The pleats, ruffles, folds and cuts have replaced the heavy embroidery, which was the signature style of Varun Bahl’s collections until a month back. The shift was a risky proposition, which initially also drew a lot of flak from his friends and clients. As for Varun, he knew changes were always difficult to adjust to.

This summer eyewear brands are placing their bet on mid-sized sunglasses with specific designing on the rims giving them the 70’s look flaunted by the likes of yesteryear actor Zeenat Aman in “Dum Maro Dum.” Mid-sized rims seem to be drawing attention more than the others. Rims in red, white and yellow, some embossed with crystals, some with pointy edges, some with butterfly or cupid motif on the arms, are instant hits.

“The entire experimentation is focused on the girls’ range of glares. Those standard black glasses with both small and over size rims have already bid a goodbye. Women collection is more about colour and embellishments,” says Simran, marketing head of Fastrack, which has launched its latest collection of shades.

For women, material of the shades is not that important...shape and colours matter more,” says Raunak Seth, Director of Eternity Lifestyles which has been into the retailing of eyewear from past 30 years.

Rose pink is a hot favourite pick amongst the college going young women. Moreover the material has also undergone a transformation for both men and women,” adds Seth who has launched a retro look of shades for this season.

Curved and rounded shaped glares in acetate are the bestsellers. But for men, metal aviators still rule the roost,” opines Seth.

“For men, fashion is slowly shifting from aviators to wayfarers. Adding colours in a small space like black with yellow, black with red, black with white is in,” adds Seth.

Who else can show off better than our very own style icon, Bollywood Saif Ali Khan whose glares are often custom made. His pair of shades with a thin red rim are to die for.

Besides this, Wayfarers are back in style with MTV jockey Raghuram flaunting them in the current season of reality show ‘Roadies’.

“Wayfarers which were the trend setters for 1950s are back to be the style this summer season. Aviators, though are still the hot favourite among men,” adds Simran.

Salil Chaturvedi of Provogue eyewear says, “It’s exciting to see people experimenting with sunglasses. No one’s playing safe by going the regular cliched way. Sunglasses are a reflection of one’s attitude and so the shape, size and colour are completely out-of-the-box, yet very wearable.” —PTI

He is one of the best dancers in Bollywood but relentless hours of rehearsals go into Hrithik Roshan’s effortless moves onscreen.

The actor, who is reprising Amitabh Bachchan’s role in Karan Johar’s Agneepath remake, has been quietly rehearsing for a song in the movie after finishing the shoot. Hrithik, who is also making his debut on small screen with reality show Just Dance, says he cannot perform a move without imagining it first.

“Along with rehearsals, I actually learn dancing in my sleep. If I can clearly see every moment of the move in my head, then my body is able to express it... The downside is that if I can’t see it - I can’t do it,” Hrithik said. — PTI

It was indeed a ‘good’ Friday for cinema as Chandigarh crowd made a beeline to watch Dum Maro Dum and Dharti.

Surviving umpteenth court cases, Dum Maro Dum was finally released. With an impressive star cast —Abhishek Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Aditya Pancholi, Bipasha Basu, Rana Duggubati and Prateik Babbar, it deals with issues like drug abuse and prostitution. Directed by Rohan Sippy, music by Pritam Chakraborty, the movie boasts of the controversial number Dum Maro Dum picturised on Deepika.

Mask collection

Musée du Louvre is hallmark of Paris’ identity, as is Smithsonian of Washington DC. For any city, museum is the hub of activity. Our City Beautiful has its share of a state-of-the-art museum that houses dinosaur models, Gandhara sculptures, contemporary art as well as original drawings and sketches from making of the modern marvel that Chandigarh is. In fact, the footfall at this place is huge. We get you what we picked up at our recent visit.

Of dinosaurs & humans

The Gandhara sculptures at Government Museum and Art Gallery-10

The art circuit had almost written her off as someone who chose academic art over pure art. And there was a reason for it. Kavita Singh, ever since her last exhibition four years back, barely made her presence felt in the city. So, when her familiar form, a little girl in blunt cut, who we now know as her childhood image, made an appearance on canvas again, we were pleasantly surprised.

And guess what is instrumental in bringing her back to the gallery after so long - the paper boat.

"It's not just about a paper boat. It's more about the nostalgia of my childhood days and the paper boat is one constant element in this series, which connects me to my carefree days," she corrects us. So there is one of her self image in form of a chair, holding the boat that denotes one's search for happiness and self-respect, another one sailing away to an unknown territory along with herself caged on a bottle reflecting the urge to spread her wings and yet another image of sailing on a paper boat and climbing the ladder to touch the moon.

She is present in all 27 frames, drawings and paintings, as a paper boat seller, as a celestial dancer holding a boat, as a fish doing an inward journey and as a circus girl, riding an unicycle and holding the boat.

The other symbols like the fish, lotus and tree, which one now can immediately connect to Kavita's painting too make an integral part of her compositions.

So, four years has not brought much change in her work? "It has, in terms of techniques. For instance I have started using spray along with my regular charcoal and acrylic media, but figuratively no. I want to capture the universality of a women's desire through self-portrait and to change that now would be like letting go of my essence as an artist," she justifies.

Kavita paints her series in black and white and understandably so. After all, nostalgia, for our generation, still dates back to the black and white era.

On at Alliance Francaise-36 till May 6.

Twitter users' romantic relationships don't last as long as those of non-Twitterers and the problem gets worse as users get older, a new study has revealed. The result concluded by OkTrends - the research arm of free online dating website of OkCupid - comes from a survey of 833,987 of its 7million users.

The study found that an 18-year-old Twitter user has an average relationship-length of around nine months while non-Twitterers - defined as 'everybody else' - enjoy an average relationship of nine and a half months. But the problem intensifies as the users get older and by the time Twitterers hit 50, the disparity stretches to a two month gap. The average relationship length for Twitter users at that age is 15 months as opposed to 17 months for 'everybody else'. "Unfortunately, we have no way to tell who's dumping who here; whether the Twitterati are more annoying or just more flighty than everyone else," said the website. —ANI

Gurdeep Kohli, who shot to fame after playing doctor Juhi in the show Sanjeevani, says new faces have thronged small screen because producers are not willing to pay to senior actors. She hopes the new brigade of artistes on small screen is compensated well and that the TV industry gets a makeover.

"I hope fresh lot are paid well, but it dosen't seem to me. The absence of my contemporaries makes me feel that just because the old faces (senior artists) ask for a bigger denomination, they (producers) go in for new faces as they could put them on roll at a less price," said Gurdeep.

"In our time, we were paid quite well and then the recession came, which troubled everybody. Now there is a new brigade of fresh faces on TV, but the sad part is that we don't get to see the old faces which ruled the television industry at some point of time," she added.Gurdeep also feels the television industry needs a make-over.

"I used to work for 12 hours in a day, when I was doing shows. But now with the responsibility that I have of my kid, I can't devote so much time. TV needs a makeover. It really needs to get easy.

The TRP drama and the never ending shooting schedules make it very hectic," she said.The 33-year-old is facing the camera after a long time and will be seen in Disney Channel's Best of Luck Nikki as Himani Singh."The show is just an extension of my real life. I play a mother in the show and in my real life too I am taking care of my one-year-old daughter. I found an instant connect with the role," she said.The actress, who also featured in soaps like Sindoor Tere Naam Ka and Kasamh Se, feels it's the right time for her to explore other avenues."I don't want to repeat any of my roles. I don't want to bore my viewers with the same old drama.

I was getting offers during my break also, but they were the same old 'saas-bahu' stuff, which I didn't want to get back with. It's been nearly nine years and I felt it is the right time for me to diversify my dimensions."I really wanted to do comedy." When asked about her other projects, she said: "I am looking forward for a second season of Best of Luck Nikki, for which I still have a five-month break." — IANS

Hollywood beauty Catherine Zeta-Jones is joining the cast of director Adam Shankman’s musical Rock of Ages. The actress, who recently underwent treatment for bipolar disorder, will be seen playing a villainous ‘arch conservative’ opposite Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin and Mary J Blige.

The movie is based on a Broadway musical and Shankman said he is pleased to sign up Zeta-Jones who has previously won an Oscar for her role in a musical movie Chicago. “It’s like the musical gods just blessed us!” Jones character in the movie just came up at the last minute.”It’s a character that we only really came to in the last month. The character was invented to streamline the stories,” he said. — PTI

There is no dearth of talented directors in Bollywood but they get wasted because producers are busy chasing established names, says filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who had struggled a lot to release his first film Black Friday.

“This industry only follows what you have done before. It goes by your previous box office record and that’s why the industry is in such a sad state. As far as I’m concerned, I just like to nurture people. I’ll back people I feel have potential,” Kashyap, 38, said.

As a producer, he has worked with many newcomers like Vikramaditya Motwane of Udaan fame and Bijoy Nambiar, who debuts with Shaitan.

“I was really fortunate that the industry didn’t pass Bijoy’s film and ultimately it came to me. But it’s unfortunate that the whole industry couldn’t see a brilliant idea in a great filmmaker and that’s why a lot of good filmmakers with good ideas get wasted here. I didn’t need to think twice to do this film (Shaitan),” said Kashyap.

Is he making films with debutant directors to help them?

“I have not helped them; in fact, they have helped me. Looking at things from my perspective, I feel they have given me a chance to earn credibility from their films and I’ve got the power to continue making such films (about 1993 Mumbai blasts).

“It’s sad for the industry as it cannot see a Vikramaditya Motwane before Udaan or a Bijoy before Shaitan,” said the director.

Udaan, which Kashyap produced, not only triumphed at all the awards functions in the country, it was also screened at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and became the first film to represent India in the prestigeous fest’s official section in the last seven years.

He describes his next production venture Shaitan as “A David Fincher kind of movie, set in Mumbai, made by an Indian”.

Shaitan is a film that deals with a group of five rich kids. The film that is slated for a June release stars Rajeev Khandelwal and Kashyap’s actress girlfriend Kalki Koechlin. In the initial stage, Arshad Warsi was supposed to play the lead role. —IANS

Ludhiana gets its first outlet of a US-based chain of coffee cafés-Folk Street. Located opposite Flamez Mall, the café exudes the feeling of some New York street. As you sip the delicious brew amidst potted plants and pebbles, you can gaze at the bright neon lights through the glass walls.

The mini shopping arcade with T-shirts and other apparels, perfumes, sunglasses, soft toys and guitars complements the mood.

"We like to chill out here by playing music and of course, digging into kathi rolls and sandwiches with coffee," quips Randeep and his pals. Dr Simar Brar from CMC, who was there with her NRI friend for a quick meal, says, "Here, we have a lot of privacy and I simply love their Folk-street frappe desire with its chocolate sauce and ice cream."

She also feels that the concept of a shopping area is a good one, especially as it offers items for a reasonable price. "It has become a popular joint for kitty parties and other occasions for those who want to deviate from 'butter chicken and paneer' route," she says.

Rahul Sharma of Folk Street says, "Keeping in view the long-hot-Indian summer, we offer an array of cool delights like Blue lagoon crush, Mint and strawberry crush and a whole lot of ice-cream sodas. Folk Street has medium strong coffees too, which suits all tastes.

Aman Sharma and Jasbir Singh, two young lawyers, say, "We come here for their black coffee. I can tell you that they know how to roast the coffee beans," The desserts are the usual brownies and Black Forest Cake slices. "The basic recipes of the food stuffs are according to the original ones from the head office," shares Rahul.

As we dig into a Chicken Clintro, a mint based creamy sandwich and a Slimmer's Choice sandwich, we are enticed by the delightful aroma of various brews.

A meal for two---Non-veg with special combos would cost Rs 300 while the veg combo for two would be Rs 250.

This time you don't have to chew it…

Ingredients:

• 45ml Havana Club (Aged White rum)
• 15 ml Monin Bubble Gum Syrup
• 10 ml Cherry /Berry Juice
• 10 ml Sugar Syrup
• Dash of lime juice.

LIBRA: “Ace of Cups” will set your mood for getting nagging chores out of the way. Handle cash carefully. Turn your attention to home & family than to romance. Not a good day for starting up joint ventures. Avoid property transaction. Tarot Message: Make a deciding choice and then live with the outcome of your decision.Lucky colour: Brown.Magic Number: 63.

SCORPIO: Domestic bliss will be of high order. Love affairs will blossom. Success comes only with hard work. Postpone decisions on major deals. People might appear to be what they aren’t so be cautions and discriminating in your dealing.Tarot Message: You are advised to focus on professional changes. Lucky colour: Ebony.Magic Number: 27.

SAGITTARIUS: The support of an expert will help you master whatever subject you are committed to learning. Health wise, cut down salt and increase liquid intake. You are not likely to be taken unaware by surprise happenings. Loved ones will be congenial. Tarot Message: Concentrate on what is important.Lucky colour: Sea Green.Magic Number: 28.

CAPRICORN: Personal plans will have to be put aside again. Try your luck and reap the rewards. Learn to be optimistic. This evening is ideal for serious discussion or a heart to heart with your partner. Tarot Message: Do not refuse offers without seeking the advice from someone else. Lucky colour: Metallic Grey. Magic Number: 30.

AQUARIUS: Travel arrangements can be difficult to arrange. Better day for dealing with accounts. Time spent alone on reading and studying will not be wasted. Housewives should seek ways to cut unnecessary expenditure. Tarot Message: Try not to get carried away by your initial success. Lucky colour: Ebony. Magic Number: 43.

PISCES: Socially a hectic evening ahead. Sign new documents after lunch. Health gives no tension at all. Watch out for potential arguments or ill-temper especially if alcohol is part of the scene. You sure will be a good today. Tarot Message: Be articulate to prevent people from making their own conclusions. Lucky colour: Yellow. Magic Number: 55.

I like water skiing. It's my favourite as I have done it many times. My favourite holiday destinations are Bangkok and Goa. I especially love doing water skiing there, though I have tried it elsewhere too. I love water skiing because I love the speed and watching the sky while doing it.

Yana (April 23, 1979) born, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) born to Czech father and an Indian mother began modelling in the mid-1990s. Her career took a turn towards the East when she married Indian artist Satyakam Gupta in Pune and changed her last name from Synkova to Gupta. She divorced Gupta in 2005.

In 2008, she changed her name to Yana. She appeared on numerous magazine covers, modelled for the premier Kingfisher's calendar and has performed dance numbers in several films.

Yana made her big screen debut in the Bollywood movie Dum for the song Babuji Zara Dheere Chalo which made her famous for cameo item numbers. She anchored TV show Mirch Masala where she danced to famous dance numbers. Yana appeared in TV shows Khatron Ke Khiladi, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, Season 4. Several films and a number of scandals are on cards for her in the coming 2011-12. She is likely to face some legal mess.