SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2013 I ADVERTORIAL, ENTERTAINMENT PROMOTIONAL FEATURE I MUMBAI

MUMBAI ISTALKINGABOUT

Why isSonam allsmiles?

UDITA HAD HIT ON ME FIRST

Priya Gupta

Mohit Suri, 32, has come a long way from thetime he started off at 16 as an office boy forthe Bhatts, delivering cassettes to the T-

Series office. He is an open book for his family and hasno secrets. His films may have failed him in thepast,but his music has not. Over an hour-long conver-sation with Bombay Times, just ahead of his releaseAashiqui2, he talked about his complex relationshipwith his father, why he didn’t miss his mother andwhat makes Mahesh Bhatt special for him in his life.Excerpts:Let’s talk about your childhood?I was born and brought up in Mumbai. My mother isthe youngest sister of Mukesh and Mahesh Bhatt. Myfather was a non-filmi guy from Delhi and fell in lovewith my mother, who was an air-hostess at that time,and moved to Mumbai for her. My dad was workingwith Dunlop and we travelled all over till, when I wasfive, we moved back to Mumbai to start afresh. Hestarted manufacturing computers and would go hou-se-to-house selling, building a market for a businessthat was not established at that time. We had financialissues. When I was eight, my mother died of a cardiacarrest at 37, just before the release of the originalAashiqui that was dedicated to her. I was too young tobe able to recall my mother, but I could give you a day-to-day account of my father after my mother died. Hebrought me up while my older sister Smiley Surimoved in with my mother’s mausie, who was alsoEmraan Hashmi’s nani, and she grew up with him. Itwas assumed that I being the boy would be able tobear the hardship of living without my mom. Myfather and I lived in a one-bed room house and lived alife of pulling beds, when he had girlfriends comingover. I would say, ‘Let me sleep, I have school tomor-row.’ My sister never understood that, but by the ageof 10 I started understanding that he needed a girl-friend. I never had a deadline in school, as my fatherknew that I would never do anything wrong. I havememories of my sneaking back home at 11 trying tocreate an artificial pressure for myself only to realisethat my father was not at home still and would sneakin even later, not wanting to wake me up.

Prathamesh Bandekar Prathamesh Bandekar

Sunayana Suresh

Ashwin Sanghi is someone whohas grown up on a generous dietof classics, non-fiction and best-

sellers. His idea of writing is to enter-tain and enlighten. The author is wo-

rking on his next two books cur-rently. One of these is a collabo-

ration with American authorJames Patterson (who has

had 19 consecutive num-ber one bestselling

novels) for a crimethriller that will beout in early 2014.Excerpts from achat with theIndian

author…

You were comfortably ‘settled’ in your familybusiness. What made you take to writing?I’ve always been fascinated by books. When Iwas young, my grandfather used to hand out abook — which would be anything from a biog-raphy to a classic — to me every week and askme to write a piece on what I thought about it.On the other hand, my mother used to love read-ing thrillers and bestsellers. These would beeverything from the Frederick Forsyths to theSidney Sheldons and these page turners wouldautomatically be passed on to me. I grew up witha mix of two varied sensibilities — one of thementertained and the other enlightened. As formy dabbling with writing, it was a chance tripin Kashmir that got me obsessed with a particu-lar tomb. I became so obsessed with readingevery possible detail about this, where the ideaof writing a story based on this became a natu-ral offshoot. And that’s how my journey intowriting began.Your books have a lot history and mythology.How do you choose on them?I believe that patterns tend to repeat themselvesand there are connections between the past andthe present. There is the old proverb that reads‘you can’t know where you’re going if you don’tknow where you’ve been’. For me history is likethat. When you take history and combine it withmyth, then you get mystery. That is what getsmy adrenaline rushing. This is the reason whyall my books, until now have been in that spacewhere history meets mythology. Going forward,with my next two books, I am going away fromthat space, because my project with James ispurely a contemporary project.

CONTINUED

ON PAGE 6

My idea of writing is to enlightenand yet entertain: Ashwin Sanghi

Sushmita Sen and Nicholai Sachdev at an exhibition titled The Moderns at Gallery 7at Rampart Row, Kala Ghoda. The display, which has rare and significant works byMF Husain, Tyeb Mehta, SH Raza, VS Gaitonde and Ramkumar, is curated bySachdev and is on till May 30. For more, turn to page 6

Mohit Suri

Pra

tham

esh B

and

ekar

2CONTINUED ON PAGE !

Bharati Dubey

It’s not just about gunpower. Ekta Kapoor’s ShootoutAt Wadala seems to have some

hot scenes as well. Just check outKangana Ranaut and JohnAbraham’s intimate on-screen moments andyou will know whatwe are talkingabout.

KanganaRanaut andJohnAbraham

KANGANA-JOHNGET STEAMY

AshwinSanghi

$������. _ _ _

������ _ _ _

EXPERIENCE CLEAN-UP SERVICES AT AT LAKM 5ALDN

a

0

LAKME NOURISHING GLOW CLEAN-UP

Salon Daniel BauerLakmé ExpertE

ProfessionalMakeup

��/ (Qf l&OR8

Stylish western-wear atPremson House, Broachcnndy .t 2363660C

The launch of thenew contemporaryart destination

Gallery 7 opened its doors atRampart Row, Kala Ghoda.The brainchild of Arun andChandra Sachdev, thegallery hosted its first show‘The Moderns’, which wasattended by prominentnames. The Sachdevs’ sonNicholai played his partwell as the host and thebrain behind the exhibition.Besides Sushmita Sen, wespotted Narendra Kumar,Anil Chopra, SharmilaKhanna, Kunal Kohli andAarti Surendranath.

TV actor HussainKuwajerwala andactress Anjali Patil

were in for many compli-ments at the premiere oftheir film Shree, which rele-ased April 26. Produced byVikram M Shah underCiemme Entertainm-ent, the film isdirected by RajeshBachchani. Themovie also starsParesh Ganatra,Paritosh Sand,Shivani Tanksale,Rio Kapadia andJeetedra. ChetanN Bafna is the exec-utive producer, andBharti Bachchaniis the associate co-producer. Many ofHussain’s friendsfrom the TV fraterni-ty were in atten-dance.

Vishal-Shekhar,along with sev-eral others, per-

formed at a concert dur-ing the Shiv GauravPurashkar 2013 byVihang and PurveshSarnaik of SanskrutiTrust in Thane.

The event was held tohonour Maharashtr-ians, Vihang andPurvesh who’ve workedfor drought-affectedpeople. It was also thebrothers’ birthday giftto their father PratapSarnaik. The moneyfrom the concert will beused to buy watertankers for droughtaffected areas adoptedby the trust.

SUNDAY 28 APRIL 2013BOMBAY TIMES, THE TIMES OF INDIA

6 MUMBAI IS TALKING ABOUT

A premiere for friends and family

CELEBRATINGMODERN ART

Jamming forwater woes

Rahul Vaidya and Vishal Dadlani

Vikram Phadnis and AftabShivdasani

Shekhar Ravjiani and Abhijeet Sawant

Pratap Sarnaik and Rohit Roy

Vihang Sarnaik, Sammir Dattani and Purvesh Sarnaik

Pic

s:

Pra

tham

esh B

and

ekar

Kasha Sachdev with Sushmita Sen

Kavita and Nicholai Sachdev

Nikhil and Sahil Sangha Kamal Sidhu Sabina Chopra Kunal Kohli

Pria Kataria Puri

Jaanvi, Rohit Dhawan and Chandra Sachdev

Hussain and Tina Kuwajerwala

Debina Bonnerjee and Gurmeet Choudhry Kishwer Merchant Karan V Grover

Vikram M Shah and Paresh Ganatra Rajesh Bachchani Anjali Patil

Pics: Anuja Gupta

As for my next book, itdoes have elements of his-tory, but it is about mod-ern history, set in 1937, 10years before Independe-nce. My idea of writing isto enlighten and yet enter-tain.A lot of authors thesedays are fascinated withmythology when itcomes to fiction…I think it is partly becausewe are in India and India isa treasurehouse of sto-ries. We area country of storytellers,and for the longest time, itwas an oral tradition. Wehave tons of these storieswhich the younger genera-tions aren’t aware of. But,we cannot tell the story inits own form, as it won’thold interest. This is wherepeople like me come intopicture, where we take ele-ments of from those sto-ries and give them a mod-ern twist, most often in theform of a thriller.You’re collaborating withJames Patterson. Whatcan readers expect out ofthis association?It is a modern day crimethriller. While it does havethe Ashwin Sanghi ele-ments to the narrative, forall practical purposes it is a

modern day crime thriller.James is the most prolificthriller writer that there is.There is a method to hismadness. His publishershad read my works. I got acall from them asking if Iwould be open to writing abook with James, since hewas writing one set inIndia. He doesn’t want todo it on his own as he felthe would lose its flavour.This is how this alliancehappened. I am quitethrilled about this. The

book shouldbe out inearly 2014.

Your contemporaries arenow writing screenplays.Will you follow suit?It may sound very strange,but I love the freedom thatwriting a novel gives me. Itis an unhindered experi-ence. If I come after a badday, I can decide that myprotagonist will die onpage 100 of my novel in a350-page story. I could takethe action of my storyfrom Mumbai to Venice toTimbuktu to Tokyo andnot have to worry aboutwill it do to the productionof the film. That freedomof writing you don’t get inother formats, I’d ratherleave it to someone else todeal with the headache ofdrafting my book into ascreenplay.

I don’t want to deal withthe headache of draftingmy book into a screenplay

1CONTD FROM PAGE !

AshwinSanghi

Pra

tham

esh B

and

ekar

Get the free Alive app: Give a missed call to18001023324 or visit aliveapp.in.

Open Alive app on your phone &scan this picture by focussing

your phone’s camera on it. On Android/iOS, itwill scan automatically. On BB & Symbian, goto options & capture; for Windows, tap onscreen to capture & hold still over image.

Watch the photo come alive.View it & share it with friends.

STEP 2

Available on selectAndroid (version 2.2 &above), iOS (version 4.3& above), BB (version5.0 & above), Windows(version 7.5 & above)and Symbian (versionS60 & above) handsets.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD & USE ALIVE APP

STEP 3

Watch John talk about charging`15cr for his next, using Alive

JohnAbraham

HOT LAUNCH

*Data charges may apply

PRESENTS

2013

VILLAS, BUNGALOWS, ROW HOUSES, FARMHOUSES,

& RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES, PENTHOUSES,SECOND HOMES, PLOTS & OTHERS

LAST DAY TODAY

EXHIBITI ONShE EVENT S

V�EXHIBITIONFOCUSING ON GOA PROPERTIES

TIlE TIMES OF INDIA

GDAPROPERTY FAIR

MUMBAI

Ill ;1 II

Ii’s Summer time... Shape up Now !For Persona l, professional , beauty salon,s limming center, ... �������������

Advance slimming machine with multip le programs . Fat Loss, InchLoss , Toning & Firming, Tummy Tuck, Figure Correction ,

BlO B EAUTY MED F orf lemocall

Also available LIPO ,physiotheropy 9819299798electro-sur gicol qenerator, beauty salon equipments....

ypu I,MJ �AI �����bf I S 5 • I.JI U SI 1 f l

�€ Sarees * Dhotres * Skirts * Saiwars * Banaras SareesDirect Purchase byKANCHIPURAM SILK SOCIETYfro m 28-04-2013 to 05-05-2013Time : 1 Oam-7 pm I All Days OpenBring this paper cutting with Saree &GET FREE Gold Nose Bit 2OTch

• Sandra • Borivali • Cliembur • Colaba • flombivali53 Centres , Kandivali (E&W) • Naiad • Mulund • Oshiwara • Peddar25 Cities Road • Powai Santacruz . Thane • Vashi • Versova • Vira r

Win The Fight Against Hair Thinnin g WithRICHFEI�1 anagi�ww

jrGr��h a �������� HairL�s

������� Dec d��������

World’s First Hair Thinning Treatment With Plant Stem Cell Extracts (PCI Rejuve Max)

EANNUAL CONSULTATION ÷ HAIR ANALYSIS1 TI T i’ �r’ T+ SCALP ANALYSIS WORTH I A A I’ J L

I IRICHOL OGY C E N T R E

L � 99�l” FOB ��295/” o.LY J Ka �r A n d S c a l p C l i n i c

Surgical & Non.Surgical Hair Restoration Solutions also available. To book an appointmentSurgery starting @ 49,999/• and Call: 6677 8877Nom.Surgical Solutions starting @ 10.000/. only. onn �

YET GAGA�VER YOGA ?

V

I

VV____(�

TIMESCLASSiFiE��

TO PLACEAN ADVERTISEMENT

IN THIS SECTIONCALL JAYESH9819799166