Rest In Peace Prabuddha Dasgupta. The ace photographer passed away last evening after enthralling us with his beautiful photographs, be it on fashion or Ladakh. Dasgupta died of a massive heart-attack while he was traveling in a cab. He was only 51. God bless his soul. Both the designers – Manav Gangwani and Sabysachi Mukherjee requested all for a minute of silence for the legendary Prabuddha before their shows.
Manav Gangwani had a mishap while he was preparing for the Couture Week. His assistant disappeared with all the designs. Gangwani reworked on an entirely new collection and there were flashes of brilliance. A 
monochromatic collection had sequence in red and as expected, was high on ‘Bling’. For the first time during the week I saw some dramatic elements that I feel is an integral part of a couture show. (Of course there was Manish Arora who had loads of drama in his show.) My personal favourites were the black and white sheer gown with a bejewelled black structure crossing over the shoulders and a short one-shoulder dress with nice lacy applique work. I liked the finish and the fit – a must for any couture ensemble. Manav Gangwani had the Queen of Bhutan – the beautiful Jetsun Pema gracing the front-row in a chic one-shoulder black Gangwani dress. Oh yes Bollywood was there in form of Raveena Tandon, Sophie Choudhry and jewelery designer Farah Khan.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee had one of the most elaborate set – with a vintage feel complete with the ramp depicting a wooden floor. And much to my liking I saw a great deal of ‘newness’ in his collection. But then he stuck to the ‘no makeup’ look and glasses for his models. There were the usual ornate lehengas, long-sleeved blouses and pretty sarees but what impressed me were those long voluminous skirts totally devoid of embellishment in solid colour like green or in colour-blocking technique. Sabya even went for coarse fabric and thick cotton to craft out these maxi skirts that can be doubled as lehengas. Sridevi and her director for their forthcoming movie – English Winglish, Gauri Shinde were Sabyasachi’s showstoppers.
I was rather surprised that Manav Gangwani wasn’t doing the Costumes & Styling for Love-Breakups-Zindagi, a Zayed Khan, Dia Mirza & Sahil Sangha Production since he is so close to the trio. When I asked him he said, “I have some other projects that I committed earlier - A Royal Wedding (Uhmmm…More on that later.) but I did design and style the costumes for all the characters for a song. It’s a song originally fimed on Neelam and Govinda – ‘Main Se Mina Se’ in its new avatar for Love Breakups Zindagi“. In fact Zayed Khan and Dia Mirza were adamant Manav does the song because they wanted a total Bling look, which MG probably does the best.
I had a look at the song and must say Manav Gangwani was the perfect choice for it. He really transported us to the Disco era with Zayed in a shimmering sequined jacket over a Tee with the slogan ‘Disco Junky’ and Dia in a sheer net sari and a sexy blouse oozed loads of oomph. And yes how can I miss out on those shiny headbands on background dancers; so very Disco. I have heard Zayed’s work has been applauded by stalwarts at the Private Viewing and LBZ may just be a Surprise Hit at the Box Office. You too can have a look at this catchy song here: http://youtu.be/ilxpsdDidqs
By the way, did you know that Dia Mirza and Sahil Sangha are seeing each other? If not then let me tell you that Dia is seeing Sahil ( A Delhi lad.) for almost two years now. Dia’s got this thing for ‘Producers’, huh!
Now about that Royal Wedding that kept Gangwani busy. Well it’s the wedding of the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgayal Wangchuk with Jetsun Pema. I managed to decipher this when I read about The King of Bhutan’s wedding and realised why Manav was travelling to Bhutan every other week. I knew about MG’s friendship with the Bhutanese King but still he won’t say anything about it. I guess he must be bound by the ‘Non Disclosure’ clause.