Salman, Ajay at Delhi launch of Bollywood designer

  • IndiaGlitz, [Saturday,March 19 2005]

Salman Khan spent a lot of time smiling from a corner, Ajay Devgan was his usual soft-spoken self and Jackie Shroff fiddled with garments to check them out at the Delhi launch of Bollywood designer Anna Singh.

Singh, who has worked in over 550 films, launched her prêt line full of intricate detailing - from crochet work to ostrich and quail feathers sewn together at edges - at the Kimaya fashion store with a star-studded party that began Friday night but ended well into Saturday morning.

The stars arrived two hours late and seemed a little tired but happy. Especially Salman who stood in a corner of the terrace at the hip Mediterranean Olive Bar and Kitchen, while Ajay and Jackie looked around.

"I have known Anna for a long time," said Ajay. "Her sense of design is powerful and she brings a great sense of colour, depth and design to her work," said the actor, dressed in a white shirt and blue denims.

Singh is styling Ajay's next film "Prithviraj Chauhan" being made by Raj Kumar Santoshi. "The line here is obviously different from what she does for films but I see the common strengths of experimentation."

Jackie, wearing rectangular spectacles and the trademark shirt unbuttoned till the waist, stood before a mannequin and tried to explain to the television cameras why he liked Singh's clothes.

"There is a wonderful, sexy play of colours and designs in her work," said Shroff, as he lifted the blue skirt and felt the quality. "She is a very efficient and contemporary designer."

Singh, who dressed Michael Jackson when he was in India for a concert a few years ago, spoke of the need to differentiate in design while doing clothes for films and for a boutique.

"A lot of the design detail is lost before a camera, so the sensibility is on a larger scale and scope," Singh, whose client list reads like almost the whole of top rung Bollywood, told IANS.

"But when you are selling a collection then you can play with a lot of nuances - then the customer is touching, feeling the garment, seeing it from up close."

After the launch at the Kimaya boutique, the guests moved up to the whitewashed terrace of Olive where Salman finally spoke to scribes: "I am very touched that Anna called me and, of course, we've seen her make us look sexy - now she'll do the same for people who are not actors but might want to look like stars."

Said Kimaya owner Pradeep Hirani: "The idea is to bring the glamour of Bollywood into modern day living and one way to do that is through Bollywood clothes. That's where Anna Singh, who really dresses the divas, comes in."