Tag: shahrukh khan

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Cinema@100

When Dharam paaji changed clothes on the roads

Up to the 1980s, Indian film stars would change in makeup rooms or people’s homes or even in secluded woods. Vanity vans didn’t exist till the late 1980s.
by Jatin Sharma

Vanity vans are an essential part of film stars’ lives today. Why just film stars, even starlets shooting for music videos or ads get their own vanity van these days, depending on the production house and its budget.

Shahrukh Khan’s vanity van costs almost the same as the budget for a small movie: a whopping Rs 3.5 crore. It has all the facilities that a little house can provide: an air conditioner, a refrigerator, an oven, a master bedroom, massage seats, and many more that one could never imagine were fitted inside what is, essentially, a vehicle.

Salman Khan’s vanity van took about seven months to be designed and finished as it had to be customised for the Khan. His van even has a ramp that allows his car to get in and out.

manmohan desaiThough you’d think that vanity vans have been around forever – after all, how would one dress and put on makeup and rest in between shots, if not for a vanity van – you would be suprised to know that yesteryear megastars like Rajesh Khanna, Madhubala, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Hema Malini, Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan spent most of their careers without a vanity van. In fact, the first vanity van came to Bollywood in the late 1980s when Manmohan Desai (in pic on left) gifted one to Amitabh Bachchan.

This information was shared by the ever-charming Dharam paaji when I interviewed him during the promotions of Yamla Pagla Deewana, in which he starred with his sons Sunny and Bobby. Dharam paaji revealed lot of things about the Hindi film industry, and one of them was interesting story about what stars and indeed, all actors, did before vanity vans became the norm in Bollywood.

I asked him, “How did the stars manage before vanity vans?”

He replied, “Whenever the shooting was in the studio, we would share makeup rooms. We would get an individual makeup room if we were that important. And whenever we used to go to shoot outdoors, we would ask the production people to form a circle and change our clothes on the roads or behind the trees, sometimes.”

In the case of female actors, he said, the story was even more interesting. “They would go to people’s houses in the vicinity of the shoot. And if the location was not closer to the shoot, then a four-pole tribal tent would be erected, where the actress could change. Five or six dharmendraproduction people would provide security for her.”

He added that makeup would be done on the road or in the production bus, whose actual purpose was to shift the film equipment and crew from spot to spot.

“It was Manmohan Desai, the director and producer who was a visionary. He got the first vanity van for himself as he had a back pain. (In it, he is learnt to have fit a bed, a television set and even a mirror to watch the TV even with his back to it!) And later he got the first vanity van for his star Amitabh Bachchan. All the other stars of Indian cinema then got exposed to the luxury of a vanity van, and realised they could enjoy some privacy if they had a vanity van of their own. Now, of course, everybody has one.”

(Pictures courtesy pawanpipalwa.blogspot.com, www.gomolo.com, www.funrahi.com)

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Cinema@100

The secret world of Shahrukh Khan

One of Hindi cinema’s megastars has unfulfilled dreams – impossible as it sounds – and they involve guitars and women.
by Jatin Sharma

While producing a show for UTV Stars, Live My Life, I was meeting people close to Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan to get some insights into his life. We were looking to get a glimpse of this Khan’s life away from the arc lights. Does he do normal things like the rest of us? What does he do to unwind? What makes him laugh?

shahrukh khanMost importantly, what does one of Hindi film industry’s most powerful men dream of? We were trying to get all this and more.

After the work wrapped up, in my head, I started calling SRK ‘Dream Khan’. There is something about this star that is different and enchanting.

Those who know him say that his habits and preferences are like that of a child. But he deals with situations like a master. He is disarmingly honest, and he has a wicked sense of humour that catches you off-guard. Proud of his Delhi origins, he is equally at home in Mumbai. And on the subject of home, what we learnt during the shoot was that one could catch this Khan at his honest best in his home surroundings.

We shot a volley of questions at him, he retorted with several smart answers.

Phone disturbing you? Keep it in the bathroom! 
The first thing we understood about him was that he is a family man in the real sense of the term. He would shoot till late at night, sometimes pull an all-nighter, but he would still be up early to drop the kids off at school if they had an examination. He loves spending time with his family so much, that to avoid distractions, he is known to keep his mobile phone in the bathroom! It’s weird to some people, but it helps him Shahrukh khan with his family at his home Mannat 1_thumbnot check on his phone all the time.

Sleep-walking with fairies
Another thing we learnt about him was that he won’t get into his night clothes till they are perfectly ironed. Yes, he sleeps in crisply-ironed clothes. Apart from this, he liberally douses himself with perfume before going to bed. Reason? He feels that if the fairies come to him while he sleeps, he should smell nice.

Dreams unlimited
When I asked him what his real dreams were, dreams that kept ticking away in his waking thoughts, he confessed to a few things. “I want a jeep like the one in the song ‘Mere sapnon ki rani’ from the film Aradhana.” And then he said, “My dream is to learn to play the guitar.” This Khan has strummed the guitar and charmed several of his leading ladies in his films, but in real life, he doesn’t know the first thing about playing the instrument. He added that his dream for several years was to learn to play the guitar, and then find women and children (not men) and play for them. “I would just need fuel for my jeep and I would go all over the place playing my guitar for them.”

Shah-Rukh-Khan-playing-a-guitarAnother dream, he said, was to have a lot of public toilets for women. “I think sanitation for women is grossly overlooked in our country. I want to correct this. And if I can combine two dreams – I would play the guitar outside women’s toilets!”

Endorsing Videocon
“As a child, I wanted to watch the football World Cup (he used to be an avid footballer himself). My mother bought the first TV in our house; it was a Videocon TV set. I would watch the World Cup while pressing her feet. So the brand is very special for me.”

His other home in Bandra
Not many people know that he owns a penthouse on Carter Road in Bandra, with stunning all-round views of the sea. He told me a story about this house. “It’s a lovely house, and you can see the sea from all its windows. It’s a stunning place. When my mother-in-law first visited us, she looked at the views and said, ‘What’s this?’

Very humbly I replied, ‘Yeh mera ghar hai (This is my house).’

‘Yeh ghar hai? Yeh toh jahaaz hai! (You call this a house? It’s a ship!)’ she said. I resolved to move Gauri to a house that would remove all misgivings from her mother’s mind.” And he later bought Mannat.

(Pictures courtesy bestfwallpapers.blogspot.com, donshahrukhkhan.blogspot.com, www.koimoi.com, www.upperstall.com)

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Big story

Revenue loss of Rs 25,000 crore to Maharashtra?

An RTI query reveals that Maharashtra loses a staggering Rs 25,000 crore per year through corruption on land lease deals.
Shailesh Gandhiby Shailesh Gandhi

[Background: Four months after the Maharashtra State Government revised its rates for leased plots in the city, 149 occupants of such plots in Mumbai’s suburbs have begun receiving notices asking them to either start paying the revised annual lease rent – running into several hundred times what they have been paying so far – or a onetime occupancy fee (ie one-fifth of the plot’s Ready Reckoner value). They will have until the end of 2013 to choose either option. Some of these names include actor Shahrukh Khan and industrialists Azim Premji and Ratan Tata. Till now, they had been paying nominal rents up to Rs 2,500 per year.]

Would you believe that Maharashtra loses over Rs 25,000 crore annually because of carelessness/corruption, and this has not been exposed so far?

The recent scams which have been unearthed give me a feeling that we may actually be quite well off with enough resources. If the lakhs of crores of public resources being given away and snatched away by the few were to come to the public exchequer, we could be quite comfortable as a nation. I have been pursuing one such scam in Maharashtra in which I believe a few thousand crores of public money is being lost to benefit a few.

Maharashtra’s debt is about Rs 2.7 lakh crore, and we pay the interest for this. A State owns many resources on behalf of citizens. One of these resources is land. Governments sell some of the lands and give some on lease. The idea behind giving certain lands on lease is to basically have an inflation-proof investment and sometimes, to encourage  certain activities. Hence it offers lands on lease. It wishes to retain the land so that it may basically ensure that its revenue matches with the growth in inflation.

A lease is legal transaction which primarily lays down the area which is leased, purpose for which the land is to be used, period of lease, lease rent and certain other conditions. When the lease expires, it may be renewed with the lessor increasing the lease rent as per the market price which reflect the inflation in the intervening period.

When any individual or institution gives land or a property on lease and the lease expires, a fresh lease is drawn up at the prevailing market rates if the lessee wants to continue. This simple principle has not been followed in Mumbai and possibly in the State of Maharashtra. I have been told that this is true all over the country.  Some leases are renewed, while some are allowed to continue occupying the land at the old rates. What are the reasons for such irrational actions?

This may be due to carelessness or corruption.

From 2005 onwards

I had discovered this in 2005 and drawn the attention of the Chief Secretary to this in a letter titled ‘Arbitrariness and huge loss of public money in public lands given on lease’. I have now got the scanned copy of the file relating to this which has over 600 pages over the years, and has ended on a bizarre note. The Supreme Court in the 2G case has said, “In conclusion, we hold that the State is the legal owner of the natural resources as a trustee of the people and although it is empowered to distribute the same, the process of distribution must be guided by the constitutional principles including the doctrine of equality and larger public good.” The poorest man who may be starving is an equal and rightful owner of this land, and it is necessary that the appropriate revenue is obtained for him.

I looked at the list of leases of lands given by the two Collectors of Mumbai (obtained in RTI) and decided to calculate the worth of the lands where lease deeds have expired and unauthorised occupiers are allowed to continue.

Let me first share the route the Maharashtra Government has decided to adopt after eight years of confabulations: The Government has decided to offer the lands to the lessees at about 20 to 30 per cent of the value! I am shocked at this irrational action of the Government and think it is about time, citizens defend their revenue by telling the Government they will not accept this approach. The detailed calculations are given in the attached two excel spreadsheets. In the case of the information about leases provided by the Mumbai collector, in 103 cases there is no mention of the lease date and period of lease. Despite a specific query by me using RTI, the PIO has said they will need two to three months to provide this information!

How I arrived at my calculations

There are also other Government agencies like BMC which  have similar lands in Mumbai. My calculation estimates that there is an annual loss of about Rs 1,550 crore by Mumbai Collector  and about Rs 1,200 crore due to the Suburban collector, i.e. a total revenue loss of Rs 2,750 crore each year. The Government now proposes to give away ownership rights to the lessees for Rs 2,248 plus Rs 1,841 crore one time!

Citizens must protest before the Government dispossess us of our land and legitimate revenue. If we can get the Government to auction the leases in Mumbai and all over Maharashtra we could have a revenue stream of over Rs 25,000 crore each year. Citizens and media need to make the Government get the appropriate revenue by fixing lease amounts at current rates. Also this is a revenue stream which is a partial hedge against inflation, saving future generations from having to pay ever higher taxes. The revenue loss in Mumbai is around Rs 2,500 crores, without taking into account lands given by other agencies. The geographical area of Maharashtra is about 700 times that of Mumbai. It is most likely that the revenue loss on this account will be over 10 times that in Mumbai, ie. about Rs 25,000 crore. Is it likely that for the entire nation this figure may be upwards of Rs 2 lakh crore.

Shailesh Gandhi was the Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission, New Delhi and is a noted RTI activist.

(Pictures courtesy www.firstpost.com, www.stockpicturesforeveryone.com)
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