‘Please call me Aishwarya’ (Couture Week Diary)

MUMBAI - It seems that Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai is tired of people addressing her by her nickname Ash and has requested them to call her by her full name.

When I joined the industry, people initially used to say they have difficulty in pronouncing my name, so they started calling me Ash. But now, it has been years and I guess, everyone can pronounce it properly, Aishwarya told reporters.

So I would appreciate, if you people address me by my name - Aishwarya, she added.

The model-turned-actress walked the ramp for designer Manish Malhotra at the ongoing HDIL-India Couture Week and thanked her husband Abhishek for bringing the name issue in the forefront.

It is believed that Abhishek had recently requested some journalists to refer to her by her full name.

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A tale of text messaging at Couture jewellery show

Bollywood presence comes in very handy to pull the audience and give journalists a reason to cover a show. But what happens if a celebrity is not interested in the show? They while away time in texting messages and chatting.

This happened at the HDIL-India Couture Weeks jewellery show by trio designer — Queenie Dhody, Raj Mahtani and Maheep Kapoor — when front row celebrities Suzzane Khan, Gauri Khan and Amrita Arora looked so bored that they were texting each other and giggling all the way during Raj Mahtanis show.

While someone sitting on the opposite side cautioned Amrita about her plunging neckline, she concentrated on her texting throughout this show.

But, one person who seemed to be a bit irritated with their endless chat was Sridevi, who was sitting just next to them. Is this the generation gap?

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Male models get to show off their chiselled torsos

Male models at the ongoing HDIL-India Couture Week are getting a lot of attention and work too!

We see quite a lot of them on the ramp with bare torsos either modelling or acting as just props for a show.

For designer Manish Malhotra, the male hunks took off their shirts and just wore dhotis and showed off their six-pack abs. Again in jewellery designer Raj Mahtanis show, the male models acted as props and bare-chested raised the temperatures high during the show.

So, there is definitely a lot of skin showing, but from the males this time.