While Cocktail 2 has been a rumoured project for a while, designer Anaita Shroff Adajania, wife of Cocktail director Homi Adajania, recently shared a picture of a script with the title “Cocktail 2” on her Instagram Story. The film reportedly stars Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon and Rashmika Mandanna.

Ask actor Diana Penty, who marked her debut with the 2012 film, how she feels about the sequel, and she says, “I am sure the makers have a great script at hand and that’s why they are making a sequel. Also, the fact that the first film did well means that there will be an audience for the sequel. I will be very excited to see it as an audience.”

While Diana, who was recently seen in Detective Sherdil, isn’t part of the film, would she want to be a part of it, even if it’s a cameo? “I feel I have played my part in the first film, and it did well for me. I am here today because of that film and I am grateful for it. But if they are embarking on a new journey, it deserves a complete makeover,” she says.

Talking about Cocktail that re-released in theatres recently, Diana says, “I was keen to see if it resonates with the newer generation who missed out on it 13 years ago. And it did, because you can’t go wrong with a romcom. Everyone loves such films.”

Gracing the cover of Dirty magazine, receiving a heartfelt note from stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania and getting dressed by couturiers Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla and Gaurav Gupta — internet sensation and fashionista Uorfi Javed is having the time of her life.

“It’s a good feeling, but I don’t need any validation from anyone. I got popular because I did what I had to do, not because some designers are now dressing me up or I am attending big parties,” says Uorfi, talking to us minutes after attending Gupta’s store launch on Friday.

Trolling for her experimental sense of fashion have never affected the 25-year-old. “[For] anyone who says that I’m doing this for attention, I can only say, ‘How intelligent are they!’” quips the Bigg Boss OTT contestant, who recently revealed on social media that “no designers would give me clothes, which is why I started making my own”.

Not that she feels bad about it when she looks back on it. “I wasn’t a big name back then. I didn’t know what exactly I was doing, so how could people trust me with their brand? Now, they see my vision. Mujhe aise koi problem nahin hui ki mujhe un logon ne kapde nahin diye. But I have made my point,” Uorfi insouciantly explains.

Days after this post, dressed in an Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla creation, she attended the premiere of their fashion film, as her custom-made outfit — a red thigh-high skirt with an attached pallu and an ornate headgear — drew plaudits aplenty. “Abu and Sandeep had kept me in mind while making this outfit. The blouse screamed Uorfi Javed! I don’t wear anything if I don’t like myself in [it]. This outfit just went with my vibe,” she gushes.

For her magazine shoot, Uorfi was styled by Adajania. She shares, “Anaita wanted to shoot with me way before this magazine cover happened. I couldn’t believe when she first texted me. So, this (our collaboration) was meant to be.”

So, has Uorfi arrived? The actor responds: “Hanging out with famous people isn’t success. Only hard work can help you get work. Yes, I am fashionable, but right now, I have no work. I know these things take time.”

Her recent shoot for Dirty magazine, where Uorfi was dressed by designers Anamika Khanna and Rahul Mishra among others (and the same creative team that worked on actor Ranveer Singh’s photoshoot with Paper magazine), was said to have put a lot of detractors in their place. However, she clarifies, “It’s not like I did that shoot to shut people’s mouths or it gave me any high or kick. When I was contacted for the shoot, I was blown away by their passion and crazy ideas. I truly did it for our love of fashion. I was kept in loop for everything. Like, I was co-curating the looks, I was on calls and [sharing inputs with] designers. Everything was done considering me in mind and that’s how the shoot went.”

A lot is going on in the run-up to actors Vicky Kaushal and Katrina Kaif’s shaadi. And as the big day approaches, enhanced security measures and safety protocols are being implemented to ensure the wedding is a happy and healthy affair. Bouncers from Delhi and Jaipur will be flying down to the venue in Rajasthan to ensure the safety of guests and to assist them as they travel from one location to another. 

“Nearly 60 bouncers are flying in from Delhi, and they will be assigned to the guests they will be looking after. Some are also coming from Jaipur. Some celebrity guests are also arranging their private security from Delhi for the gala event,” a source tells us exclusively. 

Kaif’s family, including her brother, has also arrived in the country. On Friday, Kaushal was seen leaving Kaif’s home after midnight. Final wedding outfit trials have also begun, with people arriving with Falguni Shane Peacock’s creations at Kaif’s home and Kunal Rawal’s creations at Kaushal’s. Anaita Shroff Adajania, Kaif’s close friend and stylist, visited her on Friday.

The wedding festivities will begin on December 7 with sangeet, followed by mehendi on December 8, and culminating in lots of sparkles on December 9. The duo will tie the knot in a village near Sawai Madhopur at a fort turned luxurious resort.

The administration in Sawai Madhopur is on high alert. On Friday, officials met with wedding planners and hotel staff to ensure that adequate crowd control, traffic regulation, and compliance with Covid-19 guidelines are in place.

District collector Rajendra Kishan says, “The hotel staff informed us that they would be using all of the Covid-19 protocols and performing RT PCR tests. They will have a special help desk in the hotel to ensure Covid-19 appropriate behaviour and health-related assistance if someone requires it.”

Adding to this, superintendent of police, Rajesh Singh, says that since it is a private affair, local officials will come in to help only when needed.

Shraddha Kapoor's monsoon mush in films like Aashiqui 2, Ek Villain, ABCD 2 and Baaghi has been favourably received by the audience. And the lady herself is more than happy to be caught in a shower. “There's nothing more romantic than the rain and since these sequences have worked well for me, I don't mind getting drenched at all. I love dancing in the rains. Add Mohit Suri's music and it's pure magic,“ says the 30-year-old actress who plays Arjun Kapoor's 'Half Girlfriend' in an upcoming romance-drama of the same name. Incidentally, Shraddha's next rain song “Baarish“ (pictured above), featuring Arjun this time, releases today.

An adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's 2014 novel, it is set in three distinct worlds - Delhi, Patna and New York. All the three landscapes are essential to Shraddha's character, Riya Somani's journey because she changes as a person in each of these settings. From a 'hep', high-society Delhi girl she moves to a more modest, fusioni-nspired avatar post interval. “I've enjoyed wearing some of the world's biggest brands for the most part of the film, gradually shifting to more handloom-kitsch weaves. Mohit and Anaita (stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania) gave me a look that's straight out of a fairytale. She's done a phenomenal job with all my looks in the movie,“ smiles Shraddha, for whom the film has come as a breath of fresh air after an onslaught of girl-next-door turns. “My best look would be the Delhi one, undoubtedly. She's super-glamorous and dolled up, unlike any of the characters I've played before.“

The film's trailer, which released on Monday, has fuelled a debate on social media about the definition of a 'half girlfriend'. Shraddha explains that the plot addresses commitment phobia too. “These days, while parents have warmed up to love marriages and live-in relationships, youngsters have become commitment-phobic. In this film too, the guy is a friend yet not exactly a boyfriend. I discuss these equations openly with my parents,“ she says, quick to add that the film also tackles the hypocrisy that English-speaking people, are better than small-towners who may not be fluent in the language. “It's the story of a boy from a small town who is grappling with an inferiority complex.“

Shraddha has wrapped up another upcoming summer release ­ Haseena: The Queen of Mumbai ­ Apoorva Lakhia's biopic on Dawood Ibrahim's sister, and says that as an actress it was difficult to juggle the two schedules as Haseena and Riya are from different worlds. “I'm extremely nervous, they're my biggest releases for the year,“ she signs off.

Homi Adajania, 42, is in the truest sense a mad bindaas Parsi bawa. He is easy going, keen to tell stories and not ambitious when it comes to rising the monetary ladder. He really needs to grow up, but is his own emotional anchor. He has always believed that life is short and you can be happy even when you are broke. Ahead of his quirky film Finding Fanny that is an ensemble of five great actors, he talks to Bombay Times about his maverick past, his soulmate Anaita and the unanswered question of his father's death. Excerpts:

How did you become a filmmaker?
I finished college and wanted to become a commercial scuba diver. I love water. You put me into water and I am at peace. It's a very risky job and therefore, gives you a lot of money. I used to play rugby with all these ad film guys and during summer, would work for them as a runner, doing all kinds of degrading things, basically for money. Once I had decided that I was not going to this diving thing, I joined the advertising kingpin at that time, Mahesh Mathai, as a runner. But within a year, my dad died and I had to take over the family business of running a petrol pump in the red light area. I was just 23. So, after he died, I had to suddenly get into this red light area and found myself in the middle of hookers, mafia, cops, all a very different world and was hit with reality at some level, coming from this advertising office sitting in a cool office at Kemps Corner. My dad was a bit of a Robin Hood of sorts. He would actually go to the extent of borrowing money to help people. We were not wealthy, even though at some time my family was. And while we owned a flat at Breach Candy, I had a middle-class upbringing with a comfortable lifestyle. My idea was to run the petrol pump for a year to set it up for my mum, so that she could get her monthly income. It was horribly non-creative and dangerous. I remember how once my manager was mugged and his fingers chopped off in front of me while he was carrying cash to the bank. It was that kind of environment.But after a year, I found it very difficult to go back and work for someone, and officially became a bum. I have always had the confidence and knew that if my back was against the wall, I could do things. For 10 years after that, I just travelled. I would do various small jigs to make money enough to just support my travel cost, for instance, take a fake fakir to Venice as a part of an international arts festival to put up as an installation. Just for being able to go to Venice and also getting some money for doing that.

I once bought a one-way ticket to England, to sail back a boat to Bombay even though I didn't know sailing. But, anyway, I missed the boat. I had a friend who had extremely wealthy parents and were going to this posh French island. I went there and stayed there for a month. I then spent another four months travelling, doing odd jobs including babysitting. I then went to Greece buying a really cheap ticket making a fake student pass. The only book I was carrying was the cheap sleep guide to Europe. And on the very first page in Athens it says that it is illegal to sleep outside. And of course, I went straight for the park bench. I got arrested, feigned ignorance and was taken to a youth hostel and had to make some scrambled eggs for some 100 people a day. In two days, I got fed up and went to Crete with these Albanian Algerians who hide under the cars in those big ferries, got mugged there and then spent a month there with just $147, having just a roll for lunch. I was broke, but if you are broke and you are happy, you will never be happier. Somewhere that has stuck with me. I loved the fact that I had no real agenda in life and was still happy. I am very comfortable, but I don't see the point in chasing money. I love telling stories and I used to write a lot for newspapers and magazines and presumptuously assumed that I would write a book. I became a scuba diver instructor in Lakshadweep and on one visit to Mumbai, met Dinesh Vijan (Dinoo), who I learnt had chucked his job as a banker to produce films. I have never thought that things can't happen and that is what has allowed me to do a lot of things in my life. I was very good at narration and narrated a script to him. Surprisingly, he also did not ask me what I had done before and hired me to direct Being Cyrus.

Why did you make Cocktail many years after Being Cyrus?
After Being Cyrus, I went back to diving at Lakshadweep as I love solitude and at peace under water till Dinoo again called to say, 'You can make money making films and can then dive anywhere in the world.' I returned to direct Cocktail.

How did you lose your father?
The story is that he had a heart attack in Budapest. He was the president of the Indian Boxing Federation and he was also on the world jury, and so he would travel six months a year for these international boxing clinics and come back with joyous stories, though we couldn't understand why he put so much into his passion as he was not paid for it. My life went into a bit of a spiral after his death. I went into a dark space with a lot of drinking. I think I didn't allow myself to accept it at that time. It was a time when I needed to step up and take charge of things for my mother and sister. He died in Budapest and it took a week for them to do his post mortem and bring back his body. They wanted to do their own enquiry and shit like that. At some level the reason of his death is not answered in my mind. I am someone who wants to dig deeper, my mom doesn't. I couldn't understand how a perfectly healthy man could die suddenly like that. He was on this world boxing jury and had gone for an event. We got a call from the Indian embassy to say that he had died. And it took a week for the body to come and that was a trying week. I remember our house was an open house as usual with food and booze just flowing. We have always believed in not sitting and mourning, but believed in celebrating life. I feel that I had put off the grieving for so long that finally one fine day it just hit me. That was about six months after he died and that is the time I took charge of the petrol pump. My life has always been an open book with my mother and she blames me for every white hair she has. But she has been my friend and brought me up very liberally. My parents always believed that do whatever makes you happy. And, even though I was doing sweet f***ing nothing for 10 years, she somehow knew that he will get onto a path when he has to.

Talk about your wife Anaita Shroff Adajania?
We lived-in together from when I was 21. We are soulmates and I love her the most in the world. She was staying with a Portuguese guy and I had piled on as I could not pay the rent. She is a fashion director of a fashion magazine and does a lot of advertising and films now. Apart from Finding Fanny, she is also the stylist on Bang Bang. At the core, we are similar in terms of our values and concept of love and loyalty, empathy, sympathy and charity though creatively we are quite different. We have never had separate bank accounts ever and are at par when it comes to being dominating, but are both aware of the futility of fighting. While she is practical, I am a dreamer.

Your best friend in the industry?
Dinoo. He is unconditionally generous, both financially and emotionally, and way more mature beyond his years. I don't think anyone else would have let me make a Finding Fanny.

Talk about your Finding Fanny cast?
My biggest gift from the film was Pankaj Kapur. He is a friend now and is one of the sweetest guys. Everyone thinks that he is just a serious guy, but in reality, he is just a shy man. We made a solid effort to break him out of his mould by forcing him to swim and hang out with us every night. Poor Pankaj would come and sit at the party with his Virgin Pina Colada and have a blast in his own space. And what a powerhouse of talent.

Out of your five actors, who were you most impressed with?
Deepika Padukone. Genuinely, I was blown away with Deepika due to the ease with which she has moulded herself into this role and the pitch with which she has played this character. At some level you expect something out of veterans like Dimple, Naseer and Pankaj, but to be able to pitch down like Deepika has, is impressive.