Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Tara Sutaria and Ahan Shetty

Not until it's final

Tara Sutaria and Ahan Shetty avoid press photographers as they walk out of filmmaker Milan Luthria's Bandra office with what seems like the script of a new film, on Thursday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Well, let's say cheers to that

Yesterday, we wrote about social media sparring over plagiarism that broke out between restaurateurs Priyank Sukhija and Zorawar Kalra. Sukhija accused Kalra's soon-to-open millennial-themed space, Younion, of copying the interiors and a drinks programme from his establishment, Plum.

The war of words went on well past midnight, until both agreed to disagree and talk it out over drinks. Kalra told this diarist, "There is immense pressure in launching a restaurant. That, along with my father's demise made the fiasco unnecessary. I put the information across clearly; it's for everyone to see. I have known Priyank and am glad that we are going to sort it out over drinks, like we have so many times in the past.

Bombaykala says goodbye

When three 19-year-olds got together a couple of years ago and announced the launch of a new publishing house, the world of words had found a champion it thought it would never have. The young, smartphone reader. And, many loving books have come out of this indie publishing house. However, as they say, all good things must come to an end.

On Thursday morning, Ishaan Jajodia, the now 21-year-old founder and publisher of Bombaykala and Curato.in sent a long-awaited mail - he had been incommunicado for a few months - announcing the closure of both companies. "Without a business plan in mind - and in hindsight a brash, underdeveloped editorial statement - we put Bombaykala Books into the world out there. I was in the post-capitalist mode of thought, believing that good books weren't coming out because they weren't making enough money," reads the email which landed in our inbox at 1.27 am.

In the early months of the year, Jajodia had signed up a whole host of authors and even announced their upcoming works on his social media page. Many of these authors, are well known writers with previous titles. One just hopes that the stories that they signed up to write, still get told.

Deutsche fans show desi love

Cricket might be one of those sports that doesn't have a global imprint as far as being played in many countries goes, as compared to say, football but it sure scores high with its fan following.

The most recent indicator of this was a post by the German Consul General's office where they shared that their country was backing India at the ongoing cricket World Cup in England. Taking it one step further, they've even introduced a contest inviting fans to share frames of supporting the Indian team. Talk about having a global army to cheer for the men in blue.

In the shoes of a clown

We haven't really seen many memorable films about circus artistes in Hindi cinema after Raj Kapoor's Mera Naam Joker (1970). A short film called Painted, which is currently in the post-production stage, could well fill that gap.

A still from Painted

Directed by 22-year-old Anvita Kamath, who studied film at New York University, the cast includes senior actors Ashish Vidyarthi, Aanjjan Srivastav and Veenah Naair Kamath, who moved back to Mumbai to pursue film last year, told this diarist, "The film is inspired by the life of Biju Nair, a professional clown at Rambo Circus. The film was shot at the same site in Pune."

The film will travel to domestic and international festivals soon, after which the producers aim to make it available on a streaming platform.

Map the rainbow

Agents of Ishq, a multimedia project, recently uploaded a queer map of Mumbai featuring old and new iconic spots.

There's the Gorai Beach, which saw the first meeting of queer women that led to the formation of Stree Sangam, later renamed Labia, a queer feminist LBT collective; Gokul (The Bar), Mumbai's first gay hangout; and SNDT University which saw the first gay conference in the city in 1994. Interestingly, they've also marked how posters of Deepa Mehta's film, Fire (in 1996) were plastered over the city, after protests erupted as the film was about queer women.

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