The Hindu Business Line : Glitzy fashion show

Vijay Darda heads the Lokmat group of Marathi newspapers. He is also a second-term MP in the Rajya Sabha. In fact, he is a part of a very political family. His late father was the Power Minister of Maharashtra and his brother the Home Minister in the previous State Cabinet.

Vijay Darda is also very active in our industry affairs. He was President of the INS many years ago and is a Council member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Against this background, an invitation from him for a fashion show and dinner at the Hilton Towers held forth great promise.

Family fashions

Rachna Darda is Vijay's daughter-in-law and the fashion show was to turn the spotlight on a fashion line created by her, as well as a line of jewellery created by Vijay Darda's daughter.

The event must have left every young designer wishing she had a similar launch pad.

The elite were there in force. Subroto Roy, the `Saharashri,' was there in the full glare of the media putting all rumours about his ill health to rest once and for all. Subhash Chandra of Zee, Girish Agarwal of Dainik Bhaskar and Bhaskar Das of the Times Group were some of the media friends present. Venugopal Dhoot, Vijaypat Singhania, A.K.Shukla (Chairman, LIC), Smita Thackeray, Deepak Parekh of HDFC and Minister Praful Patel were some of the other heavies who made for a heady social cocktail. In classic political style,

One must say the fashion show, the dance acts, the lighting and the entire event were run in a tight seamless, professional manner.

Broadway in Mumbai

If you thought DNA was launched two-and-a-half months ago, you are right. Yet, we were shown an invitation to a wine-and-cheese event that spoke about the "launch of DNA." The Tata group and DNA brought a little of Broadway magic to Mumbai and the premiere show was strictly by invitation. The show, called Spirit of Broadway, was held at the NCPA complex. An entire Broadway team had been flown in from the UK and the US to perform a kind of medley of some of the immortal hits on Broadway. One is told that the regular shows of this Broadway performance (it is on for a few days) are ticketed pretty steeply. But then, these shows are few and far in between so they have great appeal.

Kumarmangalam Birla and some of the top Tata brass like Ravi Kanth were there. Anil Kapoor of FCB Ulka, Arun Nanda of Rediffusion DY&R, Colvyn Harris and Mike Khanna from JWT, Kamath of Mudra and Balsara of Madison, along with the usual advertising party-going suspects, were there. Piyush Pandey came in shorts. No, this was not creative licence, the poor guy had one foot in a big cast! He didn't know it, but what he thought was a painful sprain turned out to be multiple fractures. The general reaction was that it was a rather impressive show.

AAAI seminar

After keeping it a closely guarded secret, it looks like the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) in its diamond jubilee year is poised to have a pretty interesting convention between November 9 and 11.

Shashi Tharoor, Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Irwin Gotlieb, the media-buying czar, Tony Wright, CEO, Lowe Worldwide, and Michael Birkin, Vice-Chairman, Omnicon Group Worldwide, are some of the heavyweights who will address the convention. Honestly, the list looks more impressive than the speakers at the Singapore AdAsia which begins on November 20. One would rather go for that (not that anyone's inviting me to the AdAsia)!

AdAsia

Don't worry, with the large Indian delegation that is packing its bags for Singapore, we will find some very good sources to keep you informed with interesting bits of news on all that happens there. Incidentally, guess who is sending the largest single group to Singapore at this moment? It's the Eenadu Group, with 14 members. Looks like things are certainly humming along in Hyderabad!

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