Wednesday, November 21, 2007
SRK: I am the king of the world
The OSO book launch had more to it than juicy sound bytes
It's been ten days since the film released but the hype just doesn't seem to settle down. Last evening Shah Rukh Khan and his entire OSO team launched a book on the making of Om Shanti Om. And contrary to tabloid reports no one from the Saawariya camp was spotted or for that matter even missed.
Though such books are normally written as retrospectives decades after a film achieves cult status, SRK doesn't believe in wasting time. No one missed an opportunity to assert the fact that OSO had broken all records in the shortest time span possible. Poor Tom Cruise was the butt of all jokes as his film lost out to OSO's initial box office draw. In fact Sajid Khan-who was the emcee of the show, introduced SRK as 'officially the world’s biggest superstar'.
The event was held at the Sahara Star Hotel (perhaps another sign of SRK's growing association with Subarato Roy’s group) in Mumbai. It started off on a low key with early birds Vivek Vaswaney, Sanjay Gadhvi, Anju Mahendroo and a host of OSO technicians- most of whom you saw in the closing credits of the film. Things picked up with Karan Johar's arrival. Soon Subhash Ghai, Manish Malhotra, Madhur Bhandarkar, Suneil Shetty, Dino Morea and Riteish Deshmukh also walked in. Almost all the women had some secret to whisper in Johar's ears. Whereas Manish was engaged in some serious conversation about fashion with Suneel Darshan.
Among the women Ameesha Patel, was togged up in a short, revealing sky blue dress and she attracted all the attention. Sporting a new haircut, she went up individually to greet all the big daddies and in the bargain made sure those who mattered noticed her new look. Tabu sat quietly in one corner and was seen chatting mainly with KJo until Dino joined in. Arjun Rampal came in with his ravishing wife but quickly rushed backstage to join the proceedings. Meher looked rather unaffected by the spotlight on Rampal post OSO.
And then came the moment everybody was waiting for. True to his character in the film, SRK made a fashionably late entry with Farah and Deepika. The author Mushtaq Sheikh was showered with praises from the entire unit and even his acting skills (he has a cameo in the drunken scene) were complimented. While SRK's anti-BCCI statement obviously made headlines, behaving like a senior he refused to take all the credit for the success of the film.
But he did say that post OSO he truly felt 'like the king of the world'. SRK tried his best to keep every media guy happy giving bytes even as he was walking out. Modesty be damned, Farah said she knew the film would be an event so most of the book was written on the sets like a diary. She said just like the film the book was for the masses and she wouldn't like to call it a coffee table book. But there were more juicy bits to the evening.
Speaking of coffee here's an interesting bit: Now we all know that KJo is a marketing genius and loves to promote himself. So when a diamond merchant wanted him to do a Koffee With Karan at one of his private bashes, Johar didn't mind and passed on his agent's contacts. Apparently Johar does his rapid fire act at many a high profile event for big bucks. In fact he is as big a star as his fav actor. Just look at the number of people chasing him for photos and autographs and you will know about Karan's fan following.
Sajid made sure his pregnant sister was well taken care of watching every step of hers. But Gauri Khan made the most stylish entry of them all. Looking every bit the first lady of Bollywood, she sat with her select friends while the rest came up to meet her. She mainly stuck around with Mana Shetty, Neelam, Bhavna Pandey, Shabina Khan, Kajal Anand and Maheep Kapoor. In fact the only person Gauri walked up to meet was Subrato Roy thanking him for all his support. Ditto SRK who walked back from the exit to say a quick hello to the Sahara man. King Khan seems to be walking over Bachchan's exclusive domain rather quickly.
Also spotted were TV guys Hiten, Gauri and Ronit Roy who looked bored and quite frankly slightly out of place. In the end it was another feather in OSO's already crowded cap of successful promotions. Wonder if they will ever stop? But one producer summed it up well. Overheard him saying, "OSO has raised the bar for hype in Bollywood. While this has been a boon for its collections, all other films look small. Now nothing is good enough for the people".
Anand Vaishnav | Buzz18
It's been ten days since the film released but the hype just doesn't seem to settle down. Last evening Shah Rukh Khan and his entire OSO team launched a book on the making of Om Shanti Om. And contrary to tabloid reports no one from the Saawariya camp was spotted or for that matter even missed.
Though such books are normally written as retrospectives decades after a film achieves cult status, SRK doesn't believe in wasting time. No one missed an opportunity to assert the fact that OSO had broken all records in the shortest time span possible. Poor Tom Cruise was the butt of all jokes as his film lost out to OSO's initial box office draw. In fact Sajid Khan-who was the emcee of the show, introduced SRK as 'officially the world’s biggest superstar'.
The event was held at the Sahara Star Hotel (perhaps another sign of SRK's growing association with Subarato Roy’s group) in Mumbai. It started off on a low key with early birds Vivek Vaswaney, Sanjay Gadhvi, Anju Mahendroo and a host of OSO technicians- most of whom you saw in the closing credits of the film. Things picked up with Karan Johar's arrival. Soon Subhash Ghai, Manish Malhotra, Madhur Bhandarkar, Suneil Shetty, Dino Morea and Riteish Deshmukh also walked in. Almost all the women had some secret to whisper in Johar's ears. Whereas Manish was engaged in some serious conversation about fashion with Suneel Darshan.
Among the women Ameesha Patel, was togged up in a short, revealing sky blue dress and she attracted all the attention. Sporting a new haircut, she went up individually to greet all the big daddies and in the bargain made sure those who mattered noticed her new look. Tabu sat quietly in one corner and was seen chatting mainly with KJo until Dino joined in. Arjun Rampal came in with his ravishing wife but quickly rushed backstage to join the proceedings. Meher looked rather unaffected by the spotlight on Rampal post OSO.
And then came the moment everybody was waiting for. True to his character in the film, SRK made a fashionably late entry with Farah and Deepika. The author Mushtaq Sheikh was showered with praises from the entire unit and even his acting skills (he has a cameo in the drunken scene) were complimented. While SRK's anti-BCCI statement obviously made headlines, behaving like a senior he refused to take all the credit for the success of the film.
But he did say that post OSO he truly felt 'like the king of the world'. SRK tried his best to keep every media guy happy giving bytes even as he was walking out. Modesty be damned, Farah said she knew the film would be an event so most of the book was written on the sets like a diary. She said just like the film the book was for the masses and she wouldn't like to call it a coffee table book. But there were more juicy bits to the evening.
Speaking of coffee here's an interesting bit: Now we all know that KJo is a marketing genius and loves to promote himself. So when a diamond merchant wanted him to do a Koffee With Karan at one of his private bashes, Johar didn't mind and passed on his agent's contacts. Apparently Johar does his rapid fire act at many a high profile event for big bucks. In fact he is as big a star as his fav actor. Just look at the number of people chasing him for photos and autographs and you will know about Karan's fan following.
Sajid made sure his pregnant sister was well taken care of watching every step of hers. But Gauri Khan made the most stylish entry of them all. Looking every bit the first lady of Bollywood, she sat with her select friends while the rest came up to meet her. She mainly stuck around with Mana Shetty, Neelam, Bhavna Pandey, Shabina Khan, Kajal Anand and Maheep Kapoor. In fact the only person Gauri walked up to meet was Subrato Roy thanking him for all his support. Ditto SRK who walked back from the exit to say a quick hello to the Sahara man. King Khan seems to be walking over Bachchan's exclusive domain rather quickly.
Also spotted were TV guys Hiten, Gauri and Ronit Roy who looked bored and quite frankly slightly out of place. In the end it was another feather in OSO's already crowded cap of successful promotions. Wonder if they will ever stop? But one producer summed it up well. Overheard him saying, "OSO has raised the bar for hype in Bollywood. While this has been a boon for its collections, all other films look small. Now nothing is good enough for the people".
Anand Vaishnav | Buzz18
Labels: Arjun Rampal, Deepika Padukone, Farah Khan, Kirron Kher, Om Shanti Om, Shahrukh Khan, Shreyas Talpade
Posted By Ivan Me ... at 8:06 PM
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