheless he doesn't handle it well. "I'm enraged. If someone prints a blatant lie about you or the film you've worked on really hard, you do grind your teeth. How could you not?" questions the angry actor. He also has opinions about the whole celebrity/media circus that exists in today's Hollywood. "I don't mind promoting a film, that's absolutely fine; you do a press junket, that's great, as you get a chance to talk about the film. But apart from that, I don't personally feel that actors have any responsibility to cooperate with the celebrity soap opera that sells magazines and TV shows around the world. I really think my only duty is to try and make a film that's entertaining. So if I'm chased in the street by a photographer, and I say, 'Please go away, I'm doing my shopping, and they say, 'Ah, but you love it.' The truthful honest answer is that, no, I don't love it, and nor do I need it in any shape or form. All I know is that my films are good and I am not crap in them."
As for him handling the paparazzi, here are the rules according to the always dashing Mr. Grant. "You should just always smile, that's what politicians do. You smile within the focal range of their camera so they can't get a picture, and then you kick them hard in the kneecaps. Then of course you walk away regretting it bitterly." It's hard to imagine that Grant has been a professional actor since the early eighties, but it was the low-budget hit comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral that escalated his career, and led to an ongoing professional relationship with Richard Curtis.
While Grant excels in being comedically romantic on screen, off screen, he has a more barbed view of romance, agreeing, that "perhaps I am a bit cynical. But very often the older you get the more open you get ." He also jumps back and forth on that whole "quitting acting" line which he often throws around. "I'm truly schizophrenic about that. I have days, mornings, when I think, 'yeah, this is a good job. It's going well. I like it and other days when I think it's demeaning and ghastly. Also there's too much pressure, especially these days with this madness of films having to be huge opening films and all that."
(Courtesy Paul Fischer)
Want Some 'R n' R'?
Roopam, the fashion house, offers its elite clientele 'Ramp-n-Rack' - a unique showroom that doubles up as a ramp!
BY A STYLE WRITER
Roopam, yes, the popular designer store at Crawford Market, always has the last word in fashion! And with its latest venture Ramp n' Rack, Roopam has introduced a novel concept to its clientele. Ramp-n-Rack is a showroom, which enables the store to flaunt and display its designerwear, and it doubles up as a ramp. How's that for high fashion!
Located on the fifth floor of the Roopam Store, Ramp-n-Rack is designed in such a way, that within minutes, the showroom, with all its stacks of creations, can be turned into a ramp. This unique concept is said to be the brainchild of proprietor Viren Shah, who has seen to it that the interiors act as the perfect canvas for the streaks of colour that will flash across the make-shift ramp. The interiors are unassuming and yet form the perfect setting for a fashion show, offering the fashion fraternity everything it needs to organise a perfect show.
And that's not all - Ramp-n-Rack will also act as a launchpad for upcoming designers, as it is both a venue and a label that is aimed at bringing to the discerning buyer the best of all that Indian fashion has to offer. Here's how Ramp-n-Rack will function: Both, Western and Indian garments designed by established and upcoming designers will be first showcased by models on a specially-built ramp. The following day, this floor is tuned into an elegant viewing gallery where clients can browse through the same garments on easily accessible racks. Designers will be allowed to showcase their garments in an exclusive setting with superb state-of-the-art lighting from New York, and resounding music, which will compliment the show.
A separate green room has also been provided for convenience. Ramp-n-Rack has an elaborate seating arrangement that will accommodate 150 guests, as well as a discreet bar area! There will be shows, displaying garments by its in-house designers as well. Roopam also offers the services of its in-house choreographers and models. Roopam is hoping that this revolutionary change in the forty-year-old fashion house, will give Mumbai an extra dose of high fashion.
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