GQ India - July 2019

O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P
INDIA
JULY 2019 `15 0

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P E N S P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY TEJAL PATNI
HRITHIK
OPENS UP
TO BREAK THE RULES,
YOU MUST FIRST MASTER
THEM.
AUDEMARS PIGUET® | INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY
BOMBER BY EMPORIO
ARMANI. JACKET,
JOGGERS; BOTH BY
DIESEL. SNEAKERS
BY ONITSUKA TIGER.
WATCH BY RADO
100
ROCKET MAN
Hrithik Roshan tells all.
Written by Shikha Sethi
INDIA
JU
JULY 2019
0 `15
50
INSIDE THE
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BEST DRESSED
BLOWOUT
HRITHIK
OPENS UP
PHOTO: TEJAL PATNI
JACKET BY CALVIN KLEIN

JEANS. T-SHIRT BY
MASSIMO DUTTI
JULY 2019 — 9
CONTENTS
24 Editor’s Letter 140

28 Contributors
30 GQ Access
163 Where to Buy
HOW TO
166 Humour Ace LIFE
Seth Rogen and the
114
Science of Rogenomics
124
WATCH
Here’s how to
experience the
Mille Miglia if you’re
not racing; Swatch
has a quirky new
collab; Louis
Vuitton is making
moves in the art of
timekeeping
72 MANIFESTO: FREE FLOW

39 VIBE
96
THE FINE
Craft OF
The origins of Stan Lee’s favourite
superhero; Step into the inner circle
of Andy Warhol through the lens of
photographer Paige Powell; Tech
FASHION
gear that only makes gaming better;
Rapper ScHoolboy Q is into golf; Sujoy
IMAGE: © 1000 MIGLIA
Ghosh gets on the horror bandwagon;

The best in movies, music, festivals
and art this month
12 — JULY 2019
CONTENTS
FRESH TAKE
108
HOT
58
77 STYLE
SAUCE
Kim Jones and Dior Men have your newest look figured out;
Sabyasachi turns 20 – we look back at the brand’s legacy;
Do you choose trainers or slides this season?; Henry Cavill
dishes on his many style moves; Hermès continues to rule
menswear; The best, latest drops from the fashion world
64 THE GOODLIFE
The Araku Valley is ready to dominate the coffee
scene in India; Home lighting hacks from an expert
design duo; Where to eat, stay and party right now
HIT 150
MAKERS
132
GQ POWERPLAY 158
TIME FRAME
Take a tour of the sacred home of cricket; Volvo presents large,
Remember these heroes of past World Cup finals?;
Test cricket gets its moment in the spotlight
144 DRIVE luxurious SUVs; Meet
Italy’s fastest hypercar
The World 56
According to Nas
IMAGE: CHE KURRIEN
14 — JULY 2019
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Che Kurrien CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER Arjun Mehra
PUBLISHER Almona Bhatia
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ART DIRECTOR Mihir Shah SENIOR ADVERTISING MANAGERS Dipti Uchil, Medhavi Nain (New Delhi)
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STYLE DIRECTOR Shivangi Lolayekar ASSISTANT MARKETING MANAGER Christel Anthony
SENIOR MARKETING EXECUTIVE Ankita Rajurkar
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Akansha Naik, Priyanka Shivdasani
ASSISTANT MANAGER – SEO Akash Kumar
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS & PHOTOGRAPHERS MANAGER – EMAIL MARKETING Avantika Pandey Bathiya
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Abhishek Bali, Abhishek Mande Bhot, Adil Hasan,
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SENIOR MANAGER – BRAND SOLUTIONS Shweta Mehta Sen
Kishore Singh, Lindsay Pereira, Manish Mansinh, MANAGER – DIGITAL BRAND SOLUTIONS Ankita Bhushan (New Delhi)
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20 — JULY 2019
PACE TO GLORY
S hop online at www.asics.com asicsindia asicsindia

Scan the QR code below Chief Executive Officer
to get the digital edition Roger Lynch
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What a man’s got to do Chairman of the Board of Directors

Jonathan Newhouse
Spirit of Coorg
Evolve Back Chikkana Halli Estate
CHI KKANA HALLI E S TATE , CO O RG K A MA L A PU R A PA L AC E, H A M PI K U RU BA SA FA R I LO D G E, K ABIN I
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EDITOR'S LETTER
EightIes
relived
A few weeks ago, in a bolt from the blue,
American GQ uploaded a glorious image
of George Michael to its Instagram. It took
about two minutes for the post to blow up,
a spontaneous digital outburst steeped in nostalgia and
childlike zeal. I double-tapped too, joining the virtual
embrace of a childhood hero. For many us who came of age
in the 1980s, George Michael was the gold standard: movie
star looks and bad boy edge with the voice of an angel.
Wham’s Make It Big was the first record I fell in love with.
It was 1986, the year of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Top Gun
and Chernobyl. I still had milk teeth. The next summer, I
visited London for the first time. It was heady: punks awash
in leather, flaming pink hair, pierced tongues, dark make-
up. So weird, so cocky, so unlike home. My eyes opened.
These days London is more accessible, but less distinct,
less wild, more generic. I have to tread carefully here, and
not fall into the classic inter-generational trap of feeling
like things have gotten worse with time. The truth is, I
was too young to fully experience the hedonism, creativity
PHOTO: MAX HERMANS/THOMPSON PHOTO IMAGERY (CHE). IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES (GEORGE MICHAEL)
and superficiality of the 1980s. But I did have a glimpse.
And it was electric. To delve a little deeper into this period,
you could do worse than to hunt down ace photographer
Paige Powell’s important new book Beulah Land, a project
supported by Gucci. Powell grew up in Portland but moved
to New York in the 1980s, where she fell into Andy Warhol’s
inner circle, giving her a ringside view of the city’s explosive
arts scene. She even dated Jean-Michel Basquiat. In this
issue, we interview Powell about this era, and the unbridled
creativity it spawned. George Michael would have enjoyed
flipping through its sumptuous pages.
George Michael,
idol of an entire
generation
@chekurriengq
24 — JULY 2019
www.shantanunikhil.com
CONTRIBUTORS
T H E TA S T E M A K E R
BENGAL TIGER PHYLLIDA JAY

WHO: Fashion author
He’s the reserved, quiet designer who’s
built an empire at the epicentre of the noisy based between the UK
excess of the Big Fat Indian Wedding. But
Sabysachi Mukherjee is about to pivot in a and India whose book,
direction you couldn’t have anticipated
W RIT TEN BY PHYLLIDA JAY
Inspired By India, is out
this year.
WHAT: “Bengal Tiger”,
page 78
A Sabyasachi must:
PRAKASH “A piece made from the
AMRITRAJ glorious Murshidabad
khadi he works with.”
WHO: LA-based actor,
film producer and “I would never want
sports broadcaster fish to eat my feet.”
who loves giving
motivational speeches.
Instagram & Twitter
@prakashamritraj
TEJAL PATNI
A BIZARRE
WHAT: “How to Ace
Life”, page 140
WHO: A photographer
GROOMING
this is where it all
who’s always on the move,
started: “I was visiting
trying to give people
Wimbledon when I
was nine years old. My
father, Vijay Amritraj,
EXPERIENCE? something they haven’t
seen before.
WHAT: “Rocket Man”,
who was competing,
page 100
took me to the ‘A’
ace Quality: “Hrithik
Locker Room (only the
Roshan is all about
top players in the world
perfection. It’s something
are allowed here), and CAROLINE the younger generation
I found myself sitting in McCLOSKEY in the industry can’t
between Pete Sampras
WHO: Los really match.”
and Boris Becker. At
that moment, I realised Angeles-based “I find facials for men
this was what I wanted writer who loves extremely weird.”
to do.” eating dinner at
5pm and reading
“I got my hair cut books by Rachel
by a random barber Cusk. Twitter
while covering @sangfroid77
Wimbledon for WHAT: “Seth
television, in Doha. Rogen and
Let’s just say he did the Science of
not do a good job!” Rogenomics”, page 114
The watch List: “Pineapple Express and
IMAGE: MATT SAYLES (AMRITRAJ)
This Is The End are great, but I love Rogen

in Take This Waltz. He takes on a subtler,
more dramatic role, and slays it.”
“I can’t get down with oil pulling, and
not for lack of trying.”
28 — JULY 2019
ACCESS
YOUR E XCLUSIVE PA SS TO THE MOST HAPPENING PARTIES AND E VENTS
Rahul Bose
Sonam Kapoor Ahuja

& Anand Ahuja
Russell Peters
GQ 100 BEST-DRESSED
PARTY
WHERE:
E: JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu
T
There’s no better way to celebrate an anniversary
annivers
t
than withh a party. The 10th edition of GQ’s Best-
Dressed People in India saw celebrities like
Katrina Kaif, Karan Johar, Sonam Kapoor AhujaAhuj
and Anand nd Ahuja raise the style quotient on the
red carpetet alongside some of the country’s best-
bes -
k
known mor
designers, models, musicians and more.
Sobhita Dhulipala
DJs Proofof and Edwin STATS Houghton kept the
d
dance f oor packed through the night, and food and
floor
Katrina Kaif
d i k flowed. The party reached its peak when
drinks
i ional funny man Russell Peters made a
international
s i appearance. From the experimental to the
surprise h
cl i the
classic, he night saw fashion at its best.
30 — JULY 2019
Huma Qureshi
Karan Johar
Kriti Sanon
Shruti Haasan
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Sanya Malhotra
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32
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34
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Selfie game
Aartivijay Gupta, Gaurav Khanijo & Amrita Thakur on point
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Harish Ramaswamy &
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ghton
S TATS Hou
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Danish Qayoum
& Elena
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ESS ACCESS ACCESS ACCESS ACCESS ACCESS
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Aahana Kumra
Sequeir a&
Rochelle Rao PHOTO: KEDAR NENE & TEAM
a
Keith Sequeir
37
Kapil Kapoor
GQ PROMOTION
WHERE SERENITY AWAITS

To mark its one-year anniversary at the iconic The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, Jiva Spa presents
Royal Spa Retreat – a thoughtfully curated package that ushers you into a world of wellness
The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai has a philosophy rooted in the country’s
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meal at Masala Kraft. Beverages, both
THE ROYAL SPA RETREAT PACKAGE, hot and cold, will flow through the
JIVA SPA day at the Palace Lounge. And what’s
Cost per couple: `26,000 ++ a night
more, is that you can customise your
Duration: July 15th – September 30th,
experience by adding in therapies,
2019
yoga and meditation sessions and
wellness meals.
So, take a mid-season break and
make the most of the Royal Spa
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Mahal Palace, Mumbai – you’ll be glad
you did.
Book online at tajhotels.com, call the

toll-free India number at 1-800-111-825
or email reservations@tajhotel.com
EDITED BY NIDHI GUPTA
In 1971, Roy Thomas

became the first
person besides
Stan Lee to write
Spider-Man when
he penned Amazing
Spider-Man Vol. 1
No. 100 while Lee
was on sabbatical
for a few months to
write a screenplay
with director Alain
Resnais (the film was
never produced).
IMAGE: © TM & © 2018 MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, LLC (COMIC BOOK)
FILM
BITTEN BY THE bug

As Tom Holland swings by in Spider-Man: Far From Home this month, Roy Thomas
traces the origins of Stan Lee’s favourite superhero
JULY 2019 — 39
VIBE
The name? “You can’t call a hero Spider-Man,

Stan. People hate spiders!” (Did he think people
liked gigantic monsters who crunched cities
between their toes?)
The concept? “He’s a teenager? Teenagers can
only be sidekicks!” (Guess Goodman had never
noticed a DC comic called Superboy, which had
been around since 1949.)
ack in 1961, it took a while to The “personal problems” Stan wanted him to
find out how well a comicbook have? “Heroes are too busy fighting evil to slow
had sold. It could take half a year down the stories with personal stuff.”
before a publisher knew just how Still, Stan got a grudging okay to stick his new
many people had actually bought hero in Amazing Adult Fantasy. Since its name
the blasted thing. change from Amazing Adventures, that comic
Martin Goodman must’ve had had consisted of “all Lee and Ditko, all the time!”
a fairly early inkling, though — — short fantasy tales with O. Henry-style twist
and he didn’t count fan mail, endings. Quality-wise, it was a minor gem. But
however enthusiastic Stan might sales were tanking.
be about it — that their new bimonthly comic was Back in the 1940s, [the industry] had been up
finding an audience. Because the company’s second to its cape in characters named Superman,
new super hero title was put into production so Batman, Hawkman, Amazing-Man, Bulletman,
soon that its debut came around the same time Dynamic Man, Fly Man, etc., — not to mention
as the fourth issue of FF (as Stan affectionately a Spider Woman — and a Spider Widow — even a
nicknamed the comic), i.e., just six months after Spider Queen.
Fantastic Four No. 1. Though never, ever, a Spider-Man. With or
With the success of Fantastic Four, Goodman without a hyphen.
wanted more than one new super hero comic in Stan wanted the hero to be a teenager. And
1962. He wanted several. But rather than introduce not a football-hero type of teenager, either, but a
them in brand-new comics titles that would have guy who could be described as a “bookworm” and
to sink or swim, this next round of heroes would “Midtown High’s only professional wallflower”; a
be shoehorned into already existing mags like youth who’d gain the proportionate strength and
Journey into Mystery, et al. other attributes of a spider, but who, when not in
There’s no way to be sure which new hero costume, would be just another high school nerd.
series was created third, after Fantastic Four and Kirby, however, just naturally drew the kid to “look
Hulk, since three new characters would debut that like Captain America.” Well, no big deal. Stan gave
summer: Thor, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man. But Steve Ditko a tryout on Spider-Man.
there’s a very good chance it was the wall-crawler. [Ditko] not only captured the right feel for the
In his youth, Stanley Martin Lieber had teenager and his high school contemporaries,
loved the masked hero of a pulp magazine called but he designed a Spider-Man costume that was
The Spider. There hadn’t really been anything perfection itself. When in action, his arachnid teen
spiderlike about him besides his name, but Stanley had a look that was both heroic and at the same
had loved that name. But when Stan Lee told time a bit ungainly (only natural when a guy is
his boss his Spider-Man idea, Goodman loathed crawling down a wall or across a ceiling).
everything about it! The story was no slacker, either. In 11 packed
pages, as worked out by Stan and Ditko, it gave
the hero an origin that bordered on the ludicrous
Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal in Jon (bitten by a radioactive spider, indeed!) yet
Watts’ Spider-Man: Far From Home
probably made as much sense as being bombarded
by cosmic rays — or coming from another planet
as an infant. It put Spider-Man through his paces,
showing off his new-found abilities.
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK (WEB ILLUSTRATION)
And so Amazing Fantasy No. 15 was born.

The word Adult was dropped from the title,
because Stan and/or Goodman felt it looked
odd in the name of a comicbook that starred a
super hero called Spider-Man. After all, what
“adult” was liable to read a story about what
Stan called, on its very first page, a “long
underwear character?”
An excerpt adapted from Taschen’s The Stan Lee Story
GQ PROMOTION
DINING SKY HIGH

Inside the swish environs of Four Seasons Hotel Bengaluru, an enchanting experience awaits.
From enjoying artisanal cocktails to relishing Asian fare, the hotel’s 21st floor sure is a magical place
Picture this. You step into a sleek
elevator that zips you up to the 21st
floor. The doors open and you’re
greeted by a warm glow of light,
interspersed with a touch of whimsy.
The floor spreads out, filled with the
scents of delicious food and an air
of exclusivity that you can only find
at a Four Seasons hotel. Welcome to
Four Seasons Hotel Bengaluru.
Rising high at the heart of
Bengaluru, this luxurious property
is a mere half-hour drive away
from Kempegowda International
Airport. Equipped with 191 elegantly
appointed rooms and 39 suites, this deck with a cascading waterfall and after-dinner tipples. Influences
is a space that offers each guest the gourmet dining experiences. from fashion, high couture and
true taste of luxury. Think indulgent Speaking of which, the 21st floor delicate jewellery pieces are subtly
coffee scrubs at the spa, a quiet pool at the hotel is a destination in itself. peppered throughout the space.
It houses Copitas, a glamorous Light blends with shadow, providing
destination bar as well as Far & the perfect setting for you to sit
East, an Asian brasserie. Begin your back with a well-made craft cocktail
evening at Far & East, a striking in hand, taking in the glittering
restaurant washed in accents of Bengaluru skyline.
bright tangerine. Revel in the hub Be it sundowners at Copitas or
of activity around as you tuck into decadent dinners at Far & East,
Japanese, Thai and Chinese fare, Four Seasons Hotel Bengaluru
plated to perfection. Bite into plump, should be your first stop for a true
warm dim sums, choose from an taste of indulgence.
array of sushi and before you leave,
call for the Flaming Duck, the show For more information, visit
stopper of the evening. fourseasons.com/bengaluru or
If the night is still young, step into follow @fsbengaluru on Facebook,
Copitas, apt for sundowners and Twitter and Instagram
VIBE
INSIDE OUT
Q&A
It’s never not a good time to look at Andy Warhol and the significance of his art – but a new set of
photography books by close friend and confidant Paige Powell takes us deep into his inner circle
H
ollywood actor Matt Dillon playing with a American Ballet Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of
dalmatian. Queen of pop Madonna with dancer Music, Laurie Anderson, Pina Bausch, Peter Brook’s
Erika Belle at the short-lived NYC club Fresh The Mahabharata and other hidden, subterranean
14. Acclaimed film director Gus Van Sant theatre productions. Also, the great neighbourhoods of
holding up an early edition of the Polaroid camera. A Harlem, Little Italy and Chinatown, with culturally
toothy portrait of beatbox pioneer Emanon Johnson at rich histories, before they became gentrified with fancy
American painter Kenny Scharf’s studio. Andy Warhol boutiques. The quick and decisive pace [of the city] –
looking on as breakdancer Doze Green pulls a seemingly and being at the forefront of creating the new, rather
perfect boomerang on the floor. Elaborate spreads of than tailing it.
cheese, chocolate and wine being consumed by ravished
artists. These are just some of the candid moments to be How would you describe the art scene of the 1980s?
found in Paige Powell, a set of four books (Artists Eating, It’s easier to describe that particular scene now with
Beulah Land, Animals and Paige Powell) released by some perspective on it, than at the time. Then, we were
Dashwood, with support from Gucci, earlier this year. all just living in the moment, when creativity reigned
If you haven’t heard of Powell, it’s only because she’s and making money took the back seat. There was no
been reticent about putting her work and name out in ceiling on creativity and the goal was to create whatever
the world. In 1980, she moved from Portland, Oregon, you wanted and just make enough money to get by. Of
where she grew up, to New York, because it was her course, that has all changed now.
“dream to live in NYC and work for this beautiful,
artistic and culturally fascinating publication” called What are your favourite stories about Andy Warhol?
Interview magazine. As an advertising associate, she What most people don’t know is that Andy was comedic,
became close with Warhol and his inner circle of people talkative and a good business person. He also gave
who defined New York’s arts scene of the era. She even beauty tips like: “If you don’t drink alcoholic beverages
dated Jean-Michel Basquiat for a bit. you can always wear it as a perfume” (like he did with
And, as Powell always had a camera slung around Absolut vodka); “Always put lotion on your feet at night
her neck, she managed to capture the wild times that like Brigid Berlin”; “Paint your white sneakers black
Andy Warhol’s glittering entourage got up to. “I suppose if you are going to a formal dinner or event”; “Janet
I was inspired by the enormous creativity and cultural Sartin was the best facialist”; and “Never measure a bad
diversity that we didn’t have in Oregon,” Powell tells GQ review by what the critics say, measure only by square
over email. “I never thought of myself as documenting, inch – size is more important.”
but rather just being part of the mix of what was
happening in my daily life.” What was the idea behind Animals?
It was a discovery by the editor of the books, Kim
What motivated you to look through your archives after Hastreiter. While perusing hundreds of my contact
30 years, and put together these books? sheets, she noticed that I had loads of animal
Actually, I wasn’t motivated at all, as it was too photographs, and because I am a long-time animal
overwhelming with so many boxes of ephemera, slides, activist, she thought it would make a great book.
contact sheets, prints, videos and Polaroids. I couldn’t I took some of those images in India, actually. In
face the prospect of any sort of project, or attempt to 1993 and 1994, I made trips to Rajasthan. The first
INTERVIEW: NIDHI GUPTA. IMAGE: COURTESY OF GUCCI
organise the chaos of material. Everything had basically was a two-week horse safari, and for the second, I was
been thrown into boxes without any sort of order, like an there for five weeks, which included horses, but I also
unarchived time capsule. But my close friend Thomas became involved with Maneka Gandhi’s Animal and
Lauderdale, founder and leader of the little symphony Environmental Rights movement when she was the
band Pink Martini, is also a genius historian. He Indian Cabinet Minister, and volunteered at the Sanjay
decided to create an archive for me in his loft building in Gandhi Animal Care Centre in Delhi. I studied Jainism
downtown Portland. That was about five years ago. when I returned to America.
What did you discover about NYC when you first moved there? How has your work as an animal rights activist evolved?
So many incredible artists, art galleries, fantastic I locally and globally support numerous animal non-
ballet companies and performers like the NYC Ballet, profits, and started the first online animal welfare
42 — JULY 2019
(Top) Paige Powell
with Andy Warhol,
featured in Paige
Powell; (Far left)
Madonna, Erika Belle
and friend at Fresh
14, featured in Beulah
Land; (Left) Stephen
Klein’s family pig,
Ernie, helps clean
the dishes, featured
in Animals
magazine in 1995, Ark Online. My friend, the novelist Creative Director Alessandro Michele and the Gucci
Tama Janowitz, and I had a TV cable access show team can also have the biggest hearts.
in Manhattan and on Long Island called It’s A Dog’s
Life. Cats’ Too. And Sometimes Birds. We modelled Looking back, what are your favourite memories of 1980s
the 30-minute show after Grey Gardens and QVC – New York?
profiling dogs, cats and birds for adoption, neuter and The vibe of the city was high-voltage energy, fun,
spay, educating the public about caring for their canine extravagant, Japanese and Italian clothes, outrageous
and feline kids. It was very successful, and we won after-hour clubs that opened at 3am like Brownies,
the Humanitarian Award for best programme on Laight Again. Lots and lots of parties – and because we
the channel. worked at Interview, we would get stacks of elaborate
Gucci has also been so supportive of me, my art invitations hand-delivered daily, to parties, museum
projects and my activism. It generously gave a gift to openings, film and theatre premieres and dinner events.
panthera.org, whose mission is to protect the world’s But there was a terrible and sad downside to the city:
40 wild cat species from poaching and encroachment by the AIDS epidemic. It was like an unknown transparent
humans on their ecosystems. I am so grateful to Gucci war and we lost so many extraordinary friends and
for its humanitarianism, openness and generosity. It’s other creative people to this horrible disease. NYC is,
pretty amazing that the most successful and visionary and was, about extreme highs and lows.
JULY 2019 — 43
VIBE
ARCADE FIRE
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WORDS: JEFFREY VAN CAMP. IMAGE: KELSEY MCCLELLAN. STYLIST: MICHELLE MAGUIRE
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44 — JULY 2019
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a pair of snowboarding goggles, Logitech’s Powerplay pad
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OWNING A MERCEDES-BENZ
Meet Siddharth Gogate, a businessman and proud owner of a Mercedes GLC. In
conversation, he sheds light on the signature Mercedes-Benz after-sales service
experience and tells us all about the excellent value it offers to each and every customer
When you own a Mercedes-Benz, perfection is what Tell us about your experience as a Mercedes-Benz customer.
you’re constantly looking out for. Be it in the engine of We own a GLC that I am completely in love with. To
your car or its flawless design, you always want your quote Jon Snow, she’s ‘my queen’. This is actually
Star to embody excellence in every way. Understanding our very first Mercedes-Benz! And it has truly been
your desire for perfection is ’My Mercedes. My Service.’, a delightful experience, particularly in terms of the
a program that redefines the idea of an ownership sales and the service offered. At the very first visit,
experience. Its range of services lets you focus on the thrill we decided to go for a Mercedes-Benz over any other
of driving your luxury car instead of worrying about its brand. The car looked and functioned exceptionally
maintenance. well and the sales team was highly knowledgeable.
The Digital Service Drive for instance, is designed The entire experience sort of made the decision for us.
for your absolute convenience while the Star Ease Moreover, being a Mercedes-Benz customer means
Maintenance Packages promise a convenient and hassle- putting yourself in safe, proficient hands. Safety is key
free ownership experience. And who can vouch for this to the brand. Their Star Ease maintenance packages
better than a Mercedes-Benz customer? also make fixing all your concerns an absolute breeze.
Meet Siddharth Gogate, a successful engineer and These packages come with plenty of unique features and
proud Mercedes-Benz owner. He holds a B.E. Mechanical provide customers with a wide assortment of benefits.
Engineering degree and is the COO of his family-run I highly advocate the Mercedes-Benz Genuine Parts
engineering company based in Navi Mumbai. We ask him that go far beyond mere performance. They endure for
what he gets up to when he’s not busy working. And we a long time. Their Genuine Oil and Genuine Chemical
find out that just like your average millennial, Siddharth products too, ensure that your Star receives quality care,
can be found at the gym come evening and binge- at all times. I was greatly impressed by the manner in
watching movies and TV shows by night. We chatted which the service professionals attended to me. They
with him about his personal experience with the brand’s were prompt, resourceful and provided a thoroughly
signature after-sales services. Here’s what he had to say. seamless service experience.
You’ve spoken about a seamless after-sales service experience.
GQ PROMOTION
Is there any particular incident that comes to mind?
It so happened that at one point, the minute I’d release the
brake when my car was at a standstill, there’d be a loud
noise. Concerned, I contacted the Mercedes-Benz service
center. Not only was the issue wonderfully resolved, but
the manner in which the team tackled the situation was
exemplary. Personalized attention is offered at all times and
the process is both transparent and prompt. My car was
scrupulously evaluated and returned as good as new. Suffice
to say that I never faced the same problem again. I was also
fascinated by their Digital Service Drive. It’s one of the fastest,
most expedient initiatives for busy customers to have their
vehicles maintained without any trouble. Everything happens
effortlessly, online. I’ve received estimates on email, SMS
reminders for services due and have also opted for video-
calls with Service Advisors who’ll answer all your questions
and keep you updated at all times. Their pick-up and drop
facility too, is a real blessing. This kind of personalized,
professional service is what sets this brand a cut above. This
is a brand that cares for its customers enough to offer an
outstanding initiative like the Digital Service Drive.
If you were to describe the Mercedes-Benz after-sales service to

someone, what would you say?
The Mercedes-Benz after-sales service is completely
hassle-free. And it all begins with their exceptional service
team. The team’s technical expertise coupled with a highly
commendable problem-solving attitude enables them to
address any concerns that you may have. They’re also
friendly and approachable, driven by a sense of passion.
Another aspect of the after-sales service that I enjoy is
placing a quick call to book my service appointment. Their
offer of a complimentary pick-up and drop service is an
absolute boon, considering our busy schedules these days.
It runs like clockwork, with the technician coming by to take
notes and pick up the car. The service representative gets in
touch with you next. Soon, you get an email listing out the
problems to be solved and within a day or two, your car’s I was greatly impressed by the manner in which
ready. It’s that simple. You don’t have to travel anywhere
or wait in the lounge for hours on end just for your car to the service professionals attended to me.
be ready. What’s even better is that if I book my service They were prompt, resourceful and provided a
appointment for 10 am, they attend to me promptly at 10 am,
ensuring that I’m back by 10:30-10:45 am. They’re excellent
thoroughly seamless service experience.
planners when it comes to service and maintenance. Their
processes are smooth and speedy, handled efficiently by
the team.
What would you like to say about the Mercedes-Benz service

facilities you’ve visited?
With regards to the infrastructure, Mercedes-Benz facilities
are the last word in excellence. Crafted to perfection, they’re
honestly the best structures I’ve ever seen. In addition to that,
the team at each facility is very helpful, friendly and proactive.
Be it the parking areas or the sheer aesthetic appeal of the
building, every aspect of these facilities is created with a great
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Suffice to say that your Mercedes-Benz experience does

not merely end with the purchase of your Star. It goes far
beyond, ensuring a comprehensive and unmatched value
for service to each and every customer. Their highly valuable
after-sales services are one of the many reasons why
Mercedes-Benz stands a cut above.
VIBE
I
t can happen to any of us: The
reckless hedonism of your
20s gives way to the whole-
grain realities and sobering
responsibilities of your 30s.
And suddenly, if you’re the
32-year-old psychedelically groovy
LA gangsta rapper ScHoolboy Q,
you may find yourself under the
spell of a more serene (if no less
addictive and expensive) habit: golf.
“I had all these people telling
me, ‘Why you playing a lame-ass
sport? You a loser!’” the rapper born
Quincy Hanley says, warping his
box-cutter baritone into the high-
pitched mockery of an ignorant
hater, “But like I tell everyone,
‘Bruh: Golf is life.’”
They love Q here. “Here” being
the Calabasas Country Club, a
postcard expanse of glimmering
emerald turf, gently sloping
mountains and a 21-acre lake, a few
WORDS: JEFF WEISS. PHOTO: DANIELLE LEVITT. STYLIST: MOBOLAJI DAWODU. GROOMING: HEE SOO KWON. PRODUCTION: AUSTIN SEPULVEDA. LOCATION: CALABASAS COUNTRY CLUB
minutes’ drive from Q’s home in the
same ritzy neighbourhood. “They”
being everyone from the 19-year-old
caddies who want photos to flex on
Instagram to the baronial white-
haired titans of commerce who greet
him by name, slap high fives and
give him jovial biceps taps like he
just closed a deal.
Unburdened from the demands
of a nine-to-five existence, Q hits
the links daily. His partner for nine
holes in the afternoon is Adrian, a
fit older Mexican-American man
with wind-swept grey hair and
black shades, who has become Q’s
adoptive golfing padre.
The golf obsession started just
over a year ago, and while Q seems
a natural on the course, his new
habit is actually the culmination of
a fraught series of events. He spent
his early years on 51st Street in LA’s
South Central before enrolling at a
local community college intending to
play football.
By 2009, he had been
incarcerated, had a daughter and
gotten a trapezius tattoo that read
MUSIC
BETTER BALL
FUCK LAPD – a nod, he says, to
its habit of picking him up and
then dropping him off unarmed in
rival-gang territories. Rap was a
miraculous lifeline. A former college-
In the three years since his last album, rapper ScHoolboy Q has football teammate had become the
engineer for the fledgling TDE,
kept a low profile. He also did what a lot of guys do in their early
home of Kendrick Lamar. Q swiftly
30s: He got really into golf. Now that he’s released his new LP, ingratiated himself with the West
Crash Talk, we asked Q to hit the links Coast’s now-dominant rap label.
48 — JULY 2019
Beginning with his second album, a little stiff, but it’s powerful. He Kendrick and Jay Rock convinced
2012’s Habits & Contradictions, Q thwacks the ball 220 yards in the him it wasn’t. Darkness set in.
– wearing bucket hats and tie-dye, air, rounding into form. “I’d be in the house smoking
rhyming over Portishead samples – “People don’t give a fuck about weed, just waiting to go to the
reimagined what gangsta rap could you,” he adds, “All they want is studio every day. That’s not a good
look and sound like. If other rappers music and to see you living the life. That brings on depression,” Q
needed shotgun blasts and air horns rapper life.” says, “It’s toxic for your kid, too.”
to add extra energy, all Q needed to For Q, living the rapper life There was also the risk of the
do was shout “YAWK YAWK YAWK!” started interfering with the business ostensibly unthinkable. In the
The tremendous success of 2014’s of rapping. The last time I saw him, past two years alone, accidental
Oxymoron spurred Q’s move into a in 2014, he downed two Styrofoam overdoses resulted in the untimely
mansion in Calabasas, one of those cups full of promethazine and Sprite demises of Lil Peep and Q’s close
LA subdivisions that come complete before 2am – a daily occurrence friend and collaborator Mac Miller,
with neighbours like Kanye and during his darkest stretches in the the latter of whom he still has a
Drake. He even began personally middle of the decade. He’s disclosed hard time talking about. It was a
homeschooling his daughter. It was previous issues with Xanax and tough couple of years.
the good life, until it wasn’t. Percocet, too. Enter the game of kings and
“Being in the house so damn He released Blank Face in 2016 the Calabasas Country Club.
much can drive you crazy,” Q says. to substantial acclaim, toured it Between the fresh air, the equally
“Golf taught me patience, and you and headed straight back into the meditative and maddening
need that in the music industry, studio once that was over, but he aspects of the sport and the club’s
because this shit is evil.” wasn’t feeling right. He estimates apparently laissez-faire approach
Setting up at the tee, he gets that he had made and discarded to his penchant for lighting up on
into position. No one will mistake two full albums (“They were trash”) the back nine, Q was immediately
him for his favourite golfers (Tony and completed a third, which he sold. He augmented his new
Finau, Rickie Fowler), but it’s briefly concluded was ready for obsession with boxing workouts,
been only a year. His swing is still consumption before labelmates intermittent fasting (he’ll eat only
between noon and 8pm) and daily
morning sessions of Call Of Duty
(“Videogames saved my life, too”).
But it was ultimately golf that
parted the psychic clouds, allowing
him to lighten up and make the
music that he actually wanted
to make. Cue Crash Talk, his
third major label album, which
features Travis Scott and Kid Cudi
and brings both sides of Q into
harmony: the ferocious bullet-
holes-in-your-coupe-gangsta-rap
assassin and the hedonistic, gonzo
one-man party with an innate pop
sensibility. It’s Q as killer and lover,
reckless shit-talker and responsible
father, grown up gangsta and
aspiring scratch golfer.
After another shanked drive on
eight – Adrian assures me this is
an off day for Q – the group reaches
the ninth hole, a final chance
for redemption. Q assumes the
position and locks over that dimpled
teardrop – and just like that, it’s
effortless. Steel to ball to the fairway,
a magisterial drive that would be
the envy of every periodontist at the
club. A pure shot with an iron, a chip
onto the green, and an eight-foot
putt later, he’s made par.
“Yes, I’m back!” Q pumps his
fists and whoops and exuberantly
gives pounds to Adrian and me.
“I’m back now!”
JULY 2019 — 49
VIBE
A still from Typewriter;

(Below) Sujoy Ghosh and team on set
STREAM
TEARS FOR FEARS

Ahead of the release of his Netflix series Typewriter, film-maker and
horror junkie Sujoy Ghosh click-clacks down memory lane – and it’s
lined with strange encounters of the creepy kind
A
ghost story always has a place in Ghosh does not care to read too deeply into the
everyone’s heart,” Sujoy Ghosh says, metaphorical underpinnings of a horror story, but
“because it’s about hope; it’s a sign of he does know what makes a good one. Take James
something very positive.” The director, best Wan’s The Conjuring: “It’s the bible of horror. It
known for boundary-pushing suspense ticks all the boxes on the list of what a horror story
thrillers like Kahaani, Ahalya and, most recently, should have: A family comes to a city, they’ll sense
Badla, is explaining why he thinks horror cinema something’s off but they’ll ignore it, there will always
resonates with people everywhere, of all ages, across be kids who’ll see things differently from the adults;
generations. “If you believe in ghosts, in the afterlife, in there’ll always be one Gandalf-type character. And, of
WORDS: NIDHI GUPTA. IMAGE: ALAMY (MOVIE POSTERS)
the supernatural, it takes the fear out of your heart.” course, lots of pets.”
With the Netflix series Typewriter, which he’s Not impressed by Asian horror, Ghosh says
written and directed, Ghosh is venturing into the the ones that’ve stuck with him are the films and
darkness for the first time. “Typewriter’s about four film-makers that “force you to see things or think
kids trying to find a ghost in their neighbourhood [in differently. I mean, who’d have thought a video
Goa], and the adventures they have in the process,” cassette or a restored car could give rise to a series of
he summarises. Before you ask, he adds that it’s unfortunate events?” Ghosh laughs, referring to Gore
inspired by Stranger Things (“Such fun, so scary and Verbinski’s The Ring and John Carpenter’s Christine.
adventurous; it’s the best thing I’ve seen in recent “And who’d think something as inanimate and basic
times!”) as much as by “Enid Blyton and Alfred as a typewriter could be haunted? It’s when things
Hitchcock, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.” become unexpected that the magic begins.”
50 — JULY 2019
WATCH IT AGAIN ALBUMS
Here, the cult classics Ghosh

thinks are worth a revisit: not
including Sixth Sense (“the
WOKE YOKE
A lot of x’s and o’s on Ed Sheeran’s expansive new
godfather of all horror”) and No 6 Collaborations Project
The Shining (“Jack Nicholson,
period”), for obvious reasons.
In 2011, on the verge of becoming a
mainstream superstar, Ed Sheeran released
SALEM’S LOT (1979) a little EP called No 5 Collaborations Project.
T O BE H O O PE R Featuring grime and rap acts like Devlin,
Wiley, Ghetts and JME, each track was meant
His first brush with
to act as a musical, telling a specific story.
horror, Ghosh watched
The eight-song record is significantly darker
this mini-series for actor
(sample “Family” ft P Money and “Nightmares”
David Soul, of whom he
ft Random Impulse, Sway and Wretch 32) than the sugary pop that the
was a fan. “I had the shit
Grammy winner has come to be known for – especially since he made it
scared out of me!”
a point to not write songs about girls for that record.
Sheeran enjoyed the process enough to revive the project in 2018
while on tour, putting together a 15-track album “on his laptop”. And,
A NIGHTMARE ON based on the two singles out at the time of writing this, it sounds like,
ELM STREET (1984) at the very least, karaoke night’s about to get an upgrade. On the
W E S C R AV E N dancehall-y “I Don’t Care”, Sheeran and homeboy Justin Bieber muse
Twelve years before on social anxiety with gay abandon, while “Cross Me” has fellow best
Scream, Craven intercepted human Chance the Rapper (and PnB Rock) delivering a catchy refrain
the constant stream of about defending their ladies’ honour. Just more proof that nice guys
copycat ghosts with this don’t always finish last. July 12
unbelievably violent slasher.
Ed Sheeran
SPELLBINDER (1988)
JA N E T G R E E K
A thriller involving
a lovestruck man, a
Satanic cult and a
young Kelly Preston,
Spellbinder “plays with
your mind.”
CHILD’S PLAY (1988)

T O M H O LL A N D
Chucky the evil doll is

another in a series of
inanimate objects that
continue to haunt us:
Expect a remake in
theatres this year.
THE OTHERS (2001)

ALE JANDRO AMENABAR
A pillar of the genre,

this Nicole Kidman-
starrer threw in
a couple kids in a
Victorian-era mansion
and an epic twist.
VIBE
FESTIVAL
WALK THIS WAY
WORDS: NIDHI GUPTA. IMAGE: COURTESY OF GALLERIA CONTINUA, SAN GIMIGNANO/BEIJING/LES MOULINS/HABANA. ARTWORK PHOTO BY ELA BIALKOWSKA (SHILPA GUPTA)
A foot-stomping music festival to keep you lit in a Serbian summer
T
his month’s EXIT Festival, happening inside Novi Sad’s 18th- GAMES
THE ART
century Petrovaradin Fortress, could be your cue to explore
Europe’s Balkan peninsula. The festival itself is a wholesome
showcase of the world’s best rock, punk, hip-hop and electronica
OF WAR
over a whopping 40 stages inside the fort’s moats, trenches and tunnels.
Once you’re done vibing to the beats of modern-day luminaries like Carl
Cox, The Cure, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Greta Van Fleet, head out to
explore the museums, cafés and Soviet architecture of the Serbian city. And In Fódlan, you’re the master
then perhaps hitch-hike to Montenegro or Croatia for a tryst with nature; of your own destiny
or choose between Sarajevo and Beirut to witness an unexpectedly booming
nightlife on either side of the Sea of Marmara. July 4-7
ART
AT HOME IN
THE WORLD
A new dock for Indian art in
S
till grieving over the rash
climax to Game Of Thrones?
Dubai hosts a show about a
Perhaps you can find some
mobile world solace in Fire Emblem: Three Houses,
T
the 16th RPG title from the nearly
he inaugural show at the new Ishara Art Foundation in Alserkal Avenue,
30-year-old Japanese franchise.
titled Altered Inheritances: Home Is A Foreign Place, is a conversation
You play a professor stationed at
between contemporary artist Shilpa Gupta and the Aligarh-born,
the Church of Seiros in Fódlan,
US-based Zarina. It includes 36 monochrome woodcuts inscribed with
tasked with training kids from three
“triggers for memory” and a video by Sophie Ernst in which Zarina recalls the
“houses” in combat. You will have
experience of leaving India in 1947. You’ll likely gain new perspectives on the
visions of a mysterious girl called
ever-resonant issue of migration in a world with ever-harder borders. Till July 13
Sothis; and since this is Fire Emblem,
Image: Shilpa Gupta; Details from Altered Inheritances - 100 (Last Name) Stories, 2014; Prabhakar Collection, Dubai there are bound to be dragons hiding
somewhere. July 26 on Nintendo Switch
52 — JULY 2019
VIBE
FILM
URBAN LEGENDS
Old stories get the Hollywood treatment in this month’s
star-powered cinema
THEATRE
KUNG FU
DANCING
At The Shed, NYC’s hot new
address for art and creativity
Should you
find yourself in
New York this
month, mark
out some time
to visit the hip
and happening
new cultural
centre, The
Shed, located in the Bloomberg
Building. Not only has the
architecture been the talk
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD of the town lately (Google
D IR EC TE D BY Q U E NTIN TA R A NTIN O “McCourt”), its programming
also lives up to the mission
The murder of American actress Sharon Tate in 1969 at the hands of the
of greater flexibility in access
Manson Family was a shocking event – and is now the core of Tarantino’s
to arts. Take, for instance,
new film that, the American director says, is actually about the “final
the ongoing dance drama,
moments of Hollywood’s golden age.” As such, the story follows TV actor
Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise,
Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt)
which tells the story of a twin
as they try to make it in the changing industry, and life, as Tate’s (Margot
brother and sister at the heart
Robbie) neighbour. July 26
of a secret sect in Queens that
possesses the power to extend
THE LION KING human life, and their struggle
to control it. Marrying martial
D IR EC TE D BY J O N FAV R E AU
arts combat with balletic
WORDS: NIDHI GUPTA. IMAGE: IWAN BAAN/COURTESY THE SHED
In the latest among Disney’s dance sequences, this original

rush of live-action remakes production has rare wattage
of beloved classics (including powering it: It’s directed by
Aladdin and Dumbo earlier the famous Chen Shi-Zheng;
this year), Favreau returns written by Jonathan Aibel and
to navigating the wild: An Glenn Berger, the hands behind
all-star cast, including Donald Kung Fu Panda; choreographed
Glover, James Earl Jones and by British contemporary
Beyoncé, bring Simba’s story dance pioneer Akram Khan;
alive, in conjunction with some and features songs by Sia
virtual reality. Yes, there’s a (remixed by The Haxan Cloak
new “Hakuna Matata” for you and Arca). Unmissable is an
and your kids to get into. July 19 understatement. On till July 27
54 — JULY 2019
PROMOTION
THE WORLD
ACCORDING TO NAS
Celebrating 25 years of one of rap’s most seminal albums, Illmatic
W RIT TEN BY LINDSAY PEREIR A
56 — JULY 2019
Sushmita Sen and critics called “poetic realism”. Serious praise for someone
Aishwarya Rai loomed large who had just turned 21.
in India’s consciousness back The opening of “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” – the first taste
in the summer of 1994. The of Nas for thousands of people who didn’t immediately
former was crowned Miss purchase the album – is strongly representative of his
Universe that year, while style, which is probably why it was made into a music
the latter took home the title video. “It ain’t hard to tell, I excel, then prevail / The
of Miss World. For me, both mic is contacted, I attract clientele…” Those two lines
events faded in comparison alone contain internal rhymes, examples of assonance
to the suicide of Kurt Cobain, and slant rhymes. They are an impressive marriage of
lead singer of Nirvana, whose passing shook me like the relevance and skill, showcasing just what makes rap
death of someone particularly close. This doesn’t make such a compelling art form, and why Nas’ flow is easy to
sense now, in hindsight, but felt normal at the time identify but hard to replicate.
because, as teenagers, we tend to give our heroes a lot When I eventually did get around to listening to the
more importance than our family members. album in its entirety, one of the things that stood out,
A lot of us back then, a captive audience in the dawn almost at once, was the sound. This was a period when
of satellite television after economic liberalisation heavy bass and rock samples were routinely used as
finally came to India, seemed to have singers, the bedrock for rappers to rhyme over. Nas, on the other
musicians and bands as personal heroes. Movie stars hand, seemed to favour what sounded suspiciously like
from Hollywood were as big as they are today, but we piano and avant-garde jazz. I didn’t recognise any of the
couldn’t track their lives on an hourly basis the way samples he used, which was great because it pushed
Instagram now encourages us to. Instead, some of us me, and others like me, into all kinds of directions as
used our free time to minutely pore over albums and we searched for the origins of those tunes. For those
try to make sense of individual songs in a manner that who did understand them, it made for a more profound
short attention spans have now rendered obsolete. listening experience – which is how Illmatic managed
In April that year, the American rapper Nas to attract African-Americans as well as suburban
(presumably shortened because Nasir bin Olu Dara Bombayites who cared enough to listen.
Jones wouldn’t fit on cassette covers) dropped his It was also a welcome change from the gangsta
debut studio album, Illmatic. It was introduced on rap that would eventually define that decade and
MTV India via a music video for the last track, “It overwhelm it, creating superstars in the process while
Ain’t Hard To Tell”, and promptly dropped out of heavy simultaneously tainting the movement and reducing it
rotation a few weeks later. There were bigger releases to the simplistic braggadocio so many of us still mistake
and events occupying MTV’s attention at the time, it for. What Nas was consciously doing is what pioneers
given that Roxette had released Crash! Boom! Bang!, across genres of music have always striven for, and
rapper Warren G had made a bigger splash with his only sometimes succeeded at: He was going against the
debut Regulate...G Funk Era, Blur had effectively grain in an attempt to break the mould.
kicked off Britpop with Parklife, Green Day had turned Nas’ last major appearance was in 2018, on his self-
into stars overnight with Dookie and Michael Jackson titled album, produced by Kanye West. Its second track,
had married Lisa Marie Presley. “Cops Shot The Kid”, gets its name from the recurring
Illmatic could easily have faded away like so sample of a song called “Children Story” by Slick Rick.
many rap albums of its era that were almost wilfully “White kids are brought in alive,” he raps, “Black kids get
entrenched in their geography and milieu. Slowly, hit with like five.” In that pithy couplet, he encapsulates
and almost inexplicably, however, it started to gain the rage that launched the Black Lives Matter
momentum. By the end of that decade, it had achieved movement. Much of what Nas has been saying on his 11
platinum status in America. There was no similar studio albums covers themes such as urban poverty, inner
groundswell in India, of course, because a movie like city violence and the damage inflicted by gang rivalries.
Gully Boy (which Nas executive produced) was still The recent murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle, on the
decades away from conception. But Nas still managed opposite coast from where Nas grew up, shows that little
to make an impact among those who dutifully tuned has changed on the ground. That Nas’ arguments are still
into the show Yo! MTV Raps. Twenty-five years after its valid a quarter of a century later can be depressing to
appearance, Illmatic routinely tops lists of the greatest think about, but credit to him for constantly finding new
and most influential hip-hop albums of all time. ways of putting his ideas across. The message itself may
There were early whispers of greatness within the rap be worn out, but the messenger is potent.
community, even if they weren’t obvious to listeners like I can still listen to Illmatic and stumble upon
me on the other side of the planet. As a young rapper, something new every once in a while. The sounds are
Nas was sometimes referred to as the new Rakim, a still fresh, the words still compelling. In an age of
huge honour given that the MC has long been celebrated streaming singles and music that dates within a week,
as one of the most skilful writers to wield a microphone. there just aren’t many albums one can say that about.
As reviews of Illmatic started to trickle in, there were Lindsay Pereira is a regular contributor to GQ India. He is currently listening to
repeated references to his disavowal of gimmicks, the classic hip-hop on loop and waiting for new music from Kanye West. You can
refreshing absence of cliché and the power of what some follow him at @lindsaypereira on Twitter
JULY 2019 — 57
Abhijay Negi aka Encore
ABJ (left) and Siddhant
Sharma aka DJ Calm
(right) are the duo
behind Seedhe Maut
58
Hot
For the last decade or so,
the story of Indian rap
has been synonymous
with Mumbai-based
gully rap. But that’s set
to change with Seedhe
Maut. Bhanuj Kappal
meets the firebrand
duo from Delhi making
music for Gen Z (and
anyone else who’ll listen)
Sauc e PHOTOGRAPHED BY ABHISHEK BALI
B
ro, yeh toh full BT ho gayi (Bro, this with the analysts on TV, or the “woke” twitterati.
is a full bad trip),” declares Siddhant Terms like “caste calculus”, “regulatory capture”
Sharma, aka MC Calm, his eyes affixed and “electoral bonds” are nowhere to be found.
to the TV screen in my living room as he They haven’t yet been bloodied in the culture wars
pours himself a generous glass of Jack of online activism, with its radicaler-than-thou
Daniel’s whiskey. In the corner, Abhijay posturing and tendency towards blue-on-blue attacks.
Negi (nom-de-rhyme: Encore ABJ) is rolling joints Instead, their response to the election result is a
like his life depends on it. He picked up 15 grams direct and heartfelt, “We’re fucked.”
of weed from a friend the day before, and he’s on This same directness and emotional honesty also
a mission to finish it before the two get on a flight informs the duo’s music, which combines dark alt-
back to Delhi later that evening. trap beats with introspective lyricism and exuberant
It’s May 23, election results day, and the boys from wordplay. In the two years since they signed to Delhi
Seedhe Maut have stopped over at my suburban rap label Azadi Records, Seedhe Maut have become
Mumbai flat on the way to the airport. We’re one of the most talked-about new acts in Indian
supposed to be doing a second round of interviews, hip-hop, Delhi’s icons-in-waiting, all set to take over
following up on our conversation in Delhi a couple of from the Mumbai rappers who currently run the
weeks earlier. Instead, we spend the evening getting rap underground. Recent sets at BudX and Bira91’s
wasted and watching the ruling party’s triumphant April Fools’ Fest saw them upstage much bigger
return to power. acts on the lineup, with hundreds of fans singing
“We laugh at the US for electing Donald Trump,” along to their tracks. They’ve got a collaboration
says Sharma, in a resigned voice. “But look at us.” with UK rap/electronica biggies Foreign Beggars in
Admittedly, this isn’t the most erudite example the pipeline, and they’re also going to star in their
of political commentary. The two young men – own documentary very soon. They even had a major
Sharma is nearly 23, Negi is 24 – don’t use the sort political party offer them `25 lakh to do a song for the
of political vocabulary and theory that’s in vogue election campaign (they refused).
59
B
Part of the buzz around them is thanks to “They’re two boys just trying to be
their explosive live shows. At Azadi Records’ themselves when other aspiring rappers here
second-anniversary celebration at Mumbai’s are trying so hard to be ‘rappers’, if you know
Khar Social earlier this year, the opening bars what I mean,” says Azadi co-founder Mo Joshi,
of Seedhe Maut’s first track hit the crowd on the phone from Chandigarh. “I think that’s
like a tsunami, igniting a mosh pit that sent why they have such an incredible connection
bodies flying across the floor like billiard with their fans.”
balls. But this is just one piece of the puzzle.
In fact, Seedhe Maut’s secret sauce is their
B
unique dynamic: Two young friends finding ro, supplee lag gayi (Bro, I have
their way in a world gone awry. On Bayaan, to give a supplementary exam),”
their critically acclaimed nine-track debut complains Negi, looking up from
album, Sharma and Negi channel the angst a textbook as I walk into the
and frustration of middle India’s Gen Z as they bedroom of Sharma’s Tilak Nagar
confront an adulthood more complicated than bachelor pad a couple of weeks
they expected. earlier. A huge Seedhe Maut
This generation has inherited a country poster takes up most of the wall behind him,
that is no longer the India from their civics while Manchester United merch and a couple
textbooks. Today’s young adults are navigating of framed CD covers – Bayaan and their debut
new rules of romance in the age of sexting and mixtape 2 Ka Pahada – make up the rest
#MeToo, trying to unlearn toxic masculinity of the decor. One corner, with a desk and a
without the help of a gender studies education. computer, is the duo’s combined home studio
They’re faced with the task of handling an and gaming den. In between our interview and
impending environmental crisis that their a recording session for a track on label mate
“elders” seem to have no interest in fixing. Tienas’ upcoming album, Negi is trying to
All that, on top of the familiar conundrum of cram subjects like advanced mathematics and
middle-class kids everywhere – whether to coastal engineering so he can finally get his
follow the safe, scripted path through life that civic engineering degree, six years in. Sharma,
their parents have planned for them, or to on the other hand, is taking much pleasure in
risk conflict and failure by setting off on their his friend’s misfortune. “He’s going to put this
own. Seedhe Maut’s music and lyrics speak to in the article,” he cackles. “There goes your
these anxieties in a way neither mainstream street cred.”
mass culture nor gully rap do. Perhaps that More than anything, Seedhe Maut are like
explains their incredibly dedicated fanbase: an odd couple from a sitcom. The older, quieter
14-year-old boys who send them beats and Negi is an introvert whose idea of a good time
religiously follow their videogame live streams is just chilling at home with a spliff. He doesn’t
on YouTube; teenage girls at gigs who cry drink much, and used to hate nightclubs before
when they play romantic ballad “Gehraiyaan” he met Sharma. With his gaunt face and
and wait hours at the gate to meet them, only kohl-tinged eyes, he radiates a quiet, brooding
to cry again. There are even a couple of guys intensity. In contrast, Sharma is an ebullient
who religiously follow them on tour, regularly extrovert who starts every other sentence with
Producer popping up in the duo’s Instagram Stories from Delhi’s signature elongated “Brooooo”. Sharma
Sez On The Beat shows all over the country. goes through life with a joie de vivre that’s
infectious, greeting every new development
with multiple-exclamation-marks excitement.
Never seen without his oversized square specs,
he’s the life of every after-party. “It works out
great, because Calm can go out and mingle
with people easily, do the networking,” says
Negi. “That really helped us get gigs and stuff,
especially in the early days.”
They’ll often complete each other’s
sentences. During interviews, you sometimes
feel like a third wheel – they can keep a
conversation going for hours with little more
than a few encouraging nods from your end,
jumping from tangent to tangent. They don’t
deploy the filters usually used by artists when
speaking to the press, either. A question about
their latest live show can lead to anything from
anecdotes about meeting Ranveer Singh at the
GQ Style & Culture Awards in March this
year (“He had a speaker playing “Apna Time
60
Their nine track
debut album,
Bayaan, is a recor d
that seethes
Seedhe Maut’s
with barely grime’s “sick”. “It basically implies that you
have to give it your all in anything you do,” live gigs
are electric
says Sharma. “It’s quite dark and sharp, and
restraine d rage that’s how we wanted our sound to be. Always
aggressive, in your face. No half measures, just
and revels in its seedhe maut.”
Once they started writing songs together,
dest ructive impact it quickly became apparent that this creative
partnership was bigger than the sum of its
two parts. Negi wields his voice like a scalpel,
Aayega” in his pocket as he walked in, abhi tak his Hindi lyrics showcasing a mastery of
film promotion chal rahi hai bhai”) to gentle alliteration and metaphor that rivals that of
ribbing about each other’s romantic escapades. Mumbai gully rap pioneer Naezy. He draws
The two met three years ago, at the first from the same well of inspiration as Sahir
rap cypher organised by Spit Dope Inc, a Ludhianvi and other Hindustani lyricists
Delhi battle rap platform founded by Negi of Golden Age Bollywood, with their subtle
and fellow Delhi MCs Kode, Abxom and interplay of pathos and clever wordplay.
Snub. Negi was already a familiar face at Sharma’s writing is more direct, but what he
jams and cyphers at the time. Hailing from lacks in lexical dexterity, he more than makes
unfashionable East Delhi – or Jamnapaar up for with his relentless flow and crushing
– the Eminem and Big L fan had started delivery. He’s the virtuoso of the braggadocio
off rapping in English, like many of his verse, his voice dripping with contempt as he
contemporaries, but quickly transitioned to demolishes opponents in machine-gun staccato.
raw, combative Hindi rap. The duo spent the latter half of 2016
He and Sharma, the rebellious son of two putting together the songs for 2 Ka Pahada,
school principals, hit it off instantly. They which went on to make serious waves in
decided to write together as a multilingual the Indian rap underground, grabbing the
duo – Negi rapping in Hindi and Sharma in attention of hip-hop heads all over the country.
English – and Seedhe Maut was born. The Within a month of the mixtape’s release, Azadi
name came from a phrase Sharma’s brother had signed them on for a record deal. Seedhe
loved to use, a Delhi analogue of London Maut had arrived.
61
I
“It was a no-brainer really,” says Joshi, of brawl. Braggadocio cut “Meri Baggi Mera
the decision to bring the duo into the Azadi Ghoda” takes the familiar bit of North Indian
fold. “They were already creating music that doggerel (“meri baggi mera ghoda, jo na
had the potential to go beyond the hip-hop naache bhen ka lauda”) and transforms it into
scene and appeal to a wider audience. That’s a down and dirty club banger.
evident from the number of female fans that But there are also more introspective
come to their gigs.” and reflective moments on the album, and
Along with the teens, the ageing rock scene it is these that seem to inspire the most
cynics, celebrities and even a few parents, devotion from their Gen Z and female
Seedhe Maut attract the most diverse fanbase. The poignant “Gehraiyaan” starts
audience you’ll see at a rap gig. Much of that with a recording of a young girl speaking on
has to do with the success of Bayaan. While the phone with a friend about sneaking out
2 Ka Pahada was essentially a vehicle for to catch a Seedhe Maut show – not the sort
the two rappers to show off their versatility of demographic you see represented on the
and skills on the mic, Bayaan is a much average Indian rap record. The track itself is
more cohesive document of their lives and a surprisingly tender portrayal of young love,
ambitions. Released on December 28 last year, and the self-flagellation that follows your
the record didn’t get nearly as much press as first real break-up. The song is also a subtle
it deserved because publications were busy “fuck you” to the idea of fuckboy masculinity,
putting out their end-of-year coverage. But it though it’s delivered from a point of empathy
hit a nerve with kids who’d been primed for it rather than judgment. And then there’s the
by the hype being built around Zoya Akhtar’s flute-driven “PNP” (Paisa Nasha Pyaar), a
Gully Boy. song that blends personal heartbreak, social
“There’s a new wave of rap fans who don’t ills and political commentary into a ringing
want to listen to mainstream hip-hop any indictment of contemporary India.
more, and I think we tapped into that,” says These aren’t necessarily the themes that
Sharma. “I don’t think they’ve ever heard dominate Indian underground rap, which
music that uses the language they do when has taken the narratives of the “struggle”
they’re just hanging out. In the same way that and the “gully” to heart. Negi and Sharma
Naezy connected with people in Mumbai by are not shining a light on Delhi’s seamy
using the slang and language of the streets, I underbelly, or speaking for the subaltern and
think we represent the Delhi-wala style.” the marginalised. Though they touch on these
Unlike 2 Ka Pahada, which was written issues frequently, Seedhe Maut are primarily
and recorded at a frenetic pace, Seedhe Maut concerned with the more universal difficulties
spent most of 2018 getting Bayaan ready of being a young person in contemporary
under the guidance of label mate Sez – who India. They’re more interested in mining
handled the production on the album the one vein in global popular music that
– as well as the Azadi co-founders. Co-founder never runs dry: teenage angst. Until now,
Uday Kapur even convinced Sharma to drop India’s never really had a big teenage angst
the English and rap in Hindi, a move that moment in popular music, aside from the
has worked well. But more than anything, odd soundtrack cuts from a cult Bollywood
Bayaan is the sound of two friends pushing film (Rockford, Udaan). Outside of elite
each other to outdo themselves lyrically urban bubbles, Indian teens were thought
and vocally, and enjoying it thoroughly. of as either overgrown children or adults-in-
They remind me of Run The Jewels, the two waiting. But India today has over 600 million
American rap alchemists people under the age of 25 – more than
who found a way to turn their personal half the country’s population – and a large
chemistry into musical gold. In the case of chunk have more access to global culture and
Bayaan, the result is a record that seethes disposable income than ever before. They
with barely restrained rage and revels in its know their aspirations and struggles will
destructive impact. define the country’s future.
Lead single “Shaktimaan”, a crowd The album ends with the uplifting and
favourite, is an ode to the power of the Indian empowering “Chalta Reh”, all the anger
everyman who oozes a self-assurance that and sadness of the preceding songs now
borders on arrogance. Referencing the 1990s transmuted into an ironclad resolve. Your
Indian superhero – along with Salman Khan, parents may not let you go out on dates or
Shah Rukh Khan, Popeye and chole bhature – choose a creative career, your friends may
the track is propelled by Sez’s grimy flute- stab you in the back the first chance they
and-bass beat. The flute acts as a motif that get, the music industry and the world at
runs throughout the album, as do the dense large may scoff at your ambition to do things
Siddhant
Sharma and
and plentiful Indian pop culture references. the right way. But, Seedhe Maut seem to be
Abhijay Negi “Dehshat” is a sinister dose of North Indian saying, that’s all background noise. “Jaane
(foreground) aggression, the sonic version of a Delhi street de,” they tell you. “Chalta reh.”
62
They remind me of
Run The Jewels, the
two American rap
alchemists who found
a way to turn their
personal chemistry
into musical gold
63
THE
WHAT’S THE
BREWHAHA ABOUT?
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES (VALLEY)
Produced in the verdant Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh and sold in cafés across Paris, Araku Coffee
is the latest entrant to India’s growing third wave coffee scene. Arun Janardhan sits down with
co-founder and director Manoj Kumar for a cup of the brew that’s as complex as making a Birkin bag
64 — JULY 2019
M
anoj Kumar doesn’t have in microfinancing, he was wooed by Naandi
OCD, but when he sees Foundation in 2000. He started working
things out of place – a on a few major projects, like overseeing
tilted photo frame, for midday meals (in five states) and revitalising
example – it bothers irrigation schemes (in Andhra Pradesh) – the
him a bit. Part of it can latter allowing him to convince the people he
be explained by his passion for design and interacted with to take an enterprise instead
aesthetics. Or it could be because of his of a subsidy approach.
mathematical bent of mind, which means When Naandi became keen to set up social
he prefers symmetry and order. Besides entrepreneurships, the Araku Valley was a
this, Kumar has a photographic memory name that came up often. “We always knew,
and the ability to analyse body language; from day one, that we needed a legacy project,”
can speak and understand all four major says Kumar. In Araku, amid scenic silver oak
South Indian languages; spends almost every trees and black pepper plants, he saw poverty
week of the month in a different city; is an and a people whose lives were a far cry from
Akira Kurosawa fan; and, if his past could be the urban idea of modern civilisation. The
extrapolated a little, could well have been an locals were still hunters and foragers, dressed
Indian version of James Bond. in loincloths, with limited access to schools
Only, you would have to replace the shaken and health services.
martini with a coffee, because Kumar loves the The Naandi team wanted to improve the
brew. Even if he drinks only two cups a day – residents’ livelihoods and ultimately settled on
occasionally three, if dinner involves fine wine coffee, based on the locals’ recommendations.
– he can talk about it for hours, and then some. What started with about a thousand farmers,
The 50-year-old managing director of a core team of three to four people – including
Naandi Foundation, which runs Araku agriculture and biodynamic expert David
Coffee, of which he is the co-founder and Hogg – has transformed over a decade-and-a-
director, has a worthy story to tell. It’s a tale half into a project involving 1,00,000 adivasis
of a former banker, economist and counter- today. “David already knew about biodynamic
intelligence operative who went off into the farming and I literally kidnapped him for
Naxal-influenced forests of Andhra Pradesh this,” says Kumar, laughing.
to encourage resident adivasis to grow coffee Through the years, there have been
that now retails across France. The tale of continuous cultural negotiations with the
an organically grown crop, a cooperatively farmers. One such was building temporary
run business and a shared economy among stone walls to separate farms and properties
thousands of people. for quality control because the locals had no
Seated in his cosy cabin in Mahindra concept of, or need for, boundaries. “You have
& Mahindra Ltd’s Mumbai office – Anand to think of bringing out the profit enterprise
Mahindra is on the board of Naandi – Kumar of the individual, which is the ethos of
does not give the impression of being a tough capitalism, but not at the trade-off of socialist
negotiator, but that of a gentle, persuasive principles of sharing,” explains the former
mediator who meandered into the social economist, who has a professorial style of
sector. Having done stints with banks and speaking, enunciating each syllable.
As cups of Araku’s signature blend arrive
at our table, Kumar talks about cherries, red
and ripened to perfection, which contain the
bean. He elaborates on the few factors that
ARAKU VALLEY go into a world-class coffee, such as the way
the estate is looked after. “In the rest of India,
coffee is an extra accessory in a rich man’s
ANDHRA asset portfolio. It’s not somebody’s livelihood.
PRADESH
It’s mass – even smaller estates are 40 to 50
O
acres. There is no one-acre estate like ours.”
n Araku’s farms, there are strict

Naandi Foundation’s Manoj processes: A farmer tends to each
Kumar is the man behind the plant, stem and cherry. The other
award-winning Araku Coffee feature that matters is structuring
of the estate – how sunlight filters
through shade, which gives a higher yield and
makes a difference to the coffee’s acidity, how
the water is absorbed, etc. In large estates
harvested by machines, there would be two to
three harvests in a coffee season, which goes
JULY 2019 — 65
GOODLIFE
from November to March. Araku’s is every He would prefer to do that while

other day. Across the world, the beans are retaining his anonymity – he loves sitting
blow-dried in two hours; Araku’s drying in a coffee shop watching people, which he
happens over two weeks in sunlight. did in Bengaluru as part of his homework
“There is a raised platform so the earth’s for the upcoming café. Having trained in
smell does not touch the coffee. I measure counter-intelligence early in his career and
moisture and sugar levels. This is like worked at airports identifying potential
making a Birkin bag,” Kumar adds. troublemakers, he is a “dangerous” person to
With a growing production of what’s be around, according to friends, because he
currently a hundred tonnes, a million- can be a good conversationalist, and can get
and-a-half additional coffee trees being information out of people.
planted every year and 25,000 acres under If he had stayed on as an operative, he
cultivation, Araku had to seek newer would definitely have been a richer man,
markets besides France, which is why the Kumar says, laughing. But Naandi’s non-
coffee is now available in India online. It “IF I HAD profit work roots him well – typically in
started selling to Europe first because it felt
that the quality of the coffee, best drunk
BROUGHT a month, he spends a week in Mumbai,
a week in Hyderabad, which is also home,
black, would require a more sophisticated THIS COFFEE and two weeks somewhere in India or
and refined palate. But a new wave of TO INDIA FIVE Paris or a place with a coffee trend.
Indian coffee introduced over the last few His Araku (and French press) travels with
years by brands such as Blue Tokai, Black YEARS AGO, I him everywhere. It’s because – he repeats –
Baza, The Indian Bean and Flying Squirrel, WOULD HAVE it’s the best coffee. He believes taste depends
among others, has paved the way for Araku BEEN DEAD on good olfactory senses: how well you’ve
to brave local competition. trained your nose, which, for him, is part
Next up is a café in Bengaluru, and AS A BRAND,” gift, part skill acquired through practice. As
then maybe in Mumbai and Delhi, the KUMAR SAYS. he prepares for an upcoming board meeting,
three biggest markets for Araku. A
roasting facility is already up and running
“NOW, WE he also says his mind never stops working,
contrary to the calm, unhurried impression
in Hyderabad. And while it may not be his WILL SHAKE he gives. Most of his thoughts seem to be
thing, Kumar believes espresso machines UP THE occupied by the brew and the bean.
and biodegradable pods, which Araku
sells, will catch on here.
INDUSTRY. I Kumar also wants to develop a cold brew,
as well as an Araku version of the South
“If I had brought this coffee to India WILL DISRUPT Indian filter coffee. “I also need to bring
five years ago, I would have been dead as WAGES, people back to the idea of the rituals of coffee
a brand,” he says. “Now, we will shake up – brew yourself, take a pause, pour and drink
the industry. I will disrupt wages, quality QUALITY AND it,” he says, thoughtfully. “My challenge is to
and training.” TRAINING” make this a lifestyle.”
66 — JULY 2019
GOODLIFE
ON THE
BRIGHT SIDE
Your home is all about setting the right tone. Lighting experts Prateek Jain and Gautam Seth
are here to provide some illumination
Y our home is an extension of your personality.

You know that. With the explosion of
designers and products, it’s never been easier
to express yourself. You know that too. Yet,
while most emphasise furniture and colours, not
enough attention is given to lighting, which can
drastically alter a space. Few brands in the country
What are the rules for selecting lights?
Jain: The first is to know its purpose: Is it for
decoration, or is it functional? Very rarely do we see a
good design that does both. Second, don’t follow a trend
blindly; embrace one that matches your aesthetic.
How does your work fit within a minimalist aesthetic?

manage to hit the sweet spot with lighting that’s Gautam Seth: When someone with this aesthetic
as creative as it is functional, but Klove is up there approaches us for an installation, we suggest
on the list. Since its launch in 2005, it’s won a something that’s more form-based, with little or no
string of awards, collaborated with Arttd’inox, Paul embellishments. The contrast of the volume of the
Smith and Hendrick’s Gin, as well as the country’s space to the piece also plays a role – but our work
slickest interior designers, and made appearances at looks best in clean, simple spaces.
exhibitions and trade shows across the globe. Which
would make co-founders Prateek Jain and Gautam And for someone with a maximalist aesthetic? How much
Seth the best guys to shed some light on the topic. is too much?
Seth: The key is to harmonise. Synchronicity, when
What should one generally keep in mind when doing up broken, starts to look jarring. The story and theme of
a space? the artefacts should always be in tandem.
Prateek Jain: The first thing to look at is your
budget. Set one aside for the whole exercise. What design era are you drawn to?
Second, list the basic requirements: The number Seth: We love the Art Nouveau and Surrealist eras.
of bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, family spaces, etc.
Third, focus on air, light and greenery, followed by What do you recommend for small spaces?
the gadgets, appliances and technologies you want Jain: We always suggest pieces that are more detailed
to integrate in your home. Then, move on to the and compact. Our candle-and-moth pendants and
look and feel. Preparing a mood board will help you chandelier are a great example because they bring in
design everything. drama and detail, as do our eagle totem lamps and the
Freya table lamp.
How do you put together a budget for lighting?
Jain: Lighting can be divided into two categories: And for larger spaces?
architectural and decorative. Most of the illumination Seth: We’re definitely extremely biased towards our
in a house should be determined by the former, while new collection, Totems Over Time. These limited-
the latter should be more sculptural, and used only edition wall installations are inspired by totems
INTERVIEW: JEENA J BILLIMORIA
as focal points. Having too many pieces too close to representing abundance, beauty, protection and vision.
each other loses impact, especially in a small space.
Lighting can make or break a home, and most people What are three tips for creating your own lighting?
address it only at the end of a project, whereas it Seth: Pick three materials for the shade (paper,
should be among the first things to be considered. stone, metal mesh), buy two to three different types
So, when budgeting for your space, do some proper of bulbs (Tungsten, incandescent, fairy lights).
research on lighting early on. Then, experiment.
68 — JULY 2019
"LIGHTING
CAN MAKE
OR BREAK
A HOME, SO
IT SHOULD
BE ONE OF
THE FIRST
THINGS TO BE
CONSIDERED"
(Left) Gautam Seth

and Prateek Jain;
(Above) Installations
from Klove’s
Totems Over Time
collection
JULY 2019 — 69
GOODLIFE LHR
TASTE ALL THAT MATTERS THIS MONTH
HOTEL
THE OBEROI BEACH RESORT | Lombok, Indonesia

There’s nothing more luxurious than being surrounded by a literal sea
of fresh azure. The newly restored Oberoi Lombok has all the makings
of an idyllic getaway, from grand villas replete with private pools and
ocean or garden views to restaurants that meld local and international
cuisine with finesse. Between diving into its infinity pool and getting
stress-melting Balinese massages, you may not even want to wander
beyond the grounds your whole trip. oberoihotels.com
WORDS: SAUMYAA VOHRA. IMAGE: OBEROI HOTELS & RESORTS (THE OBEROI BEACH RESORT LOMBOK), AMANKORA BHUTAN (AMANKORA POPPY TREK)
BALI SE A
BALI
LOMBOK
INDIAN OCE AN
RESTAURANT
ITC ROYAL BENGAL |

Kolkata
The baronial ITC Royal Bengal’s
on our radar right now – and not
just because it promises some
truly stunning views. Jazz bar The
Brass Room is rife with that old-
world charm Kolkata is associated
with – ideal for your end-of-day
whisky-cigar routine. Meanwhile,
vegetarians will find their Mecca in
the Royal Vega. Keep an eye out for
the “Sheherwali” menu, the royal
cuisine of Murshidabad. If neither
is your speed, there’s also buffet
restaurant Grand Market Pavilion
and tea room Darjeeling Lounge to
choose from. itchotels.in
BAR
DRAGONFLY
EXPERIENCE | Delhi
Smack dab in the middle of
Worldmark 1, Aerocity, easily one
of the biggest up-and-coming
locations in the city this year,
Dragonfly Experience is definitely
that – an experience. While the
food and cocktails are interesting
(the Carbonara Dimsums and the
Activated Charcoal Tempura Prawns
are eccentric but delicious, and
the Old Fashioned is an absolute
must-have), it’s the vibe we’re into
most: a large space, even by Delhi’s
generous standards, it’s ideal for a
book-it-out-and-pack-the-house
kind of party, with decor that’s
anything but shy. Think looming
dragonflies, neon backlit into
brightness, partnered with mosaic
mirror-work that’s likely to set the
tone of your evening: chilled out, with
a side of Rosemary Martinis.
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AMANKORA POPPY
TREK | Punakha, Bhutan PART Y IN THE SKY
There’s no such thing as overkill VIRGIN ATLANTIC |

when it comes to experiencing Mumbai-London
flowers in all their natural, 3D This October will see the launch of
glory. In the months of June Virgin Atlantic’s Mumbai-London
and July, the Poppy Treks at route. The ten-hour-ten-minute
Amankora wind through the red, journey promises to be a breeze,
white and pink blossoms, which especially when you start it by sipping
mark the start of the Bhutanese on champagne in a sleek cabin
summer. You’ll spend two nights with the airline’s signature low-key
at the luxury resort’s Paro and rager lighting. Virgin’s Upper Class
Thimphu lodges, and another services have all the usual trappings
two to three in its state-of-the- of a world-class experience
art furnished standing tents, (think designer table settings and
complete with custom meals. brilliant culinary collaborations),
It’s that godsend of a crossover but what sets it apart is its Wander
between being at the epicentre Wall: a casual bar where you can
of nature, but doing it in style. stretch your legs, grab a snack and
Not to mention the bonus prize aperitif, and maybe start up a fun
of a seriously enviable Instagram conversation with a like-minded
feed. aman.com stranger. virginatlantic.com
BOM
71
FREE FLOW
THE ARTS
Fifty years ago, Astad Deboo pioneered contemporary dance in India. Today, as in 1969,
he remains a study in how to be a modern man who moves with the times
W RIT TEN BY NIDHI GUPTA
72 — JULY 2019
N
LET’S DO THINGS RIGHT
“So I left on a cargo boat loaded up with cattle and

labourers bound for the Gulf,” he grins. “I got off at
Khorramshahr in Iran, and from there, with my magic
thumb, I hitched for two-and-a-half months, all the
way up to England.”
He gazed upon the Colosseum, he sunned in Capri,
he crossed Checkpoint Charlie in 1969. He also met an
Iranian pop singer, who got him a paid gig to perform
Kathak for a Tehran-based TV channel. He met a pair
No one’s actually said it’s an intermission. But the
of Australian girls with whom he travelled to Greece,
dark and quiet inside the matchbox-sized auditorium
who’d call him in the early 1970s to present his work
has stretched long enough for someone to ask: “Can we
at a fundraiser for leprosy patients, in collaboration
have the lights on?” Astad Deboo, who at this moment is
with Pink Floyd, who’d just then released Meddle.
barely a silhouette slow-marching across the blue-tinted
Eventually, hitch-hiking gave way to travelling for
space, shoots back: “No. No music, no lights.” And then,
craft, or an early-days version of voluntourism. “My
magnanimously: “You have to get used to the darkness.”
modus operandi,” Deboo explains, “was to land up in
Forty-five minutes earlier, at the beginning of
a city, contact the Indian student union at the local
“A Dream Of Sunrise”, the septuagenarian
university and say, ‘Look, I’m a classically trained
contemporary dancer descended, at glacial pace,
dancer, perhaps I can teach you?’”
from a corner staircase at G5A, Mumbai. Dressed in
This is how Deboo built his “movement bank”. When
a floor-length butterscotch anarkali, he paused after
it became clear he wasn’t going to make it to the US, he
each step, stretching a leg high above his head, or an
joined The Place in London, a school of contemporary
arm over the balustrade, bending front and back at
dance, to learn the Martha Graham technique. “This
the torso, his posture enviably correct at all times.
was all about contract and release, even when you’re on
He’d dance with his shadow, hands curling into all
the floor,” Deboo explains, “For me, dance was always a
sorts of mudras, eyebrows bouncing like a Kathakali
more fluid thing, and this felt very rigid.”
dancer’s. When the music sped up, Deboo began to
In Indonesia, he studied the traditional Javanese
twirl – not a pirouette, not quite a pivot, but he went
dance; In Japan, he learned kabuki and butoh while
five, ten, 25 times at once. The teenage girl fidgeting
he “taught English, became a fashion model and a
next to me paused, mesmerised.
host in a women’s underground bar”; then returned to
“Not everyone likes my work,” shrugs Deboo, when
India to learn “two Kathakali pieces” under Guru EK
we meet weeks later, “but most seem amazed by the
Panikar. “My body kept moving, either on the road or
twirling.” We’re in the airy living room of his south
in dance.” Everywhere he went, he made friends and
Mumbai home, also a sparse work space where the
expanded his network.
only ornamentation is a wall of bric-a-brac, photo
It was in Mexico that Deboo realised his signature
frames and a Nataraj statue. “That’s a signature
move. “I was a regular at discotheques and one
move,” he continues, “from the Kathak tradition.
night, Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” was on, and
People have said it looked a bit Sufi, but I haven’t
I just began to spin.” At another point in his life,
been inspired by Sufism.”
after spending a year with the Pina Bausch Dance
A dancer, as a man, at his age: These are also the
Repertoire – “when the high priestess of modern
things that amaze people about Astad Deboo, even if
dance calls you herself, it’s a huge honour” – he was
they do overestimate his age all the time. Deboo’s life
convinced he didn’t want to be boxed in as “just a
has revolved around dance and the stage, ever since
Kathakali dancer”.
he began to train in Kathak at age six in Jamshedpur.
In 1988, a decade after he’d had his debut India
It might’ve started as a casual interest, but two events
show at Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, Deboo began
in 1968 set him permanently on this course.
to work with the disadvantaged: With a theatre
First, he watched the famous Murray Louis Dance
Company on tour in India. “I was fascinated. That
very different sort of lighting, these dancers in unison,
the way they used space. It was all very unlike what "There is an Indian
I’d seen in Indian classical dance.”
Second, he listened, fascinated, to the stories of a
flavour to my
friend who’d hitch-hiked across Europe. So, once he’d
graduated from RA Podar College in Mumbai, he
movements, and
while it is always
IMAGE: RITAM BANERJEE
announced to his family that he’d been given a spot at

the reputed Martha Graham Dance Company in the US;
and that, before he went there, he’d like to commence his
own spell of hitch-hiking. What convinced them was the
individualistic, it has
fib he told about a non-existent scholarship. to always be present"
JULY 2019 — 73
LET’S DO THINGS RIGHT
company called Action Players in Kolkata, he started Evening With Astad”, a nostalgia piece he’s developed
training deaf kids. (“It used to be politically correct with Swedish-Indian choreographer Rani Nair, with
to call them hearing-impaired, but we’re back to deaf the hypothesis: What does your body remember?
now,” he says, as an aside.) “Sure, I am an Indian dancer, my body is Indian,
“When I’m teaching a class, the first thing I started off with Indian classical technique and
everybody has to learn is to count simultaneously,” moved on,” Deboo analyses his oeuvre. “But my
Deboo says. “Synchronisation is extremely important, contemporariness is Indian in itself, because of its
then trust and learning to work with spaces.” His content: I may not take on the Ramayana or the
work with the deaf has expanded to include a school Mahabharata, but I’ve created work on the life of a
in Chennai and one in Mumbai. He’s also built a drug addict, for instance, or exploring the veena as
relationship with the largest American school for the an accompaniment. There is an Indian flavour to my
deaf, and taken “my young ones” on tour there. movements, and while it is always individualistic, it
He recalls a performance by the deaf has to always be present.
Bharatnatyam dancers of the Chennai school in “I’ve really had to cultivate my audience,” he
1990, to music composed by jazz guitarist Amit Heri. continues. “They’ve usually been over the age of 40,
“Towards the end, I’d turn off the music – and then erudite, curious individuals. My greatest challenge is
the audience would get it. That this is the ‘sound’ that that I’ve to keep on knocking at doors and marketing
these kids on stage are dancing to.” myself. But what’s wonderful is that now the younger
This is just part of how Deboo keeps himself generations come for the shows.”
“constantly challenged”. Right now, he’s working on a Does the thought of stopping ever cross his mind,
project with Korean and Carnatic musicians, as well as when the likes of prolific British dancer Akram Khan
an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with a Korean have announced retirement at 40? “When you watched
theatre company, collaborating with Bharatnatyam me at G5A, did you feel like this body should retire?”
dancers from the Chicago-based Natya Dance he demands to know. I quickly demur, and he follows
Company and “two boys I mentored while working with it up with a story about the great Merce Cunningham,
the Salaam Baalak Trust”. He insists on “keeping the often called the father of modern dance. “When he was
technique undiluted” through all this fusion. riddled with arthritis, at times we’d watch him go on
We’re meeting in a sliver of time he’s got to spend stage like this.” He gets up and imitates an old, stiff
IMAGE: RITAM BANERJEE
in Mumbai, right after he’s returned from Bhutan body vibrating and stamping on the dance floor.
and before he gets into a very busy international tour “It was not a pleasant thing to experience. But then,
schedule. To commemorate his 50th anniversary as a when one is used to being up there, one has to be very
professional dancer, he says the city of Munich is keen wise to know when their body’s giving up.” He pauses.
on “paying homage to me.” For this, he’ll present “An “I have to always listen to my body.”
74 — JULY 2019
GQ’S GUIDE TO
THE BEST WATCHES
IN THE WORLD
COMING UP IN THE AUGUST ISSUE
For more information, contact gqindiaadsales@condenast.in

EDITED BY SHIVANGI LOLAYEKAR
STYLE
WORDS: SHIVANGI LOLAYEKAR. PHOTO: ROHAN HANDE. STYLIST: SELMAN FAZIL. ASSISTANT STYLIST: SHAEROY CHINOY
NEW ERA
There was no doubt that
Kim Jones was going to bring
about a blitzkrieg of hype-
worthy pieces at Dior Men.
But it’s really his sophomore
Pre-Fall 2019 collection that
hits the jackpot. The instantly
identifiable leopard print.
The crossbody that’s made it
OVER SHIRT, onto every hypebeast’s torso.
SHORTS,
SNEAKERS,
Futuristic high-tops. All of
CROSSBODY BAG; which, packed in together,
ALL BY DIOR
MEN, PRICES ON
give you the most lust-
REQUEST worthy look of the season.
JULY 2019 — 77
S
STYLE
T H E TA S T E M A K E R
BENGAL TIGER
He’s the reserved, quiet designer who’s
built an empire at the epicentre of the noisy
excess of the Big Fat Indian Wedding. But
Sabysachi Mukherjee is about to pivot in a
direction you couldn’t have anticipated
W RIT TEN BY PHYLLIDA JAY
introduction of wallets, sunglasses, shoes and belts,
part of a broader push that will also include branded
fragrances and cosmetics.
BHADRALOK ROOTS
Sabyasachi’s first menswear collection was part of his
2011 Lakmé Fashion Week show. It was notable for the
family vignettes: models and children all dressed in
his signature aesthetic. Sabya recalls how he wanted
a particular kind of man for the show, but the models
provided by the event lacked the requisite ruggedness.
He says they looked “like boys,” and “women don’t want
to marry boys, they want to marry men.” His vision
F
of the manly Indian groom meant that beard wigs
were made for the show. This look, he says, has since
or a city inundated with extravagant inspired many a Sabyasachi bride-to-be to persuade
events, there was a remarkable crackle her man to grow a beard for the big day.
in the air on the eve of Sabyasachi “I wanted to create one iconic image, of a man from
Mukherjee’s much-awaited show. After India. For me, that’s a man with a Sarpech turban, a
all, it was India’s leading designer’s flowing beard, a shawl…” For him, the iconography
first presentation in four years, and one was all about Rabindranath Tagore.
that would commemorate his 20 years Sabya himself sported long hair and a Tagore-esque
in the business. The Moët flowed, the celebrities air- beard for a while, circa 2013, when his NDTV hit
kissed and thronged to be photographed. Sabyasachi’s show Band Baaja Bride was taking off. Back then,
power to draw big names into his universe was when it seemed the North Indian wedding, with its
evident in the eclecticism of the front row: Mumbai’s Yash Chopra-fuelled vision of the bride in dazzling
leading citizens – from billionaire heiresses and gold and red, couldn’t get any more dominant, along
Bollywood stars to top editors – sat crammed shoulder came Sabyasachi, offering an alternative point of
to shoulder. The show also marked his burgeoning view on invented tradition, taking his cues from
collab with Christian Louboutin, who sat up front, Kolkata and the fabled Bhadralok gentry. “When
flanked by Alia Bhatt and Natasha Poonawalla. The you live in Kolkata, you’re surrounded by textiles,
set was bathed in a haze of red light and smoke – food, music, architecture,” he says. “People here are
otherworldly, surreal, creating the sensation of having not born intellectuals, they’re made intellectuals by
left the reality outside. peer pressure! Sometimes it’s almost caricaturish
Once the show began, the clothes were how arrogant Bengalis are. The pseudo-Kolkata
mesmerising: a sharp departure from the wedding is intellectual; the real Kolkata is wise. I would
wear that’s marked the stratospheric rise of rather be perceived as someone with wisdom than
Sabyasachi’s brand over the last decade. “This was the as an intellectual.”
most honest collection I’ve done because I didn’t do There’s little doubt that Sabya is wise, and then
what was necessary to make money; I did what was some; he’s also been called a marketing maestro.
necessary from an aesthetic point of view. I lost the Translating the refined culture of the Bhadralok for
plot a bit because the brand was at the consumer’s a market defined by social transformation and the
mercy; it became so huge overnight,” Sabyasachi one-upmanship of new versus old money is nothing
says. “Now, I want to shrink the clothing part of short of a checkmate move. He’s taken all of Kolkata’s
my business and focus on other verticals. I want to associations with intellectual ferment, and high art
shape the business so that I can sell less clothing, but heritage, and distilled them into a set of mesmerising,
produce exactly what I want.” highly aspirational visual codes, mediated through
The collection, titled Kashgaar Bazaar, was iconic campaign imagery.
marked by fluid silhouettes that parlayed between
Indian shapes and the codes of global streetwear. THE PEACOCK GROOM
The mood was “nomadic, bohemian and gypsy”, “Do you know why Facebook became so successful?”
inspired by travel, which the designer says is “the Sabya asks. “It’s because Mark Zuckerberg realised that
greatest luxury a man can afford today.” Men’s all human beings are either voyeurs or exhibitionists.”
ensembles in monochromatic Toile de Jouy or richly Whether families, tribes or Insta squads, the
embroidered fabrics were accessorised hypebeast cohesiveness provided by matching bridal party looks
style, with crossbody utility pouches emblazoned has become a crucial part of the Big Fat Wedding. So
with the Sabyasachi logo of a Bengal tiger. It took off too has the coordinated bride-and-groom look seen at
IMAGE: NAINA.CO (RUNWAY)
from some of his earliest work, and indicated a new the weddings of Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli,
direction for the brand, which includes plans to build Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh and, most
a prêt line and a potential international expansion. recently, heiress Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal.
Menswear forms 17 per cent of the Sabyasachi Around 95 per cent of his clients, Sabya says, want a
business, and the future holds a ready-to-wear line coordinated look. “For many people, the image is more
of shirts in printed cotton and silks, as well as the important than the [wedding] ceremony, or anything
JULY 2019 — 79
STYLE
else. They want to be dressed up in Sabyasachi, and
want that one photo for their WhatsApp, Instagram
Details from Sabysachi’s and Facebook profiles.”
Kashgaar Bazaar Meeta Ghose, Head of Jewellery at Sabyasachi, has
collection, which featured known the designer since he was a reserved, poetry-
the designer’s passion for
richly layered embroidery
loving 14-year-old. She recalls how difficult it was to
and fluid silhouettes that get him to embrace Instagram. Then one day, while
referenced the codes of sitting in a traffic jam, she persuaded him to take a
global streetwear look on his phone. He viewed the app, and exclaimed
with endearing paisa vasool logic, “It’s free!” According
to a recent profile in Business Of Fashion, the brand
now does 40 per cent of its business through the social
media platform.
THE MAN HIMSELF

Sabya acknowledges that he’s an introvert, and
his close friends say he’s not interested in endless
socialising or parties. He likes meaningful, one-on-
one conversations, where he can happily hold forth
for hours on an infinite range of subjects; after all,
the tradition of the Bengali adda is in his blood. At
his 19th-century mansion in Kolkata’s leafy Alipore,
evenings will see his team gather over platefuls of
wholesome maccher jhol and bati chorchori, followed
by homemade coconut cake with dark chocolate sauce
"THIS WAS MY most HONEST in an informal dining setting. A silky, golden pack of
beloved cocker spaniels, called Richard, George and
COLLECTION BECAUSE I DIDN’T Raghu (Richard has the most outgoing personality),
DO WHAT WAS NECESSARY mill around, adding to the homely, relaxed atmosphere.
Like his clothes, Sabya’s home balances opulent
TO MAKE MONEY, BUT WHAT excess with a cohesive aesthetic. Think an aesthete’s
WAS NECESSARY FROM AN bachelor pad. Bars are a source of inspiration: leather
Chesterfield sofas, footstools accented with coverings
AESTHETIC POINT OF VIEW" made from exquisite, antique Kantha textiles, teak
panelled ceilings, piles of books, paintings, antiquities,
engraved mirrors and chandeliers that rival anything
owned by maharajas of yore. Again, his unique ability
to draw on a wide mix of influences and materials,
and filter it seamlessly through a sepia-toned lens of
nostalgia, is evident. This may be a private home, but
it’s undoubtedly the inspiration for a boutique hotel,
part of a larger, grand vision.
THE MODERN SABYASACHI MAN &

LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES
Given the sumptuousness of his house, his passion
for textiles and decorative arts and the new direction
represented by the Kashgaar Bazaar show, with its
louche silhouettes and layered embroidery, it comes
as no surprise that Sabya cites 19th-century aesthete,
dandy and celebrated author Oscar Wilde as most
completely embodying the idea of the Sabyasachi
man. Wilde is his favourite author, “because he made
IMAGE: CHE KURRIEN (MODELS, INTERIOR)
the boundaries of masculinity limitless.” His other

artistic heroes include: “Leonard Cohen, whose music
embodies the depth, gravitas and a certain sense of
classicism, which is really what modernity is about.
And Jared Leto: He’s fiercely unapologetic about
embracing both his masculine and his feminine side,
and today when gender fluidity is such an important
topic of conversation, he represents the essence of the
modern man beautifully.”
STYLE
FOOT
THE EDIT
A
L
L Five long-
distance running
trainers that are
miles better than
the rest, before
you swap out
for luxe-as-hell
r d e st w or k e r s i n y our downtime slides

T he ha ome super-cushioned
wardrobe now uc ltra-light for
PHOTO: JOHN GRIBBEN
FROM TOP:
SNEAKERS BY
and p e rf or m a n c e NIKE, UNDER

ARMOUR, NEW
record-bre a k i n g BALANCE,
ADIDAS, ASICS
82 — JULY 2019
GQ PROMOTION
THE NEW
GLOBAL LOCAL
KURTEES – a new Singapore-
designed menswear label by
Steven Jhangiani – just made
its global debut via its online
platform. And it’s already
spearheading an all-new trend
that bridges the traditional and
the contemporary to make your
life easy and stylish
“With the launch of KURTEES.com,

we aim to give a fresh, modern
and casual feel to the kurta, while
bringing it into the everyday. These
The style-conscious, comfort-seeking to the end product, making these are extremely soft garments that will
Indian man owns two things in plenty garments extremely comfortable, help you stay cool and comfortable.”
– T-shirts and kurtas. While the latter skin-friendly and ecologically sound.
– Steven Jhangiani, Founder
is reserved for traditional occasions, Taking you from a Casual Friday to
the former often finds its way into the a Sunday Brunch and everywhere in
everyday. But KURTEES – an all-new between, KURTEES offers a wide and
fashion label for men – combines the elegant compilation of turtlenecks,
airy, diaphanous cut of the kurta and V-necks and crew-necks, button-up
the casual familiarity of the T-shirt to Henleys and more, all in an array
give you the best of both worlds. And of solid colours, stripes and prints.
we believe that with its new online Extremely versatile, this collection also
store, this trendsetting brand is all set encourages you to express your own
to take the world by storm. individual style, so feel free to pair
Not overtly traditional and yet these creations with leather jackets,
‘ethnic.ish’, each piece from the label’s blazers, army jackets, sneakers,
debut collection can be worn in Delhi chappals, baseball caps, jeans,
as well as in New York. Better still, churidars and whatever you fancy.
their all-weather fashion statements The ground-breaking idea of
are crafted from 100 per cent KURTEES came to Steven Jhangiani,
organic cotton jersey fabric, which when he came back home from work
is certified by the Global Organic and was contemplating changing into
Textile Standard. This certification a kurta or a T-shirt. “That’s when it
ensures that all operational and social struck me, why wasn’t there a hybrid
responsibilities are met throughout of the two?”. And in that split second,
the supply chain, from raw materials KURTEES was born.
For the full collection, visit KURTEES.com

STYLE
t la id-ba c k
T he mos t makes the
ofo twear tha impression
strongest
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

SANDALS BY DRIES VAN NOTEN.
SLIDES BY VANS. SANDALS BY
GRENSON. SLIDES BY ADIDAS BY RAF
SIMONS. SLIDES BY GUCCI. SLIDES
BY BIRKENSTOCK X VALENTINO
PHOTO: MATT MARTIN. IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES (GRASS). PROP STYLIST: DUSTIN HUBBS/MARK EDWARDS INC.
.
.
.
84 — JULY 2019
GQ PROMOTION
PERFUMED PERFECTION
While you’re always on top of your style, Skinn by Titan takes it to the next level with signature
perfumes that spell brilliance and make for a seamless transition from morning to night
You walk into a room. Heads turn. You’re the centre of attention.
Everyone’s captivated – and not by your dapper attire, but instead,
your perfume. With that magnetic scent, you’ve commanded their
attention and made your presence felt.
When you spray on a good perfume, it engages your olfactory
senses to evoke a flurry of emotional responses and stirs up
feelings of nostalgia. So, spend some time understanding the
anatomy of a perfume and figuring out which one blends well with
your natural scent. After all, a fragrance is not only an intrinsic part
of your personal style but also an extension of your personality.
And a good perfume goes a long way in creating the right
impression – especially on the ladies!
Indulge your senses with Skinn’s men’s perfumes that whisk
you away on an unforgettable journey. Crafted by international
perfumers, their repertoire celebrates an array of alluring
fragrances that range from woody, spicy and musky to floral,
citrusy and fruity. Moreover, their perfumes are dermatologically
tested, so rest assured, they will suit all skin types.
So, start and end your day on an enchanting note with these
signature fragrances from Skinn:
PERFECT DAYTIME PERFUMES

You’ve got an important meeting scheduled with a potential client.
And while you’ve picked out your power suit, you need something to
take your look up a notch, or more. That extra something that will
boost your confidence and make an impression. You don’t want it
to be too overpowering to the point that it puts the client off nor can
it be too subtle to the point of it going unnoticed. Consider Skinn’s
Raw and Verge eau de parfums. While Raw boasts crisp citrusy
notes that exude vitality and warm woody notes that embody
masculinity, Verge is all about classy leathery accords and fresh
citrusy notes that give you that much-needed adrenalin rush.
Raw by perfumers Olivier Pescheux and Nadege Le Garlantezec
Top notes: Bergamot, watery fruits, mandarin
Middle notes: Violet leaves, pomarose, carnation, geranium
Base notes: Indonesian patchouli, cashmeran, gaiac wood
Verge by perfumer Nadege Le Garlantezec
Top notes: Lavandin oil, lemon oil and accords of rosemary and
basil oils
Middle notes: Mahonial, geranium, spearmint oil
Base notes: Patchouli, leather accord, oak moss accord
PERFECT NIGHT-TIME PERFUMES
A date has been set up. It’s at her favourite restaurant. You’re ready
to come dressed to impress, but are agonising over which perfume
to complement your attire with. After all, it is the first date and you
want to sweep her off her feet. So, you need a perfume that puts
your minds at ease and gets both of you in the mood. Allow us to
introduce you to Skinn’s Steele eau de parfum – a woody-cum-
citrusy fragrance that expertly combines charisma and confidence
to exude an effortless charm. A seductive perfume in and out, this
one promises an action-packed night ahead – pun intended!
Steele by perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin
Top notes: Bergamot and pink grapefruit essences, green rhubarb
Middle notes: Pink pepper, pimento, nutmeg, geranium
Base notes: Musk, vanilla, praline, roasted Tonka beans
For more information, visit skinn.in

STYLE
IN THE NEWS
LINE OF
SIGHT
As Henry Cavill gets ready to burn up your screens with his hot new
series The Witcher, we ask the impeccably turned-out British actor and
face of Hugo Boss eyewear about his many style moves
What does style mean to you? based. My trainer, Dave Rienzi,

I think personal style changes over programmes my workouts to be as
the years as we change and grow efficient as possible. I have very few
as people. Recently, I’ve found that hours in the day to actually work out,
a classic look with a little extra and not much in the way of energy.
something is appealing to me. So he has the unenviable task of
making sure we achieve everything
What was the first suit you bought? we need to, as far as fat loss and
It was a suit I wore for The Count Of muscle mass gain are concerned, STYLE TIP
Monte Cristo’s premiere. I bought it while still having enough energy for Let’s face it, not
in Italy while I was there filming. I a full day’s shooting. everyone has Cavill’s
loved it, still do, I think. Had a really chiselled bone structure and
near-perfect jaw line. Opt for
cool Mandarin collar. Not sure it Tell us about your latest television
rectangular frames for round
would fit any more, though. series, The Witcher. faces, and circular eyewear
I play the main lead, Geralt of Rivia, for square faces.
Are suits still the highest order who was abandoned as a child at a
of luxury? place called Kaer Morhen, where
Luxury is so relative. There are days he was subjected to physical and
when I consider sleeping past 5am alchemical trials. After that, he was
an irreplaceable luxury. reborn as a Witcher, an incredibly
long-lived monster hunter. It’s a
How many pieces of eyewear do you own? fantasy setting, based on a series of
At the moment, I have five pairs of books by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Hugo Boss sunglasses in the house.
Which shows are you binge watching?
INTERVIEW: SHIVANGI LOLAYEKAR
Which frames are you partial to? Just finished watching Umbrella
I do like a square frame, but I’m Academy, which I enjoyed
always open to trying out other styles, enormously. That, and Sex Education.
depending on what I’m wearing.
You’re a huge petrolhead – which bike
What’s your workout routine like? is on your wish list?
At the moment, it’s weightlifting- The Ducati Panigale V4.
86 — JULY 2019
GQ PROMOTION
LONG LIVE THY ACCESSORY

Let’s face it: finding those perfect accessories is no walk in the park. And when you finally
do find the winning combinations, it’s only natural to want to extend their life for as long
as possible. That’s where Cobbler steps in – to make thy accessory live longer
THY DILEMMA THE KIND OF

How do you feel when you see SERVICES THY
your favourite pair of Italian-
CAN PICK…
made leather shoes walking
their last walk? Or a carefully
Sole Swap: Cobbler’s
stowed away luxury belt
specialists have innovated a
emerging damaged thanks to
mechanism of dismantling
godforsaken moisture? What
about when a drink falls all your shoe’s battered sole
over your expensive wallet. one stitch at a time. It then
Frustrating, isn’t it? boosts it with a made-to-
measure variant, while still
ensuring the shoe’s overall
WHAT WILL SOLVE
appearance and fit isn’t
THY FRUSTRATION? tainted. You can even opt
Cobbler by Pressto is the
for a pair of coloured soles,
ultimate specialist in shoe
should you want to add some
and accessory care and
extra swag.
repair, armed with a savoir
faire and technical know-how
to promise you the best when Leather Makeover:
it comes to restoring and Cobbler’s restoration
reviving your beloved leather process involves cleaning
accessories. and steaming the interlining
of your leather products to
WHY THY CAN TRUST a point of perfection. It then
bestows shine on the exterior
IN COBBLER?
with a specialist foam
It’s got the most sophisticated
followed by a final drying and
machinery and equipment
imported from the UK and fragrancing process.
Netherlands, all geared up
to give your accessories the TLC for you and your
attention they need. shoes: Cobbler uses a
specialized machine to
ALL THY NEEDS TO DO stretch your new shoes out
Walk into the flagship to your exact size with ease,
Cobbler stores in Mumbai or while maintaining your pair’s
Bengaluru and hand over your original form and condition.
accessories for a thorough What’s more, it promises
inspection to determine the the best in post-care for
best solution. Post a patch your shoes with in-house
test for service eligibility, equipment that uses a
the specialist will take over, combination of foam and
spending hours before you specialized cleaning agents
get your accessory back in as- as well as a polish palette
good-as-new condition. that boasts 222 shades.
Visit Pressto Cobbler exclusive stores at Nepeansea Road and Prabhadevi in Mumbai and Indiranagar and Koramangala in Bengaluru.
For more information, visit www.presstoindia.com, call 1800229199 or email info@presstoindia.com.
STYLE
IMAGE: ANDREW MEREDITH (THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE BOOK, THE TIE OBSERVERS), CHRIS MOORE (RUNWAY), CLOUD VISION (HAT FISHING A GUIDE, SILK COMICS, THE SKETCH BOOK)
The Curious
Case Of The Book
installation
comes to life;
(Below) U2’s
Adam Clayton
and Oasis
offspring Lennon
Gallagher, part
of a strong line-
up of real men
THE INSIGHT
FRAME
OF MIND
By not succumbing to hype-worthy
fashion and continuing to rule the
cosmos on tasteful menswear,
Hermès is perhaps setting the biggest
trend of them all
W R I T T E N B Y S H I VA N G I LOL AY EK A R
88 — JULY 2019
wo years ago at the Spring/
Summer men’s collections
showcase in Paris, fashion’s
tastemakers were just beginning
to get a whiff of the style
blizzard about to envelop them:
Sneakers (not quite chunky yet)
were making their way to the
front row; logos were splashed
across T-shirts, catapulting their value from
basic to steep; street style was becoming as
prominent as the show itself. At Hermès, which
traditionally takes up an evening slot and
catches the sublime June twilight in an open-
air setting reminiscent of a Roman forum, the
mood was a stark contrast to the noise brewing
elsewhere. The Parisian house continued to
celebrate slower, languorous fashion, where
construction and form were still undisputable
heroes, as models walked down the runway
to the soundtrack of “All You Need Is Love”.
Hermès was in no hurry to capitalise on trends.
It went above and beyond hype (besides a few
subtle H-marked accessories and interweaves
you needed a magnifying glass to identify) and
believed there were enough men in the world
seeking the highest order of luxury it was very (Clockwise from humour.” Strong statements that don’t need to
top) Hat Fishing:
willing to offer. This, in fact, is a trend in itself. shout and scream.
A Guide, to
Fashion was, and still is, very much about capture your This was evident again in London earlier
love, about having a party in your mind, underwater this year, where Hermès showcased its annual
experiencing and indulging, never being taken look; Silk Comics men’s universe presentation, titled Step Into
too seriously. Luxury is to be relished selfishly, for a lesson The Frame, at Nine Elms – an old sorting office
in how to tie a
for a surge of pleasure only you will truly Hermès scarf;
that sounds like a Harry Potter landmark,
understand. Véronique Nichanian, the long- Sketch Book, a and resembled an adult funfair. First up was a
standing Hermès Men’s Artistic Director, who live experience; runway show with a 48-strong line-up of men
isn’t on social media and doesn’t care for the (Below) in all shapes and sizes (including the managing
Constellations
loud buzz some of her counterparts at mega director of Hermès UK Bertrand Michaud
surround The Tie
houses carry but is by far one of the most Observers booth giddily waving out to his team. Hermès prides
respected in her game, is very much a believer. itself on being a big family, and employees
In her words: “Beautiful things, beautifully stay on for years. Nichanian is at 31 and
done, in nice materials... With a sense of counting). U2’s Adam Clayton, superstar chef
Jackson Boxer and Oasis offspring Lennon
Gallagher were among the cast of men chosen,
as Benedict Cumberbatch and Jade Jagger
cheered from the front row.
Zesty lemon trousers, mandarin orange
joggers, delicious leather bombers, thigh-
skimming shorts and an oversized take on the
Birkin successfully managed to distract me
from supermodel and actor Andrés Velencoso
sitting in front of me. Nichanian, not one to
get left behind, even alluded to streetwear and
formed a new category of fashion altogether:
elegant luxury athleisure for the discerning
gentleman. Velencoso looked half ready to jump
onto the runway to try on the top threads.
The show was a precursor for a whimsical
fashion carnival you had to navigate like an
Alice In Wonderland-esque maze. A tunnel
with neon bright lights opened up to myriad
JULY 2019 — 89
STYLE
booths, each offering an interactive experience
into Hermès’ fantastical universe: observatory (Clockwise from
telescopes to look into the constellation with top left) The theme
iconic Hermès ties floating alongside stars; for Hermès Men’s
Universe 2019:
a live artist studio where illustrators drew Step Into The
amusing caricature portraits; a magazine booth Frame; Véronique
that shifted from glossies to old-school comics, Nichanian with her
allowing you to click a polaroid with a Hermès line-up of models;
an oversized travel
scarf like you were donning Superman’s cape.
bag; (Below) The
The highlight was a tunnel chronicling Bird’s Eye View, of
Hermès’ greatest hits, including a black sneakers, sandals
calf oversized travel bag perched up like a and loafers
museum piece that was on loan from a jet-
setting aesthete and came with a note: “I live
in airports and planes. And this bag is always
by my side. It’s really quite big and that’s what
I love about it, the scale, I feel it’s utilitarian
rather than ‘luxurious’. I love the story that
this was the first bag Hermès ever made,
back in the 19th century, to carry saddles.
It’s lived through the equestrian age, the age
of the motorcar and the jet, and I am sure it
will continue to work with whatever kind of
LUXURY IS TO
BE RELISHED
SELFISHLY, FOR
A SURGE OF
PLEASURE ONLY
YOU WILL TRULY
UNDERSTAND
transportation comes next. I went for black full-
grain leather and polished brass and it’s aged
really well.”
Everywhere you looked, Nine Elms was
a nod to Hermès’ storied archives, with a
IMAGE: MATTEO MONTANARI (VÉRONIQUE NICHANIAN WITH MODELS)
sprinkling of present-day cool and a whole lot

of fun. The massive bar serving cocktails you
imagine are only available on a private yacht
in St Bart’s, set off by hors d’oeuvres out of food
trucks, added to the contrasting vibe.
Every piece of clothing, accessory and
sneaker fit into the mould of #trending that
would appeal to a hypebeast as much as it
would fall into your timeless pile of wares.
Much of that comes from Nichanian, who
has a rare distinction, evolving alongside her
customers but never compromising on what
you’d ultimately check into Hermès for: damn
good taste.
90 — JULY 2019
GQ PROMOTION
SIGNATURE SCENTS
Finding your signature fragrance might seem like a task. Unless, of course, you’ve been
introduced to The Man Company and its range of heady male fragrances that are here to stay
Your suit and tie may be sleek and fine. Your luxurious beard may be perfectly trimmed and groomed. You may be sporting the
latest hairstyle. But seriously, none of this matters if you don’t finish off your look with a spritz of the right perfume! But if you
cringed at the words ‘right perfume’ believing that there’s no such thing, think again. The Man Company offers a bevy of premium
grooming essentials for every man. Think hair gels, shampoos, beard oils, the works. Each product here is designed for your
ultimate indulgence, sure to make you stand apart in a crowded room. And if you think that you haven’t found the perfect fragrance
yet, we bet you’ll find it with The Man Company.
A SPRITZ OF SPICE w
Like to create an aura of mystery wherever you go? Then
EDT Spice might just be specially crafted for you. Twisting
off the cap will surround you with a spicy scent that is in
equal strides subtle and fiery. EDT Spice comes with a
top note of spicy clove, with middle notes of cinnamon.
Its base notes of enchanting patchouli, finally make
for a scent that is anything but forgettable.
Ideal for: Date night. Priced at `1,299
A WHIFF OF PASSION q
Inhale the scents of summer with EDT Passion, the brand’s
heady fragrance with a scent that is all male. Even better:
this one doesn’t fade away in a few hours, letting you live it up
just a little longer. Its top note of bergamot blends beautifully
with middle notes of lavender, tied together by base notes of
comforting vanilla.
Ideal for: Swish sundowners. Priced at `1,299
Use code GQ20 on the website to avail 20% off on the EDT range*
For more information, visit www.themancompany.com
/TheManCompany @themancompany @themancompany
*Terms & Conditions apply

THE INSIDE STORY
Your mastery over what to wear, when is important. But it all goes to pieces if your base layer
is off the mark. Worry not. Jockey shows you how to pair the right underwear with the right
occasion, so that you’re fashionable and comfortable, inside and out
Picture this: you’re Ross from Friends in

those clingy black leather pants trying
to go about your business. Not only do
you have those treacherous trousers
to deal with, but your underwear is
complicating matters further. Thankfully,
this is now a problem of the past. Jockey
– the world’s favourite innerwear brand
– recognises the need for comfort and
also understands fashion. Here are
four pieces from its repertoire to show
you how to combine comfort, style and
freedom, irrespective of the occasion.
1. DATE NIGHT
You’ve both swiped right on that
app, a date has been fixed at a fancy
rooftop bar. And let’s face it. One thing
could lead to another, so you may as
well be prepared with these super
luxurious trunks from Jockey’s
International Collection. Comfortable
and stylish, we’d like to believe that
it will bolster your inner confidence.
It boasts abstract prints and a
stylish metallic waistband crafted
from super-soft elastane fabric that
promises unmatched comfort.
GQ PROMOTION
2.
PARTY CENTRAL
No party is a party
unless it involves
heady spirits, some
great music and
lots of dancing. But
grooving on the dance
floor involves plenty
of movement, and
the last thing you
need is an underwear
that’s restricting. So,
instead of grabbing
the first pair in your
closet, check out these
snazzy, stretchy trunks
by Jockey. Hailing
from the brand’s Pop
Colour line, their bold,
neon-hued prints give
them an element of
playfulness. Better
still, the ultra-soft
waistband won’t dig
into your skin while you
boogie the night away.
3. WORKOUT WEEKENDS
Gym days are always tough.
Whether you’re working your abs,
legs, arms or any other part of
your body, there’s a great deal of
stretching, bending and jumping
involved – not to mention, lots of
4.
sweat. These boxer briefs from
Jockey’s Sport performance range
will fast become your favourite
workout buddy. Hugging the
contours of your body perfectly, it VACAY MODE
offers support and facilitates ease While the clothes you pack depend on the kind of holiday
of movement. The length will help you embark upon, there is only one rule when it comes to
prevent chafing, the StayDry™ choosing your underwear. You need to select something
and StayFresh™ technologies will that’s breathable and durable. These briefs from Jockey’s
enable moisture wicking and the USA Originals collection are the perfect example. Crafted
breathable mesh panel will help from super-combed Pima cotton and modal elastane
keep things cool down under. fabric, they guarantee durability and comfort when on
the move. Offering a low-rise fit, its lightweight material
provides that much-needed breathability.
Available at Jockey Exclusive Stores, jockeyindia.com

and leading retail outlets near you
STYLE
NEXT MOVE
Kunal Rawal’s on fire.
The designer, beloved
by Bollywood and every
cool guy who knows
about slick Indo-fusion
menswear, is ready to go
pan-India with two store
openings this month, in CULTURE
Delhi and Hyderabad. VULTURE
This comes hot on the There’s no
heels of his Mumbai stopping Gucci
flagship that launched from breaking
earlier this year. The
new stores too will be KING OF QUIRK new cultural and
fashion ground,
designed by architect You can’t miss Chris Hemsworth
and the Italian
Rooshad Shroff, who’ll and Tessa Thompson looking fly in
house’s latest art
bring in industrial Paul Smith suits in Men In Black:
book, for its Cruise
and grunge elements International. The legendary British
2020 collection, is
to match Rawal’s designer created a capsule of clothes and
a class example.
inimitable aesthetic. accessories pumped up with colourful
Creative director
aliens to coincide with the movie. The
Alessandro
tailoring takes from Smith’s A Suit To
Michele’s brought
Travel In phenom, but the best part is
on Greek film
the designer makes a cameo in the movie
director and
– proving there’s nothing he can’t do.
producer Yorgos
Lanthimos
(his movie The
GQ EYE
Favourite was one
of 2018’s best) to
shoot at the Leda
Gallery of Villa
Albani Torlonia
in Rome. The
book launches in
HOT STEPPER November, but this
It’s as unexpected a collab as Kanye and Paul McCartney. Last month at Pitti marble statue that
Uomo, Givenchy dropped a surprise project with Onitsuka Tiger, sending a was discovered
WORDS: SHIVANGI LOLAYEKAR. IMAGE: PAUL SMITH AND SONY PICTURES (MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL)
black iteration of the latter’s Mexico 88 shoe down the runway with Givenchy on the Palatine
detailing in red and white, and an all-white pair showcasing the Onitsuka Tiger Hill in Rome is
stripe and Givenchy lettering. Not only is this the first time that Givenchy has a teaser for what
partnered with an external sneaker manufacturer on a global scale, it also marks to expect.
Onitsuka’s first time collaborating with a luxury fashion house. At approximately
`34 000 a pair,
`34,000 i these
th aren’t’t going
i tot be
b on shelves too long.
94 — JULY 2019
GQ’S ULTIMATE GROOMING GUIDE
IN THE JULY AND NOVEMBER 2019 ISSUES

F T OF
E CR A
FI N
TH E
FASHION
From the minds of menswear’s top designers and in the hands of the world’s most
talented artisans, everyday garments and accessories become wearable works of art
The Featherweight
Champion
Kim Jones tapped into Dior’s storied history of
whipping up otherworldly women’s creations
and applied it to the humble men’s dress shirt.
It took 15 people at Lemarié (Paris’ last couture
feather house) 900 hours to handcraft the pièce
de résistance of his first collection: this impossibly
lightweight button-up, hand-embroidered with
2,000 individual feathers.  SHIRT BY DIOR MEN
96 PHOTOGRAPHED BY ARNAUD PYVKA

A Bucket Hat
For Peacocks
Luckily, you can own a slice of Pierpaolo
Piccioli’s wondrous one-off creations
for Valentino haute couture, which every
season rub off on his men’s ready-to-
wear collections. This time it’s in the
form of bucket hats feathered with dyed
goose, peacock and pheasant plumage.
HAT BY VALENTINO
97
A Bomber
That Breaks
The Mould
How do you make a shattered-
glass jacket that doesn’t
require a paramedic on
standby? If you’re Balmain’s
Olivier Rousteing, you invent
custom film-printed and
laser-cut plexiglass wedges to
mimic the real thing and have
them sewn one by one onto a
bomber jacket base decked
out with sequins, crystal and
(actual) glass beads.
JACKET BY BALMAIN
98
Louis Vuitton
Begins
To Bloom
Virgil Abloh’s debut collection
for Louis Vuitton generated
an internet-breaking
level of hype, but behind
harnessmania is LV’s
tradition of craftsmanship.
The “Dorothy in the poppies”
motifs (the collection was
inspired by The Wizard Of Oz)
on this vest and blouson were
created using glass beads,
painstakingly applied by hand.
VEST, JACKET; BOTH BY
LOUIS VUITTON
PROP STYLIST: SINAN SIGIC

PHOTO ASSISTANT: ARTURO ASTORINO
DIGITAL OPERATOR: YAN SENEZ
PRODUCTION: WORKINGIRL
RETOUCHING: D FACTORY
99
It’s been over two years since his last film. In that time, Hrithik Roshan has been flying
under the radar. But of late, he’s become controversy’s favourite child. GQ caught up
with the actor, and discovered a man who’s used the time away from the spotlight to work
on becoming the best version of himself (yet)
P H OTOG R A P H E D BY T E JA L PAT N I WRITTEN BY SHIKHA SETHI
STYLED BY LAKSHMI LEHR
100
JACKET, JOGGERS;
BOTH BY HERMÈS
101
TRENCH COAT,
SHIRT; BOTH BY
PAUL SMITH.
JOGGERS BY DIESEL.
SNEAKERS BY
ONITSUKA TIGER.
WATCH BY RADO
102
The next afternoon, a bright and sunny day,
Roshan joins me in the Yash Raj Film Studios’
atrium-café, with a bounce in his step. He’s dressed
in a black T-shirt, hoodie, joggers and midnight-
blue ASICS sneakers. He’s quick to notice my neon
lime green jersey, with the phrase “no thanks”
printed on it. I wore it because it would resonate
with his current state of mind, I tell him. Especially
the prospect of having to speak to a journalist at
I
this moment. He laughs heartily.
t’s a chaotic time for the actor, between

overseeing post-production on Super 30,
set to release this month, and completing
the shoot for his untitled film with Yash
Raj Studios with Tiger Shroff (unofficially
being called Tiger Vs Hrithik). He’s also working
out for three hours every day, but it isn’t only to
maintain those abs. At 45, he wants to “remain fit
On a balmy Saturday night in June, I get a and fighting, to be pain-free and feel normal.” He
brief message from Hrithik Roshan’s team: has a mobile gym, and outside his vanity van a pair
“Tomorrow, 1pm, YRF Studios.” Waiting for of light Adidas weights and a blue Bosu ball occupy
an interview slot with the actor has been an pride of place.
unnerving experience – four times a meeting has These days, Hrithik Roshan is consciously
been fixed; four times it’s been cancelled. choosing films that deeply move him, because then
It’s been a rough week for the actor, with “the rest of the journey becomes easy. I’m not a very
a barrage of controversial tweets by Rangoli good actor, I’m not the fittest guy. I’m the opposite
Chandel, Kangana Ranaut’s sister and of these things, so movies for me are a very difficult
manager, who’s accused the Roshan family of thing [to make]. It takes a lot out of me to do the
mistreating Sunaina Roshan, Hrithik’s sister, simplest things that other actors do instinctively.
who, in turn, has tweeted about “living in hell”. That’s why I need to find stories that fuel me to go
The tweetstorm followed an announcement by through the entire process – to wake up at 6 o’clock,
Roshan a month earlier, advancing the release to take the aching back, knees, shoulders, the broken
date of his film Super 30, to avoid a clash with bones – and do what I do. Super 30 just hit it out of
the Kangana Ranaut-starrer Judgementall Hai the park for me, especially the climax.”
Kya. He’d taken this decision in order to save He enjoyed working on the film so much that he
himself “the personal trauma and toxic mental briefly contemplated doing more films that were
violence this would cause.” less physically challenging, before catching himself
When I check the actor’s Twitter timeline mid-thought: “Woah, dude, that’s allowing yourself
for a response to this latest provocation, to get old.” So when he was offered a gruelling,
absurdly – comically – the most recent tweet I high-octane action film with Yash Raj Studios, he
see is a video of him pumping weights, with the was tempted to sign on, but on the condition that
accompanying text: Tiger Shroff would also do the film. “After doing
movies like Kaabil and Super 30, I needed a force
No more excuses holding you back. Get ready to that would drive me to be my best. I was getting
kickstart your fitness goals with too complacent, and I felt only Tiger had the power
@hrxbrand to stand in front of me,” he laughs, “and make me
Your time is now! #KeepGoing. look like a piece of shit. I don’t think anyone else
#MyntraEndOfReasonSale #TooBigToMiss #HRX would’ve ignited me the way he has.”
103
“love can’t some very lonely characters, and now I want to have
fun. My YRF film with Tiger has been so enjoyable.
turn into
So I’m open to doing more of these two-hero films
and” – ensemblay, he says, temporarily forgetting
I
how to pronounce it, before correcting himself –
“ensembles, as well as incredible one-off characters
in smaller films. Right now, I’m looking for the
hate. If niches, as well as the big fun projects.”
it’s hate, it
wasn’t love. f any of those projects involve recasting
the traditional Hindi film hero, all the
better. That guy needs to grow up; Hindi
The flipside
films need to stop pretending like the
only legitimate kind of love is romantic
love. “Every single Hindi film hero, until
2006, has had a victim syndrome, and
of love…
propagated this idea of obsessive love. I blame my
people for creating this mindset,” he says sheepishly.
I agree whole-heartedly, the reviews of Kabir Singh
fresh in my mind. “The Hindi film hero is a baby!” he
is also love”
says emphatically. “The only reason he thinks he’s
strong is because he knows he has an audience. So
he’ll have his guitar in his hand, half a smile on his
face, a teardrop in his eye and he’ll sing to himself
because he knows he’s being watched. And anyone
who’s grown up making that guy his idol, is done for
in life.”
We’re talking about Bollywood’s stereotypical
He’s excited about the star system being depiction of love in the context of his relationship
disrupted too, and the flood of experimental with his ex-wife, Sussanne Khan, with whom he
content taking over our screens. “We’re getting appears to share a genuine bond. “In The Prophet,
to a much better place. It’s far more real – that Kahlil Gibran talks about love being a temple that’s
whole concept of actors being gods? The distance held up by two columns. If the columns become
isn’t that much now. Look at Tiger, Varun, one, the temple will topple. The further apart
Ranbir – they’re chill. No one’s walking around they are, and the stronger they are, the bigger the
like a star,” he enthuses, briefly mimicking the temple of love. So you have to respect each other’s
brooding expression of the superstar generation individuality. It’s vital to be self-sufficient in your
that preceded his. “But they’re still delivering hit emotional needs. So anything that comes from the
films.” He’s prone to binge-watching web series, other person is welcome, but you don’t demand it.”
and apart from the usual international suspects, Days before our meeting, Khan had put out
he loves Delhi Crime and Made In Heaven in an Instagram post referring to Sunaina Roshan
particular (“I messaged everyone to congratulate as a “loving, warm, caring person, who is in an
them”). “We’re dialling down the melodrama,” unfortunate situation”, and appealed to people
he says. “I love when I see a real moment, and it to “respect a family’s tough period”. Roshan
happens so often now.” continues: “It’s a beautiful relationship. With our
He sees himself at the cusp, having made his kids, with us as friends, it’s all about wisdom. One
debut at the turn of the millennium, a bridge thing is for sure: Love can’t turn into hate. If it’s
between the Khans and today’s young guns. He’s hate, it wasn’t love. The flipside of love… Is also
taking his cues from Gen Z, and trying to break love. Once you understand that, you’ll keep finding
out more often than he has in the past. “I’ve done ways back into love.”
104
JACKET BY CALVIN
KLEIN JEANS.
T-SHIRT BY
MASSIMO DUTTI.
JOGGERS BY
SCOTCH & SODA.
WATCH BY RADO
105
BOMBER, TROUSERS;
BOTH BY SCOTCH &
SODA. T-SHIRT BY
MARKS & SPENCER.
SNEAKERS BY
CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN
HAIR: TEAM
HAKIM’S AALIM
MAKE-UP: VIJAY
PALANDE
FASHION ASSISTANTS:
SELMAN FAZIL,
SHAEROY CHINOY
PRODUCTION: MEGHA
MEHTA, PRODBAY
PRODUCTION
106
“I needed a force that would drive
me to be my best. I was getting
too complacent, and I don't think
any one else could have ignited me
the way Tiger has”
The school of hard knocks has perhaps forced Roshan pointed out to us. It’s to help us improve, but it means
to open up in ways he might not have otherwise. He that that’s what we learn to focus on.”
appears eager to go beyond the trappings of celebrity to Roshan has a clear parenting philosophy, based on
spark new connections – by immersing himself in work, the premise that children are “little human beings
meeting new people, travelling. He seems almost wary like you and me – they’re not stupid,” and should be
of stardom, conscious of not blurring the lines between exposed to reality as far as possible. He grew up terribly
Hrithik the star, whose perfection is meditated upon cocooned, and insists that he never wants his kids to
and painstakingly constructed, and Hrithik the person. feel “bewildered” (the word he uses is hairaan). “They
Not that he feels like a star that often. “I get to live that should be aware of all the events that have, or could
life for ten days a year,” he reckons, “when I don’t have ever, happen in the world. If you don’t have that map
to stand in queues at airports, or when I’m on stage in your head,” he says ruefully, “you find yourself in a
[for shows], though I rarely do those now. Sometimes,” state of shock, and then it’s very difficult to navigate the
he continues, “the contrast between the two lives is so world. You’re disconnected, and you just get numb.”
W
great, it hovers between comedy and tragedy.”
His biggest indulgence, the thing he “needs to earn
lots of money for”, is travel. This year, he says ruefully,
he’s “living a little less, prioritising work, earning e’ve been talking for an hour when
money so I can spend it next year.” He travels with Siddharth Anand, the baby-faced
his two boys, Hrehaan (13) and Hridhaan (11), who director of the YRF film, comes up to our
are the centre of his world. “If there’s heaven on earth, table to inform Roshan that his shot is
it’s travelling with my two boys. And we don’t do it as ready. Before he goes, though, I have one
tourists.” The boys have a floor-to-ceiling map in their last question. The trajectory of his life has resembled
room that spans an entire wall, and the plan is to cover the jagged line on an ECG monitor more than anything
as much of it as possible. salutary. (A quick recap: A debilitating stutter in his
Once, in Canada, Roshan tells me, beaming, they childhood, an extra thumb, a father who was shot
spent a day in the wild with naturalist and TEDx at by the underworld and is currently undergoing
speaker Nikki van Schyndel. “We cooked our own food, treatment for cancer, brain surgery, professional failure,
pitched tents. At the end of each day, the three of us allegations of infidelity, a protracted legal battle with
would sit down and write about what we learned in a former co-star, divorce, the current crisis rocking
our journals – we call them Victory Logs.” A thought his family.) What is it then that drives him? “I’m
occurs to him. “You know, without the responsibility of personally motivated because nothing makes sense,”
being a father, perhaps I would’ve kept thinking that he says simply. “Life doesn’t make sense, this world
the world isn’t such a good place. But while trying to doesn’t make sense to me, but I feel that if I can push
prove to them that it’s a beautiful place for their sake, I beyond my boundaries and what I know, then maybe
stumbled upon the fact that it really is.” I’ll understand it all. I want to reach a point where I
Roshan himself is an avid journaller; every night, can tell my kids that it’s worth it.” He pauses to check
he runs through the day’s events, and writes about the if I understand what he’s saying. “I keep reaching those
moments when he did something new or felt like he points. It comes and goes. So I’ve realised that perhaps
grew from an experience. “I have to. Because one’s brain it’s not a point at all; maybe it’s milestones, and you
– especially my brain, and those of people from my sporadically keep hitting these notes. You’ve just got to
generation – we’ve been brought up by having our faults keep making it worth it.”
107
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108
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110
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112
GQ PROMOTION
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114
SETH ROGEN
S C I ENCE AND THE OF
ROGENOMICS
He’s still getting high. He’s still making us laugh. But he’s kinda running Hollywood now, too
P H OTO G R A P H E D BY S E B A S T I A N M A D E R S T Y L E D BY M O B O L A J I D AW O D U W R I T T E N BY C A R O L I N E M c C LO S K E Y
R
ogen is not the type of dude to distil his fully comprehend that Rogen, now 37, is a legitimate
strategies for living into therapeutic Hollywood operator and entrepreneur in his own
sound bites, little chunks of wisdom- right, with a career that extends well beyond acting
inspo to be digested in the morning and writing. Over a single week this past spring, for
alongside a matcha and some sun example, he announced a multi-platform deal between
salutations. In fact, and thank god, he Point Grey – his production company with creative
wouldn’t even formally consider them partner Evan Goldberg – and Lionsgate, and launched
“strategies for living” at all, let alone a weed brand emphasising consumer education,
dream of imposing them on anyone else. Still, Houseplant, in his native Canada. In addition to
spend a little time in his company, talking about developing, writing and acting in his own film projects,
his life, and certain patterns start to emerge, themes Rogen produces television (Preacher, Future Man, Black
and lessons recurring with enough frequency that they Monday, The Boys), does voice work (Sausage Party, the
can be isolated for general distribution: Work harder upcoming Lion King), and with his wife, Lauren Miller-
than everyone else. Find a mentor, or at least some Rogen, created Hilarity for Charity, a series of comedy
encouragement. Cultivate enduring relationships. shows that’s raised millions for Alzheimer’s care,
Grow gradually. Beware hubris. Never be their biggest support and research. He’s also writing a book of essays,
problem. Be in control of your own work (where due out in 2020. That lingering low-achieving persona
possible). Always have something else going on. of his old characters, though, might be a blessing, since
On a Tuesday afternoon in April, Seth Rogen was it has provided a cover against public scrutiny and
sitting in a corner booth in the back of Canter’s Deli raised expectations for Rogen, the human, who arrived
on Fairfax in LA, awaiting his matzo-ball soup. Over in Hollywood as a teenager and hasn’t stopped working
the years he’s celebrated birthdays here, in the Kibitz since. The man, like the myth, may be a burner, but he’s
Room bar, and, in the era before he had offices, the also a machine.
restaurant functioned as a de facto conference room “I really always worked hard, because I recognised
for business meetings. No surprise, then, that he was from a pretty young age it was one of the only things I
greeted like the mayor, along with obscure inside could control,” Rogen said. “I remember I did karate as
jokes with the waitstaff. Almost immediately, Rogen a kid, at the Jewish Community Centre, and when I
– bearded, bespectacled, becapped – was approached started, I was the worst in the class, I was the worst of
by some blokes apologetically asking for a picture. He 25 Jewish kids who were afraid of getting picked on.
obliged, grabbing their phones and mugging for two- And then just because everyone else quit, three years
second intervals. “Taking the picture myself was a big later I was at the top of the class, and there were 25
evolution,” he said after they’d gone. “That helps. Takes Jewish kids who were worse than me. And that was
a lot of the guesswork out.” always tangible: Just by not stopping I became the
For people whose casual impression of him begins best one. It wasn’t this, like, ferocious leap. I just kept
and ends with the gallery of quasi-employed, stoned going, and slowly [other] people stopped. Because a lot
men-children he played in his 20s, it might be hard to of people will stop.”
115
R
ogen was just back from CinemaCon in vertiginous climb. “What I didn’t appreciate was that
Las Vegas, where he’d been deployed to now we were the bigger fish and we would get all the
charm a group of international theatre attention that was being absorbed by other movies
owners on behalf of his new movie, the on our earlier movies. I remember telling people,
romantic comedy Long Shot. It was a ‘They don’t fuck with us, it’s great,’ and then we were
random-seeming but necessary act of sitting in a meeting where [the executives] were like,
ring kissing and part of the pre-release ‘All right, notes. Page one,’ and I was like, ‘Page one?!
promotional kabuki that can help nudge a What the fuck?’ I was like, ‘I’ve written two movies for
project towards success. (These are the gatekeepers you guys over the last few years, I thought we were
who decide whether or not to screen the films, after cool. What are we doing here?’ ”
all.) Since premiering at South by Southwest in From that point, The Green Hornet was besieged
March, where it won an audience award, Long Shot by troubles – director replacements, tensions on
has been boosted by enthusiastic word of mouth on the set – and when it was released, in 2011, it was
the strength of Rogen’s chemistry with his co-star, critically savaged. But, Rogen pointed out, “on the
Charlize Theron. The film, in which Theron plays the grand scale of superhero movies, it isn’t even on the
secretary of state and presidential hopeful, as well as low end of the spectrum of how these movies are
Rogen’s former babysitter and love interest, is both a received… It’s viewed as this catastrophic disaster,
return to form for Rogen and an evolution of the type but on the grand scale of catastrophic disasters, it’s
he’s probably still best known for: the fuzzy slackers not that bad a catastrophic disaster.”
of Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, The 40-Year-Old Since then, Rogen and Goldberg have rarely
Virgin and Zack And Miri Make A Porno. As in many strayed from their tried-and-true formula: “Twenty
of those films, Rogen is romantically paired with to thirty-five million dollars is where you’re never
a cool blonde and ingests his share of recreational going to be their biggest problem. That’s literally
drugs. This time, though, his character, whom Rogen what it is,” said Rogen. “As long as they’re making
described as “an almost good-case scenario of other some $150 million movie that’s a fucking disaster,
people I’ve played,” has at least the pretence of both a they’re not paying attention to us. We’re the smartest
real job and a legitimate ethical core. Progress! business decision they made that week, because they
As both producer and star, Rogen was deeply just don’t have to worry about us. A lot of our career
invested in the project, having shepherded it through is just based on not being their biggest headache.
years of development, and though he’s too seasoned to Every once in a while, I meet someone, or one of my
ever assume that success is a foregone conclusion, he friends, [who] is their biggest headache, and it’s like,
was pleased with the film and cautiously optimistic ‘Oh yeah, thanks to you, we can do whatever the fuck
about its prospects. “When I like it and am proud of it, we want.’”
I am definitely more relaxed,” he said. “It’s awkward For Rogen, recovery from professional knocks
to promote a movie that you yourself would not be has always come in the form of more work, different
that excited to go see.” Like what? “I remember You, work, and that was true post-Hornet as well, so that
Me And Dupree was the first time I had to do that, in the end what might have capsized other careers
and that movie’s fine, I just didn’t love it. It honestly barely rocked his: “It was a bummer, and I always
was not a movie I would have gone out to go see… hate being the centre of thousands of articles telling
“It’s okay, the Russo brothers did fine,” he added, you how fucking shitty you are – that’s not fun. But
laughing. “I actually remember standing in my if you can get through that, which I have, many
fucking closet in my apartment on Hayworth, doing a times, then you can just keep working. Again, that’s
radio interview, being like, ‘Yeah, go see it, it’s great,’ the thing: You just keep working. With the hope that,
and being like, Ugh. Never again do I want to have in general, I will produce more good work than bad
to tell people to go see a movie that I myself actually work, and that will hopefully carry me onwards.”
wouldn’t see. It’s hard enough to promote a movie.
When you’re also morally corrupting yourself, it’s a
real bummer.”
R
Early on in his career, flush with youth and ogen was raised on the east side of
the success of some films he was plenty proud Vancouver, the younger of two children
of, Rogen and Goldberg were offered what (his sister, a social worker, is three years
seemed to be the opportunity of a lifetime: older) in a family of liberal values in
to write – and for Rogen, star in – a film a progressive city. For Americans, it’s
adaptation of The Green Hornet. “At first we difficult to imagine growing up in a place
were like, ‘Great!’” Rogen recalled. Till then, the that has achieved general consensus on
pair had enjoyed a large degree of creative input over issues like the environment, gun control, gay
the film projects they’d written together, the comedies marriage, abortion and health care, but, Rogen
Superbad and Pineapple Express, which had both said, “Those are just things that in Canada decades
proved to be whopping hits and recouped their budgets ago have been put to bed and you don’t really think
many times over. “They were cheap enough movies that about it.”
the studios always had bigger fish to fry,” explained The Rogens are a family of distinct personalities.
Rogen. But going from relatively inexpensive comedies His parents, whose relationship he described as
to a $120 million VFX-laden action film was a sudden, “exactly what you would imagine, very shticky –
116
they’re a Jewish couple,” both worked for government SHIRT, SHORTS;
BOTH BY GUCCI.
agencies, his mother as a social worker who specialised
WATCH BY TUDOR
in teaching parenting skills, and his father for the BC
Coalition of People with Disabilities. Sandy, Rogen’s
mom, has a popular Twitter account – capsule movie
reviews, wine appreciation, domestic observations and
hefty doses of maternal pride – that indicates a strong
comedic voice of her own. (Sample tweet: “When you
wear a big heavy coat no one can tell when you fart”.)
These days, she teaches kundalini yoga. “Me and her
did it in my living room once, but I mean, if there’s one
thing that’s not relaxing, it’s the sound of your own
mother’s voice,” said her son.
Of the two, though, Rogen said his dad, Mark, is the
more indelibly eccentric: “My dad has fully undiagnosed
OCD, I would imagine. A good example of how weird
he is, is that when I was a kid, he had all these white
Champion socks – which is funny, because it’s the
same thing I wear – and he didn’t like that they would
get washed at different frequencies and would have
different thicknesses when they were paired. So he
numbered each of his pairs of socks – 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 – so
that he knew that the 2s had always been washed the
same frequency and he would never be stuck with a
sock that had been worn [down more than its mate]. It
is a very specific personality.”
As he gets older, Rogen notices he has more in
common with his creators than he previously imagined.
Lately he’s recognised his father’s cadences in his own
voice, and he’s become increasingly sympathetic to his
dad’s other weirdnesses, such as his habit of wearing
a purse. “What’s funny is it makes his mother really
uncomfortable,” Rogen said. “My grandmother hates
“THE IDEA OF ACTING
when my dad wears a purse. And around her he still
wears a purse but in more muted colours. He’ll wear
IN MOVIES WE ARE
pretty bright purses, generally speaking. He buys his
own, like a Le Sportsac or Kipling purse. But then, NOT PRODUCING IS
recently, I found myself talking to my wife, like, ‘Man,
I have too much shit in my pockets, I wish there was a
thing I had where I was able to keep this shit.’ And she’s
A LITTLE SCARY TO ME
like, ‘You mean like a purse, you motherfucker?’” He
sighed. “This is how it happens.” AT TIMES”
Idiosyncrasies aside, his parents were always big
boosters of Rogen’s creative pursuits, even suggesting without that I probably would have just stopped.”
he sign up for the stand-up comedy workshop that set Instead, he began doing sets around town, getting easy
his career trajectory in motion. “I was the only kid, but in front of an audience and perfecting his timing. By
it was a non-threatening way to try it,” he remembered. the time the casting apparatus for Freaks And Geeks
“You got up in front of the class, you said your jokes, it rolled into town, a few years later, Rogen was prepared.
went pretty well, so it was encouraging: This might not “I remember they laughed hard,” he said of the audition.
be a disaster.” You can watch his old routine on YouTube, “I remember walking out and being like, ‘If I didn’t get
and as he slow-rolls through jokes about Jewish summer that, fuck those people.’”
camp, Jewish grandparents and bullies, it’s the fact Overnight, Rogen went from being a high school kid
of his confidence – unusual at any age, but practically who cut class to smoke weed to working 14-hour days
brazen during early adolescence – that dazzles the on a set surrounded by adults. That, he said, even more
brain. “I thought I could do it,” he said with a shrug. than geography, accounted for the culture shock. His
Kind words from the older comics on the scene parents, who were both out of work at the time, joined
cemented that instinct, and he stuck with it. “Especially him in Los Angeles, so in addition to suddenly having
as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that stand-up comedy a serious job, 17-year-old Rogen became, for a time,
can be a very tough world to grow alliances in and find the family breadwinner: “I was a low-paid actor on a
support in. If I met a fucking 14-year-old kid who was network TV show, but I remember my dad being like,
trying to do what I was doing, my first instinct would ‘In this year you will make more money than I made
probably be pretty dismissive,” he admitted. “I’m very my entire life.’” That sounds like an insane amount
appreciative that people were nice to me, because of pressure for a kid, and I said as much, but Rogen
explained that he experienced the period as a relief. His well. I knew deep down they deserved it more, so that
parents were socialists who worked for the government. was annoying.”
Financial security had never been prioritised or But when Goldberg finished college and joined him
guaranteed. “I was happy to have enough money,” Rogen in LA, the two directed their energies towards finishing
said, “that everyone could have money.” the script for Superbad and writing Pineapple Express.
With Freaks And Geeks, Rogen established a To keep them afloat financially, Apatow tossed them
relationship with Judd Apatow, the crucial patron of occasional rewriting jobs, and in 2004, they were hired
his early career, who’d brought him onto the show and as writers on Da Ali G Show, effectively ending the
later hired him as both a writer and actor on the college fallow period for good. Over the next few years, Rogen
network comedy Undeclared. Their association would and Apatow worked together on, among other films,
bring them mutual glory and enrichment in the end, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad and
but first there were disappointments to endure. When Pineapple Express – making Rogen a star.
both shows were cancelled after one season, Rogen He is aware that some of the work from that period
was pissed off and depressed. The whiplash of success has not aged well. “Evan recently was like, ‘By the
and then failure had been a succinct introduction to time my kids are grown, all of our work will be deemed
Hollywood, and he was suddenly stuck in a loop of unwatchable.’ He’s like, ‘I have no doubt about it. I think
auditioning and not getting parts. To make matters entire parts of culture will just be deemed regressive
worse, “My friends who were better actors were getting and no one will fucking watch it any more, and there’s
cast in things,” he said. “That was making me angry as a good chance our movies will fit into that category.’”
“IT‘S
SOMETHING
THAT I LOOK
AT WITH
MYSELF: HOW
MUCH DO
YOU EXPAND?
HOW MUCH
DO YOU
SPREAD
YOUR WINGS,
OR HOW
MUCH DO
YOU STAY
IN YOUR
T-SHIRT,
TROUSERS; BOTH
LANE? IT‘S A
BY LOUIS VUITTON.
SHOES BY SABAH.
SUNGLASSES BY
CONSTANT
GARRETT LEIGHT.
WATCH BY TUDOR MODULATION”
118
But they’ve tried to evolve with the times, and Rogen His lack of major trauma is something Rogen talks
said riding the comedic line between enlightened and about a lot with his wife, the other enduring, consistent
neutered in the Age of Woke isn’t as tricky as you might relationship in his life. He and Miller-Rogen, a fellow
think. “I think if you actually care, then it’s easy. We do actor-writer-director, have been together since 2004
not want people to feel bad when they’re watching our – their friends were dating, and it was a semi set-up
movies. I’ve had people come up to me and be like, ‘That situation – and married in 2011. Around the time
made me feel like shit when I was in the movie theatre they started hanging out, Miller-Rogen’s mother was
and everyone was laughing about that.’ Like the ‘How diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and the condition advanced
I know you’re gay’ thing [from The 40-Year-Old Virgin], quickly. It was brutal, and Rogen recognised that he had
it’s something people have been like, ‘It’s not fun to be in never experienced anything like it in his own life. That
the theatre when people are laughing at that, knowing lack of personal devastation is something he’s become
what they’re probably actually laughing at.’ And I don’t “very conscious of, especially when you’re married
want anyone to have that experience watching our to someone who is constantly, daily living under the
movies.” He laughed and – comedian’s reflex – dashed crushing weight of it. You get very aware of it very
off a throwaway zing: “That’s why Todd Phillips makes quickly. I have a lot of friends whose parents have died,
movies. Let him have that.” who’ve had disastrous things happen to them and their
Departing the Apatow fold after that string of hits family, so I am very aware that I’m very lucky and that
was an organic transition, he says, devoid of drama – I probably have a lot of terrible things coming my way.”
more open relationship than bitter divorce. But wasn’t Because they’re in their 30s and have been together
it complicated, at least? “It was and it wasn’t,” he said. for ages, people bug him (a little) and his wife (a lot
Over a decade ago, he explained, there was a project more) about having kids, which, for the record, is
– 50/50 – that they’d approached Apatow to produce. something they might do one day. They talk about
But because Apatow was working on his film Funny adopting, but are in no particular rush. “We very much
People, which overlapped thematically, he declined, like our lives, so we will continue to put it off, it seems
so Rogen and Goldberg chose to try their hand at like, for a little while,” he said. “We have a dog. We like
producing themselves. the dog a lot.” It’s not the responsibility that frightens
It was a revelation. Now they could manage their them so much as the potential for complicating an
work as well as create it. “I’ve grown to appreciate already harmonious situation. “I’ve had my friends be
acting in things that we control. I get uncomfortable like, ‘Yeah, it really was hard on our relationship.’ I’m
when I’m involved in something but I don’t control not saying we couldn’t overcome it, but, again, we really
it from the beginning to the end,” he said, citing get along and have a very good dynamic. She works
exceptions, like working with Danny Boyle on Steve very hard, and a lot as well, so when we’re together, we
Jobs. “When I act in someone else’s movie but I’m not really try to enjoy each other and hang out.” The Miller-
the producer of it, I don’t have a lot of say in how that Rogens are domestic animals, more inclined to stay
movie is marketed or presented to the world, and that home and crush HGTV or the Million Dollar Listing
makes me uncomfortable… The idea of acting in movies shows than furiously socialise.
we are not producing is a little scary to me at times.” Rogen’s understated and somewhat incredulous
When I observed that he and Apatow haven’t relationship to fame gives him a certain credibility
worked together since he started his production with fans: He’s a tour guide with a backstage pass, an
company, in 2011, Rogen referred me to Apatow’s Everyman moving through hallucinatory worlds – and
cameo in The Disaster Artist and pointed out that who can’t, on some level, relate to that? His stories of
Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife, starred in Blockers, the surreal encounters with public figures – Kanye turning
2018 comedy that Point Grey produced. up unannounced at his door one morning, asking him
When I asked what it was like going from being to play basketball; negging Paul Ryan’s request for a
Apatow’s protégé to his competition, he gently selfie, in front of his children; introducing Tom Cruise
corrected me: Not competition. “Peers.” to the concept of internet porn – kill on late-night TV
and Howard Stern by depicting the deranged alternate
universe of celebrity (actually a small village where
they all know one another) and the various ways its
A
schism would have been wildly out of inhabitants can fall out of touch with reality.
character for Rogen, anyway. His is not “I’ve worked with enough actors to know that on
a trail littered with the carcasses of the grand scale of actors, I’m pretty well-adjusted,”
broken relationships. He and Goldberg he said. “I think on the grand scale of humans, I have
– the presumptive “we” in all of his friends who are constantly reminding me that I have
conversations about work – have “known very little insight into the struggles of the average
each other since we were 12, so we really person. It’s not lost on me that there are massive
developed our personalities together in a lot elements of life that I just don’t have to deal with. I’m
of ways.” And over the years, Rogen has repeatedly aware of it, but it limits the amount of true grounding
collaborated with other allies, including the directors I can have, I think. At the same time, I do think I try
Nicholas Stoller (the Neighbors movies) and Jonathan to steer away from being a crazy person as much as
Levine (50/50, Long Shot), as well as his frequent humanly possible, in an active way.”
actor co-conspirators: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Weed helps. For 20-plus years, it has been as
Robinson, Danny McBride, Paul Rudd. essential to his daily life as his glasses and shoes – an
BLAZER BY DUNHILL.
SHIRT BY MAISON
MARGIELA AVAILABLE
AT BARNEYS NEW YORK.
TROUSERS BY MASION
KITSUNÉ. SUNGLASSES
BY MR. LEIGHT
120
THE NOT-INACCURATE STONER PERSONA CONTRIBUTES
TO HIS EASY INTERACTION WITH FANS – IT’S ANOTHER WAY
HE’S NOT BULLSHITTING THE WORLD ABOUT WHO HE IS
unremarkable habit that’s nevertheless constantly artist for a movie he and Goldberg are hoping to direct
remarked upon. Not coincidentally, it’s also powerful at the beginning of next year.
medicine for taming the ego and maintaining cosmic “I’m fully able to bounce, and I quite like it,” said
perspective. “Not a lot of people have delusions of Rogen of all the quick pivots. “Every once in a while it’s
grandeur when they’re high,” Rogen agreed. “That’s a lot, but if I don’t feel overwhelmed and I feel like we
what cocaine is for.” have enough time to do everything, then yeah, I find it
The not-inaccurate stoner persona contributes to his really stimulating and invigorating. I’m pretty good at
easy interaction with fans, since it’s another way he’s compartmentalising, in a non-sociopathic way.”
not bullshitting the world, on some fundamental level, Lately, he’s been examining his own motivations
about who he is. “What’s nice is when I meet those guys, for choosing projects, and sometimes they don’t bear
who took a picture with me earlier?” he said at Canter’s. up under scrutiny. “I’ve tried to sharpen my sense in
“I don’t feel like I’ve lied to those people. That’s probably recognising when I’m acting out of hubris and when I
one of the reasons that they like me, is that they don’t feel like I may be doing something just ’cause of how
feel I’ve lied to them. That’s a dynamic I like. When it fucking cool I’ll seem once I did it, how smart everyone
comes to me being a person out there in the world, I will think I am once I did it,” he said. “I think as you
don’t care if people think I’m fucking smart or some become successful and famous, gravity will pull you
genius or how hardworking they think I am – the fact towards hubris and just trying to fly straight is not
that they don’t think I’m lying to them to get them to go enough. You have to steer away from it. Because if you
see my movies is something I appreciate.” just try to go straight, you’ll get pulled into it. And that’s
something, even still, every once in awhile, I’m like, ‘We
gotta jerk this wheel.’ We’re getting pulled into it slowly,
because everyone else around you is like, ‘Yeah, do it, it’s
T
he day after Canter’s, Rogen arrived at a good idea, here’s money, take it, do it, we want it.’ And
the Hand of Destiny ceramics studio on you have to be like, ‘No. That’s not a good idea.’”
Beverly Boulevard for a private session at On the other hand, he said, a surplus of confidence
the wheel. can lead to breakthroughs: “It is a fine line, because
Very quickly, it became clear that he I do look at Kanye, for example, and I remember the
had done this before. He can cone! He truth is at first, people were like, ‘Why you making
knows how to use the shaping tools! It shoes, man? Just make music.’ And his shoes are
turned out Rogen has taken classes with his great. People love them. He’s made Adidas billions of
wife and finds working with clay soothing: “There’s dollars. So there is something to be said for staying
something that’s so therapeutic about it. It’s like yoga, in your lane, but sometimes people do really great
if you got a thing at the end. If you were doing yoga and outside of their lane,” Rogen said. “Kanye kept going
then some object was produced at the end of it.” In the on about this theatre experience he wanted to make.
time it took me to form one wee, homely vessel, Rogen He wanted a movie to play on eight screens: There’s
produced two immaculate, symmetrical ashtray/pot one in front of you, two above you, two on the side of
situations. (As followers of his Instagram know, Rogen you and, like, below you. And I did have this thought
is an ashtray aficionado and collector.) Destiny, our like, Dude, you have made some of the greatest rap
teacher and a master potter, who I’m pretty sure had no albums of all time, and I’m sitting there, like, Why
idea who he was, murmured words of praise. are you trying to design movie theatres? Just keep
To understand how Rogen manages his various making these great fucking rap albums. But who am
silos without collapsing them, I asked him to walk me I to say that? He made shoes that are cool, I like ’em,
through his typical schedule. He hesitated; every day is I wear them sometimes. So it’s something that I look
different. That morning, for example, he got up at 6:45 at with myself: How much do you expand? How much
– normal, but the early side of normal – worked out at do you try new things? How much do you spread your
home, made coffee and sat with his dog. He wrote for wings, or how much do you stay in your lane? It’s a
an hour on Invincible, a comic-book movie he’s writing constant modulation.”
with Goldberg, then took a long call about Houseplant, Rogen’s ashtrays were finished, and he handed
the new cannabis company. Point Grey’s offices recently them over to Destiny. As he prepared to leave, I looked
moved off the Sony lot to Sunset Boulevard, near his at the pots we had just made, neatly lined up on the
house, so after the call he popped over to check in on the counter, waiting to be glazed and fired. He was right:
edit for the as-yet-untitled comedy, written by Simon It was satisfying to have an object to show for your
Rich, in which Rogen plays dual leading roles. He ate efforts. But Rogen had no chance to dwell. The clay
lunch in five minutes and then came here to throw interlude was over, and he was expected at the next
some pots. After this, he was meeting with a storyboard appointment.
121
BEST
DRESSED
INDIA
100
REALLY
STYLISH
PEOPLE
JUNE 2019 `15 0
FASHION
+CRICKET
LIVING IT UP
AT LORD’S
GQ HOME
THE
DIY
SPECIAL
KEANU REEVES
IMMORTAL
UNPACKING
THE 2019
INDIA
SUMMER OF
CRICKET
MAY 2019 `15 0

PHOTOGRAPHED BY
ROHAN SHRESTHA
MEET
BAD BUNNY
THE FUTURE
OF POP
INSIDE
ACCESS
GQ STYLE
AWARDS
P
RAO
U
AR
S KU M M
RAJ
PE AK
S
124 — JULY 2019
BRESCIA
CERVIA MILANO
MARITTIMA
BOLOGNA
The long way round

The Mille Miglia, a four-day race that covers 1,600km from Brescia to Rome and back in a loose
figure-8 route, has been described as “the most beautiful race in the world”. We call shotgun
W R I T T E N B Y S H I K H A S E T H I
F
ROMA
ew things are more James Dean drove. Participants When he’s back, he describes the
Italian than the sight are often decked out in retro allure of the race. “Here in the
unfolding before gear, donning matching driver’s Mille Miglia in Italy, the people,
me this cold spring suits, pilot-style helmets, goggles, the spectators, the cars, they
morning in Brescia: A leather gloves and custom driving create a perfect synergy, and there
string of classic cars shoes. But this isn’t only a matter is a very special ambience… When
are lined up facing the Duomo of style. Since most of these cars you close the door of the car, it’s
Vecchio and the Duomo Nuovo are open, drivers are vulnerable like stepping into a time capsule.
(the Old and New Cathedrals) in to the elements – rain, snow, You really begin to understand
a sleepy piazza. The crowd that’s blistering heat – as they zing past what it meant to do the Mille
gathered to admire them includes the Adriatic coastline through Miglia race in those days,” he says.
silver-haired Italian gents in national parks, crossing mountain The classic car collector has
impeccably cut camel-colour passes and historic city centres, completed this quirky, obscure
coats, toddlers swaddled in often driving for more than 12 race over 30 times: with his father,
blankets and journalists from hours a day and completing his wife – before they got married,
across the world. Alfa Romeos challenging time trials enroute as well as to celebrate their 10th
dominate the line-up, but there (the Mille Miglia is a regularity anniversary – and close friend, the
are also vintage Bentleys, race, rather than an all-out speed Belgian driver Jacky Ickx, whom
Bugattis, Porsches and Ferraris. race to the finish line.) he met at the race years ago, and
It’s easy to see why the cars, The route changes a little every who is present at this edition too.
all produced between 1927 and year, and this one, on the occasion “The segment between Rome and
1957, elicit so much interest. of Leonardo da Vinci’s 500th death Florence, which takes about half
There are retro colour palettes anniversary, passes through his a day, is one of my favourites,” he
(Rosso Corsa red, sky blue, hometown of Vinci. It also goes smiles. “The countryside is just
pastels); gorgeous typefaces through Parma, designated the breathtaking. You go up and down,
(Superleggera, Giulietta Sprint); Italian capital of culture for 2020. it’s hilly and you cross medieval
exquisite badges (Bertone). Along the course of the four days, villages. All along, you have people
There are also elaborate grilles meals are organised at lesser- waiting for you and cheering you
and horns you can toot, frog eye known historic sites, including on. In the past, we’ve seen that
headlights and leather straps the Loggiato di San Francesco in some villages managed to make
that tie bonnets shut. Inside are Fabriano and the Palazzo Pubblico the Mille Miglia turn to visit
sumptuous bucket seats and in Siena, giving participants the them. And it isn’t planned in the
metal dashboards with wide- chance to soak in the best of Italian roadbook, but this is how far the
eyed dials and an array of metal art, cuisine, beauty and design. passion goes.”
toggle switches, giving the cars a Chopard has partnered with As the official timekeeper and
distinctively tactile quality. Each the prestigious rally since the historic partner, Chopard produces
car has a story and a personality, late 1980s, thanks to co-president limited-edition racing watches
oozing character. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s passion every year that channel the spirit
The drivers piloting these for both classic cars and racing. He of the rally, with specific design
million-euro babies are an equally got it from his father, he says, who accents that evoke the world of
eclectic lot: bankers and Michelin- still takes his car out for a “300- to the early days of motor sport and
starred chefs, a pediatrician and 400-kilometre” drive after a day’s classic cars. Dials are given bright
tech entrepreneurs, past Le Mans work, in his 90s. Scheufele nips pops of colour that hark back to
winners and a smattering of out of the Chopard VIP Lounge the racing colours assigned to
IMAGE: ©1000 MIGLIA
former F1 drivers. Designer Marc to park the strawberry metallic specific nations. For example:
Newson is here, as is actor Scott Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing” Rosso Corsa for Italy, Speed Silver
Eastwood, today driving a silver he’ll be driving later this afternoon for Germany, British Racing
Porsche 550 Spyder, the kind with his daughter Caroline-Marie. Green, Vintage Blue for France
JULY 2019 — 125

WATCH
Meet the 2019
Mille Miglia All-Stars
MILLE MIGLIA GTS POWER CONTROL

Race-ready, this elegant timepiece
features a blue dial with perforated blue
calf leather straps and is powered by a
COSC-certified, self-winding movement
and a 60-hour power reserve.
and Speed Yellow for Belgium.

Crowns are fashioned to resemble
old-school steering wheels. Watch
straps feature perforations that
recall well-worn driving gloves.
Every year, as he participates in
the Mille Miglia, Scheufele thinks
about what the maison can do
with the collection in the coming
years – how best to preserve this
MILLE MIGLIA 2019
colourful piece of motor sporting RACE EDITION CHRONOGRAPH
history. “A mechanical watch,” he With a bold 44mm case, this limited-
says, “is an antidote to everything edition beauty with a snail grey dial and
electronic and digital surrounding cognac leather calf straps is available in
us today, that’s often not long- steel and rose gold (250 pieces) and just
lived. This is something you can steel (1,000 pieces). Details we love: the
take off your wrist, put in your Today, though, ambling through retro Dunlop 1960s tyre motif on the watch
drawer for 20 years and then Brescia’s city centre feels like lining, and water resistance up to 100m,
your son can put it on, wind it, and walking through an open-air perfect for rainy weather.
it’ll still work. It’s only consuming vintage car museum. There is the
the energy of your body moving. smell of petrol, the guttural roar
I think it’s one of the most of engines, the screech of tyres
sustainable items a person on cobblestone roads. The city’s
can possess.” ancient arcades are festooned
The Mille Miglia, too, is with red Freccia Rossa flags and
charting new paths with an eye the celebratory spirit in the air
to the future: In September, a is palpable. But the last word on
IMAGE: ©1000 MIGLIA (RACE), SHIKHA SETHI (INTERIOR DETAIL)
preview of the 1000 Miglia Green the enduring appeal of the Mille
will be held, including a drive from Miglia in 2019 is Jacky Ickx’s:
Brescia to Milan for cars with “It reminds us where we’ve come
an electric component in their from. We remember people who’ve
power unit. In December, a winter opened new worlds, and if you’re THE MILLE MIGLIA CLASSIC
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LISTEN UP... LV STYLE
WORDS: BILL PRINCE. PHOTO: DAVID PARFITT (WATCH)
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132 — JULY 2019

EXPERT SPEAK
Lord’s is home to other sports, besides
cricket: The ground also houses a tennis
court, and has hosted a baseball game and
even archery (during the 2012 Olympics).
The most ducks in an ODI (8) ever
happened here in the 1979 World Cup,
between England and West Indies – where
Sir Viv Richards also scored a century
Clockwise from left: Kapil Dev hoists the 1983 World Cup trophy at Lord’s; Ian
Botham and Bob Willis at the 1981 Ashes; A Lord’s tour experience includes
interacting with former cricketer John Emburey
T
hey say there are a lot of great walks in three former England cricketers, Mike Gatting, John
WORDS: ABHISHEK MANDE BHOT. IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES (KAPIL DEV), ALAMY (STADIUM, IAN BOTHAM & BOB WILLIS), MCC (LORD'S EXPERIENCES)
sport, but there’s a case to be made that few Emburey and Angus Fraser, who will narrate their
compare to the experience of walking out of memories of the ground.
the pavilion at Lord’s Cricket Ground. It’s Players’ Dining Room Experience offers a three-
where underdogs India beat heavyweights course meal in the room where cricketers dine on match
West Indies to win the 1983 World Cup. It’s where days. Here too, Gatting, Emburey and Fraser take turns
Sourav Ganguly famously took off his shirt when India hosting the meal and sharing wartime stories.
beat England in the Natwest series final in 2002. But it’s Hat-Trick that’s a cricket fan’s dream come
And, more sombrely, where Ian Botham returned, true. This tour rolls up the other two experiences for a
after scoring a pair in the 1981 Ashes, to a roomful of four-hour marathon: You don’t just get to meet and dine
members refusing to acknowledge his presence, and with a cricket great in the players’ dining room, you
walked back in complete silence. Botham counts it as also get to walk along with him onto the turf.
among the worst feelings of his life. He never captained Each of these experiences includes the traditional
England again, but returned to the next game with tour of the ground, as well as the viewing of the famous
such a sense of purpose, the series came to be known as Honours Board – which doesn’t include the name of
Botham’s Ashes. one Sachin Tendulkar, who never managed to score a
Fact is, when you walk down the two flights of stairs century or get a five-wicket haul here.
that lead from the dressing room to the iconic Long It’s easy to call Lord’s the home of cricket – indeed,
Room, you don’t just follow in the footsteps of greats, the folks over at Lord’s do that. But think of it, really:
past and present, but also become part of something far Lord’s is to cricket what Ferrari is to cars, Sinatra to
bigger than yourself. It’s what reminds you that cricket music, Shakespeare to, well, the English language.
isn’t just a game, and Lord’s isn’t just a cricket ground. You can’t imagine one without the other. And to have
Conveniently, Beyond the Boundary, a new tour watched Sinatra live, to have driven a Ferrari, to have
experience launched by Lord’s, takes you down that been in the Globe, is to have lived life itself.
very path – one that saw a gangly Kapil Dev emerge So too it is with Lord’s, which stands at the heart of
as an icon in a country starving for one and a young a game that’s come to represent decency and fair play.
Ganguly set the tone for modern Indian cricket. Many And so, in this greatest summer of cricket – with the
confess feeling a chill every time they walked down ICC Cricket World Cup, the Ashes, Women’s Ashes and
those steps and through those hallways. domestic and county championships all packed into
It’s one of the three new exclusive tours launched one glorious season – it seems apt to pay homage to
by Lord’s to offer cricket fans an insider’s view of the mothership.
the legendary institution. The tours are hosted by For more information, visit lords.org
JULY 2019 — 133

POWERPLAY
THE FINISHER
MS DHONI
INDIA VS SRI LANKA, 2011
A Final that saw many

impressive performances from
the boys in blue, Dhoni’s in the
second innings was probably
the most spectacular. India
lost both openers very early
on chasing 278, but saw some
hope in a young Virat Kohli and
a composed Gautam Gambhir,
who anchored things. But then
HERO
the ball started to turn, and
Kohli lost his wicket to Dilshan
in the 22nd over, leaving India
at 114/3. That’s when Dhoni
unexpectedly walked out,
WORSHIP
promoting himself above the
in-form Yuvraj Singh. With
nerves of steel, he stood his
ground against the likes of
Muttiah Muralitharan. And once
the time was right, he switched
gears, putting India right in the
driver’s seat with an unbeaten
Every match has that player – the one that susses out his opponent’s
knock of 91 – including the
weaknesses, and smashes it out of the park to save the day. These men trophy-winning maximum.
did just that when it counted the most: at a World Cup Final
WORDS: ABHISHEK NAIR IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
GOLDEN BALLER last match, he put on an even more Almost instantly, the skipper got what
outstanding performance, one that he wanted: Akram dismissed set
WASIM AKRAM netted him the Player of the Match batsman Allan Lamb with a delivery
PAKISTAN VS ENGLAND, 1992
award. He first dismissed Sir Ian that completely missed him on its
Botham for a duck. Even with that way to the stumps. And then did the
With 15 wickets leading up to the setback, England settled in, and very same thing in the next ball, to
1992 Final, Akram’s left-arm seam looked to be cruising to victory. When Chris Lewis – virtually destroying
exploits were crucial to Pakistan’s they were at 141/4, Imran Khan England’s run chase, and chance for
campaign. Against England in that reintroduced Akram into the attack. the trophy.
134 — JULY 2019

MASTER CLASS times: picking up the crucial wickets
of Mark Taylor, Ricky Ponting and
ARAVINDA DE SILVA Ian Healy, and helping to restrict the
SRI LANKA VS AUSTRALIA, 1996 Aussies to 241. When Sri Lanka got off
to a rocky start in the chase, and found
Perhaps one of the best all-round themselves at 27/2, de Silva stepped
performances in a World Cup ever, de up once again. His was a perfect
Silva almost single-handedly won Sri outing on cricket’s biggest stage, as
Lanka the 1996 Final. He gave his team he scored a clinical century, remaining
a breakthrough during Australia’s unbeaten to the end. The trophy was
batting not once, not twice, but three well-deserved.
THE IMPOSSIBLE CATCH

KAPIL DEV
INDIA VS WEST INDIES, 1983
At 57/2 chasing 184, two-time

champions West Indies were
on course for a third straight
trophy. The legendary Sir Viv
Richards had settled in at
the crease, maybe a little too
comfortably, when he nicked
HISTORY-MAKER a Madan Lal delivery up in the
air. The ball travelled towards
CLIVE LLOYD the boundary – but so did
WEST INDIES VS AUSTRALIA, 1975 Dev, who leaped up as it went
sailing over him, and somehow
It was the Final of the first
took the catch. The crowd,
ever Cricket World Cup.
who’d been at the edge of the
The teams: Australia and
ropes, ran onto the ground in
West Indies, two giants of
joy (literally). That moment
the game, and also two
triggered a batting collapse,
very evenly matched sides.
and West Indies fell 43 runs
All that was needed was
short of the target, giving India
someone to step up and
their first World Cup.
be the differentiator. That
someone was Lloyd. The
Windies, batting first, were
down 28/2, thanks to the pace
and swing of Gary Gilmour LEADING FROM THE FRONT
and Dennis Lillee, when ADAM GILCHRIST
“Big C” came out to bat. Not
AUSTRALIA VS SRI LANKA, 2007
only did he show exemplary
patience in the beginning, Sri Lanka were arguably the favoured
he switched gears towards team of this edition, their bowling attack
the end, playing an innings one of the most lethal in the competition,
that’s considered impressive and one to be feared. No one gave
even in today’s T20 style of Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist that
play. Scoring at a strike rate memo for the Final – a match reduced
of 120, something unheard to 38 overs a side due to rain delay. Both
of at the time, Lloyd took his openers went to town, playing vintage
team to an impressive 291 (in attacking strokes and galloping to 172.
60 overs), contributing 102 While Hayden fell at 38, Gilchrist made
off just 85 deliveries himself. 148 off 104 deliveries, including eight huge
West Indies would go on to 6s. His performance would set the tone for
defend their total by 17 runs, the game, as Australia took home a third
etching their names in the straight (and fourth overall) trophy.
history books forever.
POWERPLAY
TESTING
THE WATERS (Left) Jasprit Bumrah was
instrumental in India’s
historic Test series win
against Australia last
You’ve spent the past five months cheering on December; (Below) A new
your favourite limited-overs teams. Now, it’s time way to watch cricket: from a
fieldside pool at The Gabba
to give a different format of the game a go in Brisbane, Australia
I
t seemed almost natural – the progression from one-sidedness of the contest and a wet summer turned
the IPL, arguably the world’s biggest 20-over the whole affair into a damp squib, with World War I
extravaganza, to the World Cup, the biggest bringing the FTP to a definitive end.
international 50-over tournament. But what There were more attempts over the years: the Asian
happens once the kings of ODI (preferably us) are Test Championship in 1998-1999 and again in 2001-2002,
crowned on July 14? For those who prefer international which failed due to political tensions between India and
competitions to the domestic leagues that pepper the Pakistan; and a four-year edition that was meant to
cricket calendar, here’s something to look forward to: the commence in 2009, but was postponed to 2017, and then
first ever World Test Championship, which is putting the again. This edition looks good to go: a two-year league
game’s most traditional format firmly in the spotlight. phase in which all nine top-ranked Test teams will play
Historically, Test cricket has been played as a each other, with the two best meeting for a final on June
standalone contest, never towards a common goal. 10, 2021, in England.
The World Test Championship is now attempting to And how better to tee things off than The Ashes –
provide perspective to this traditional format – and, in a contest that predates even the modern Olympics?
the process, help it find more relevance for today’s fast- England are itching to lay their hands on the coveted
paced generation of fans. urn they relinquished to Australia a year-and-a-half ago.
This is not the first time that the ICC has attempted As for India: Virat Kohli & Co travel to the US and
a Test tournament. Back in 1909, the then-called the West Indies to play all three formats (the Tests
Imperial Cricket Conference created a Future Tests will be part of the Championship), host South Africa in
Programme: England, Australia and South Africa, October, Bangladesh in November, Australia in January,
the three Test-playing nations at the time, would play and then travel to New Zealand in February. Which all
each other in England in 1912. Unfortunately, the just means: Things aren’t slowing down any time soon.
WORDS: ABHISHEK MUKHERJEE. IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

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How to ace life

Unlock your potential – and define your Code
WRITTEN BY PRAKASH AMRITRAJ
A
s Vijay Amritraj’s firstborn, I grew my University of Southern California team to a
up with a racket in my crib, hearing national title. Between 2003 and 2008, my tennis
legendary stories of how my father did career had seen me rank as India’s No 1 singles
India proud on the world stage – not player, reach the Singles Final of an ATP World
just in terms of tennis achievements, Tour Event, represent India in the historic Davis
but in the way he represented the nation and the Cup, as well as compete in all the Grand Slams,
hope he gave Indians around the world. By 18, including on the hallowed turf of Wimbledon.
I’d won the National Junior Championships in But by 2010, I hadn’t even completed one full year
America (becoming the first Indian to do so) and on the ATP World Tour. My career had been marred
had earned entry into the Men’s Singles category by injuries that kept me from building momentum,
of the US Open. I’d received MVP honours in and ate away at my love for the game. After an
the Final of the NCAA Championships as I led injury to my right wrist (I’d already had surgery on
140 — JULY 2019

Having a Code is what
allows you to hit
110 per cent of your
potential in every
aspect of your life:
professional,
personal and social
my left wrist), I decided to take a break from the game reconstructive shoulder surgery took me out of the
and focus on my other passions: acting and film. But I game and I jumped back into the entertainment
was leaving with my relationship to the game broken – world – for good. But this time it was with great
incomplete, unfinished and unhealthy. satisfaction, and a healthy love for the game.
It was at that personal nadir that I met Venus and So, how does one arrive at their Code? To me,
Serena Williams, and my life changed forever. Over it’s a set of foundational principles you believe in
1990s karaoke jams, some incredible meals, intensely so strongly, at the highest level, that it trickles
competitive games of left-handed tennis (all three of down into every single decision you make on a daily
us are right-handed!) and all-night dance-offs, I had basis. For me, it makes waking up at 3am to train
a FROW seat as they battled to add title after title to possible, because part of my Code is “using physical
their collection. I got to know the rest of their family training to grow the mind, body and spirit”, as well
too, having long conversations with their lovely sisters as “gratitude”. Thoughts that propel me to achieve
Isha and Lynn, as well as their mother Oracene and this task are “how thankful I am to be healthy”; and
their trailblazing father, Richard Williams. I began “gratitude for the sacrifices of my grandmother, who
to understand how these remarkable individuals, overcame near-death and near-total paralysis to
who’d come from difficult circumstances in Compton, make the dreams of her children, and grandchildren,
California, had reached such dizzying heights, come true”. Suddenly it isn’t that hard to get out of
completely rewriting the history books on what was bed. Having a Code is what allows you to hit 110 per
possible in terms of race, gender and the human spirit. cent of your potential in every aspect of your life:
I found myself exploring how they approached professional, personal, social, parental.
things versus how I did. I recall Venus once telling Apart from “foundational principles”, a Code is
Serena before a particularly high-stakes counter: “If made up of traits in the individuals we admire, and
you don’t do it for you, do it for me... Die on the court.” who motivate us. All these factors then influence a
It became evident that “family” and an unshakeable daily structure – everyday undertakings of a physical,
“belief in oneself ” were the paramount driving forces mental and dietary nature, because these set the stage
of their lives. I realised how vital the latter is – so for our lives. As we know, our habits make us.
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES (PRAKASH), COURTESY PRAKASH AMRITRAJ (SERENA)
many of us are crippled by what others think of Now, each person’s Code will be different – a
us. It certainly handcuffed me from reaching my Rubik’s cube of our experiences, roots, beliefs, goals,
potential through my early 20s. I saw that so much intentions and truest gut feelings. It’s a daily inner
of the Williams’ fulfilment and success came from search to refine one’s Code. But it’s a process that’s
superhuman effort, plus undying belief. That spoke to amply rewarding.
me. Effort plus belief is how I’d achieved everything I I invite all of you to join me on this journey to
was proud of in my life. But could I take that further? unlock your true potential. Let’s begin with identifying
Venus’ words, and spending time with the Williams one “foundational principle”. Pick something that’s
family in those years, sparked off my “Code”. really important to you. One example is: “Surrounding
Not long after, I made a comeback to the tennis yourself with energy that uplifts you”. Then choose
tour, fuelled by more focus and self-belief than I’d a “daily task”: It could be “waking up 15 minutes
ever had before. I found myself playing the best earlier”. We are going to lay the foundation of your
tennis of my career, transforming strokes that were Code with these two bricks. And, brick by brick, like
once weaknesses into strengths and achieving levels me, you will eventually scale new heights.
of fitness I didn’t think possible. This initial part of Prakash Amritraj is an actor, film producer and sports broadcaster.
my journey helped strengthen my Code, until a final Follow him on Instagram @prakashamritraj
JULY 2019 — 141

DESIGN
SHOW
S AV E T H E D AT E
Over three days in October last year, the biggest names in art, architecture and design
could be found under one roof, at the first AD Design Show—a spectacular display of
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D
DRIVE
Viking
hero
Large, luxury SUVs usually aren’t
allowed to sport halos. Unless they’re
made by Volvo
T
his thing shouldn’t
feel this light. I
mean, for all intents
and purposes, this
is a nearly two-and-
a-half-ton SUV, but
there’s still a certain levity that’s
as logic-defying as it is unsettling.
Yet another reminder of why the
Volvo XC90 is one of the greatest
passenger cars of all time. Except
this one’s greater, thanks to being
the only full-sized, plug-in hybrid
SUV in the market.
The reason the car feels
significantly quicker than an
XC90 in standard form is because
this, the XC90 T8, gets the
combined power of a supercharged
and turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol
PARTH CHARAN
N
motor, and an electric motor.

Volvo calls this a “Twin-Engine
setup”, thus giving you a radically
different driving experience, along
WORDS:
with bragging rights of having a

W
bona fide luxury SUV with the

emissions of a garden mouse.
144 — JULY 2019

HOW DOES IT WORK?
VOLVO Unlike most hybrids in the
XC90 T8
market, this is a plug-in, which
Excellence
means it requires an external
ENGINE
2.0-litre, petrol +
power source to charge the 87bhp-
electric motor strong electric motor that works
POWER
the rear wheels. Sure, 25 per cent
320bhp (front), does get charged through excess
87bhp (rear) kinetic energy (read: regenerative
TORQUE braking), but it’s not enough to go
640Nm (combined) the entire 35km that the SUV
TRANSMISSION can do in pure Electric mode.
8-speed automatic Up front, the engine makes an
PRICE incredibly healthy 320bhp, the
`1.25 crore (ex- supercharger and turbocharger
showroom, Mumbai)
splitting duties and taking charge
of the bottom end and mid-range
of the power band, respectively,
and sending power to the front
wheels through an eight-speed,
automatic gearbox. The combined
output of a sufficiently charged
electric motor and the petrol
engine put out a whopping
407bhp, turning this otherwise-
posh and sedentary wagon into a
stealthy, streamlined javelin.
Volvo’s SPA platform, on which
both the current-generation
XC90 and S90 are built, has been
designed keeping electrification
in mind, so the front axle isn’t
connected to the rear via a
propshaft. Instead, that space is
utilised with a lithium-ion battery,
which, in turn, sends power
exclusively to the rear wheels.
Volvo allows you to modulate
power via different driving modes:
Pure electric is exclusively for
Electric mode, while Power mode
uses all the juice that both motors
have to offer, lowering ride height,
adding a fairly powerful spring
in the car’s step and, just like
the car’s AWD mode, absorbing
power from both the axles.
Hybrid mode alternates between
the petrol and electric motor, for
maximum efficiency.
HOME SWEDE HOME

The T8, in this particular
Excellence trim (picture), isn’t
quite the family car the standard
XC90 is known to be. For an
admittedly steep `1.25 crore
premium, you get the fanciest
bits from Volvo’s luxury vault: two
individual reclining seats at the
back covered in perforated Nappa
leather, while the entire cabin is a
nice mix of leather and alcantara.
JULY 2019 — 145

DRIVE
"amid the constant chaos of urban traffic,

the t8 is a tub of serenityand calm, never
losing its composure, never announcing its
presence in an ostentatious manner"
The centre console that divides plush it is, and even though it’s
the two rear seats also gets a a large, imposing block of luxury
cavity that can store your elixir mobility, its hybrid status makes
of choice, along with two hand- it a fairly conscientious choice.
crafted Oreffors crystal glasses The added benefit of fuel efficiency
Volvo likes to throw in with this makes it a tempting one. There’s
car. The brand’s new interior something extremely soothing
design language is refreshingly (Above) Volvo provides two and, dare I say, benevolent,
minimalistic yet indulgent, charging stations that can about the XC90 – its crease-free
with swathes of organic birch charge the battery in 2.5 hours design and softened edges mask
wood and a large, button-free by connecting it to a 220V wall its sheer size, giving it a very
socket; (Below) A touchscreen
touchscreen interface that console and crystal glasses are
friendly countenance. Amid the
controls one of the best sound about as plush as Volvos get constant chaos of urban traffic,
systems in the business. the T8 is a tub of serenity and
Even the gear knob gets a calm, never losing its composure,
crystal treatment, although it’s never announcing its presence in
the least ergonomic feature in the an ostentatious manner. It’s got
car, requiring repetitive thumbing every characteristic Volvo trait.
in order to move from Reverse to Except, it also possesses a certain
Drive. Still, this is the uncluttered, eagerness, a propensity for hair-
new-age face of Swedish opulence, trigger throttle responses that lie
WORDS: PARTH CHARAN
and it feels dramatically different underneath its otherwise-placid

from its competition. demeanour. And that, in particular,
sets it apart from the fray, making
BOY SCOUT it not only a sensible choice, but
The XC90 T8 is tasteful in how also a compelling one.
146 — JULY 2019

JUNE
2019
150
FORCES
ofFASHION
STARRING DILJIT DOSANJH, KAREENA KAPOOR KHAN,
NATASHA POONAWALLA & KARAN JOHAR
DRIVE
This is Italy’s
fastest ever hypercar.
Want to guess what it’s powered by?
The artiste coachbuilder that shaped countless Ferraris, Lancias and Maseratis has flicked
the switch on a car of its own: the all-electric, 1,900bhp Pininfarina Battista
I
f you accept that automotive design is a reimagining the body as a single volume, rather
legitimate art form – no question – then than a series of conjoined elements. Pre-war,
Battista “Pinin” Farina has contributed more other designers had been playing with this form
to this branch of human endeavour than and early forays into air-cheatingly streamlined
anyone else. He is the lodestar, the Picasso bodies pointed the way (including Pininfarina,
or Warhol. Even New York’s Museum Of in 1937 with the Lancia Aprilia Aerodinamica).
Modern Art had to acknowledge his influence: But the 202 was something else, its aluminium
There aren’t many cars in its permanent panels hand-beaten over a wooden buck to set the
collection, but Farina’s Cisitalia 202 is one, a template – perfect proportions, propulsive volumes
deceptively simple-looking little coupé that set to generate a sense of speed, minimal decoration.
the entire automotive industry on a new aesthetic Pininfarina went on to be fêted by kings and
path when it appeared in 1947. And this at a time presidents and from 1952, until very recently,
when Italy was still picking its way through the clothed almost every single Ferrari, among
rubble of war, its factories decimated. numerous other Alfa Romeos, Lancias and
Cisitalia would be a footnote were it not for Maseratis. The company now has tendrils that
Farina’s company, Carrozzeria Pininfarina, have taken it into furniture, bridges, buildings,
148 — JULY 2019

trains and aerospace. But ironically, this great other country in car design terms and Paolo revs
automotive couturier has never actually created up an interesting theory.
a car of its own – until now. And the Pininfarina “It’s a matter of people. My grandfather,
Battista is named in honour of the man who Battista, was an outlier, one in a million. To
started it all. succeed as an outlier you need three things:
A new company, Automobili Pininfarina has talent, commitment and to be born at the right
been created in parallel with the Pininfarina moment and in the right place. He was born in
SpA mother ship, with a plan to sell a total of 1893, in Turin, surrounded by other talented
150 Battistas at a cost of approximately `17.5 people who were exploring the future of the car.
crores each. It might look like a generic – though With these things, success came.”
mesmerisingly beautiful – mid-engined hypercar, The story runs deeper though, and it’s ironic
but it’s pushing the form to the outer limits. that Pininfarina’s first own-brand car only exists
Not least because the Battista is purely electric because this Italian legend was sold to Indian
and shuns the emotional but increasingly behemoth Mahindra in 2015 for `370 crores. The
anachronistic internal combustion engine in company’s executive chairman, Anand Mahindra
favour of zero emissions and superficially guilt- – a graduate of Harvard’s film school rather
free ultra-performance. than a hard-boiled businessman – is enabling
Producing the equivalent of 1,900bhp, it can a plan that might well have continued to elude
claim to be the most powerful Italian road car Pininfarina on its own.
ever made. Zero to 62kph takes less than two “The [Battista] will enable us to fulfil our vision
seconds, 186kph is up in under 12 and the top of participating at the pinnacle of automotive
speed is likely to be 250kph, with a projected design,” he says. “Luxury is the meeting point
range of 300 km from the batteries, assuming of heritage and craftsmanship; it would take
you’re not travelling at warp five everywhere. 90 years to build what Pininfarina has.”
A superfast charging system will replenish The bigger picture here is as compelling
the batteries to 80 per cent capacity in just as the car itself. Mahindra believes that car
40 minutes. ownership will follow three paths during the
The body is made of carbon fibre, with the next few decades: an autonomous, fully electric
batteries housed behind the occupants and one in which simple utility is key; cars for
along the sides in a T-format. The electrical recreational use; and “cars that are bought
architecture is being co-developed with another purely because they are objects of desire,
EV outfit, the Croatian firm Rimac (itself 10 per out of passion for performance and beauty.”
cent owned by Porsche and said to be consulting Secondly, Automobili Pininfarina will license
with numerous manufacturers on this fast- the hardware from other companies to avoid
moving technology). As you’d hope, given the crippling investment in proprietary technology
price and provenance, the interior is swathed – the asset-light business model of which Apple
in the finest materials, although, as the product is the most profitable exponent. It’s unlikely the
of what’s billed as the world’s first sustainable Battista could exist otherwise.
luxury car company, nontraditional techniques That said, it’s still channelling some old-fashioned
are being explored. magic, as chief designer Luca Borgogno says.
WORDS: JASON BARLOW. EDITED BY: PAUL HENDERSON
“Pininfarina’s mission is to design cars that “This was the most important part of the first
are innovative, pure, simple, elegant,” chairman briefing: It has to be beautiful. Look at the cars in
and Battista’s grandson, Paolo, tells me. “This our museum: What really strikes you is the purity
project was a great challenge because we are and beauty. Purezza e bellezza.”
designing for ourselves here, so we want it to be
Pininfarina 110 per cent. It’s not a negotiation
Pininfarina Battista
or a compromise: This is us. Why should you
be attracted to a Pininfarina car? Because it’s
ENGINE PERFORMANCE
beautiful, it has harmony, it’s innovative but has Four electric motors generating 0-100kph; under 2sec
classic qualities. Electrification is the future.” 1,417KW (1,900bhp)
PRICE
Ask him why Italy historically outranks every TOP SPEED 420kph (claimed) `17.5 crore (minus taxes)
JULY 2019 — 149

H PHOTOGRAPHED BY MARCUS OHLSSON
I
STYLED BY TOBIAS FRERICKS
M
A
T K
E
R
S
Bright, blinding tailoring is having a moment.
Cash in on it like global supermodel Sean O’Pry
150
BLAZER, SHIRT,
TURTLENECK; ALL
BY PRADA
OPPOSITE: SUIT, SHIRT;

BOTH BY COMME DES
GARÇONS HOMME PLUS
SUIT, SHIRT;
BOTH BY GUCCI
152
SUIT, JUMPER;
BOTH BY VERSACE.
SNEAKERS BY ASICS
153
VEST, SHIRT, TROUSERS;
ALL BY LOUIS VUITTON
154
SUIT, T-SHIRT, BOOTS;
ALL BY PHILIPP PLEIN
155
SUIT, VEST; BOTH
BY DIOR MEN
156
SUIT, SHIRT; BOTH
BY MICHAEL KORS
PHOTO ASSISTANTS:
SEBASTIAN
MCCLUSKEY,
DAVID GILBEY
GROOMING:
MICHAEL HARDING
CASTING DIRECTOR:
STEPHAN DIMU
MODEL AGENCY: VNY
MODELS
PRODUCTION:
GIULIA ZUCCHETTI
DIGITAL TECH:
MAX ROVENKO
The 1960s
Rounds
Sophisticated and
cool, a pair of round
sunglasses will make you
look equal parts erudite
and effortless. Perfect for
TIME
E
those with more angular
jaws and square face
shapes, opt for something
in tortoiseshell if you have
a fair complexion, or a
fine metal frame if your
colouring is darker.
SUNGLASSES BY
DOLCE & GABBANA
FRAME
Right now, it’s all about eyewear that
takes its cues from decades past.
Whether it’s the neat little rounds of the
1960s or the souped-up shades of the
SET DESIGN: MAYA LINHARES-MARX
2000s, we’ve got your specs covered
WRITTEN BY
TEO VAN DEN BROEKE
PHOTOGRAPHED BY
COLIN ROSS
158
The 2000s Wraparounds
Sporty, slick and a little bit sexy, wraparound
dad glasses finished with oil-on-water lenses
are back in a big way. For the best of the
bunch, look to Carrera and team it with sharp
tailoring for a surprisingly effective contrast.
These frames work best on defined faces, and
look extra good with facial hair (who knew?).
FROM TOP: SUNGLASSES BY PRADA, CARRERA,
DOLCE & GABBANA
The 1980s
Wayfarers
Understated and smart,
with a sporty edge, a pair
of rectangular Wayfarer-
style sunglasses (think
Tom Cruise circa Risky
Business and you won’t
go too far wrong) are
a season essential.
Great for those with
oval or round faces,
which the edges of the
styles pictured will
complement.
FROM TOP: SUNGLASSES BY
DIOR MEN, OLIVER PEOPLES,
RAY-BAN, HACKETT
The 1970s Aviators
A great all-round style, look to Jim Morrison
for inspiration. Your Aviators should be
oversized and finished in shades of brown,
gold or sepia. Aviators are great for those with
heart- or diamond-shaped faces, as the form
will accentuate the swoop of your jawline.
FROM TOP: SUNGLASSES BY BOSS, GUCCI, PRADA,
DOLCE & GABBANA
161
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spotlights the women who protect our forests and wildlife
COMPLIMENTARY
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The Face Shop
WHERE TO BUY
Available at nykaa.com
The Man Company
themancompany.com
Tod’s Mumbai,
Palladium, 022-4242 1818;
Delhi, DLF Emporio,
The products featured editorially have been ordered from the following stores. 011-4666 2700
Prices and availability were checked at the time of going to press Tommy Hilfiger Mumbai,
Palladium, 022-6610 8880;
Delhi, Ambience Mall,
011-4087 0041; Bengaluru,
A E Maison Margiela Parcos Mumbai, Phoenix Marketcity,
Acqua Di Parma Available at Emporio Armani Mumbai, maisonmargiela.com 022-6639 9286 080-6726 6361
Maison Des Parfums Palladium, 022-4347 3211; Marks & Spencer Mumbai, Paul Mitchell Truefitt & Hill
Adidas Mumbai, 022-2282 Delhi, DLF Emporio, 011- 022-6666 9807; Delhi, paulmitchell.com truefittandhill.in
2737; Delhi, 011-4573 4261; 4604 0783; Bengaluru, UB 011-4670 6550; Bengaluru, Paul Smith Mumbai, Tudor tudorwatch.com
Bengaluru, 080-4091 5678 City, 080-4146 9333 080-2309 4062 Palladium, 022-4006 5089;
Asics Mumbai, High Street Massimo Dutti Mumbai, Delhi, DLF Emporio, U
Phoenix, 022-4004 2820; F Palladium, 022-6237 0731; 011-4604 0734; Bengaluru, Under Armour
Delhi, Select Citywalk, Forest Essentials Delhi, DLF Emporio, UB City, 080-4173 8882 underarmour.com
011-4076 906; Bengaluru, forestessentialsindia.com 011-0259 5333 Paul Stuart paulstuart.com
Phoenix Marketcity, Michael Kors Mumbai, Philipp Plein plein.com V
080-6726 6288 G Palladium, 022-4002 8040; Phy thephylife.com Valentino valentino.com
Automobili Pininfarina Garrett Leight Delhi, DLF Emporio, Prada prada.com Vans Mumbai, Phoenix
automobili-pininfarina.com garrettleight.com 011-4056 3703 Skyzone, 022-6615 3152;
Givenchy givenchy.com Montblanc R Delhi, Ambience Mall,
B Grenson grenson.com Available at Parcos Rado Mumbai, 022-6743 011-4087 0151; Bengaluru,
Bally Delhi, DLF Emporio, Gucci Mumbai, 022-6747 Mr. Leight mrleight.com 9856; Delhi, 011-4357 5253; Phoenix Marketcity,
011-4053 4149 7060; Delhi, DLF Emporio, Bengaluru, UB City, 080-6726 6158
Balmain balmain.com 011-4647 1111 N 080-4098 2107 Versace
Barneys New York New Balance Mumbai, Ray-Ban ray-ban.com Available at Infinite Luxury
barneys.com H 74200 22859; Delhi, Volvo Cars Mumbai,
Birkenstock birkenstock.com Hackett London Mumbai, 74200 20446 S 022-6669 6969; Delhi,
Boss Mumbai, Palladium, Palladium, 82860 15010; Sabah sabah.am 011-4327 7100; Bengaluru,
022-2491 2210; Delhi, DLF Delhi, DLF Emporio, 011-4108 O Sabyasachi Mumbai, 080-4545 1414
Emporio, 011-4604 0773; 7388; Bengaluru, UB City, Olive Available at 022-2204 4774; Delhi,
Bengaluru, 080-2520 7200 080-4149 0999 sephora.nnnow.com 011-2664 4352; Bengaluru, W
Hermès Mumbai, 022-2271 Oliver Peoples 080-4112 1088 Widian
C 7400; Delhi, 011-2688 5501 oliverpeoples.com Scentido Mumbai, Available at Scentido
Calvin Klein Hidesign Mumbai, Onitsuka Tiger Mumbai, 022-6747 9600
Available at nykaa.com 022-6654 1615; Delhi, Palladium, 022-6237 7512 Scotch & Soda Mumbai, Z
Calvin Klein Jeans 011-4087 0047; Bengaluru, Organic Harvest Palladium, 022-4347 4094; Zara Mumbai, Palladium,
Mumbai, 022-2648 4794; 080-2544 0535 organicharvest.in Delhi, 011-4087 0514 022-4542 1800; Delhi,
Delhi, 011-4108 9582; Ouai Available at SSS World Corp DLF Promenade,
Bengaluru, 080-4098 6229 I sephora.nnnow.com sssworldcorp.com 011-4513 7124; Bengaluru,
Carrera carreraworld.com Infinite Luxury Delhi, Phoenix Marketcity,
Chopard Mumbai, 022-2288 011-4698 0000 P T 080-6726 6121
4757; Delhi, Johnson Watch Panerai Mumbai, 022-2642 The Body Shop ZJM Exports
Company, 011-4151 3121; J 6241; Delhi, 011-2687 4050 thebodyshop.in zjmexports.com
Bengaluru, Zimson, Jo Malone Mumbai,
080-4098 2100 Palladium, 022-6237 5537
Christian Louboutin
Mumbai, 022-4347 1787; K
Delhi, DLF Emporio, Kama Ayurveda
011-4101 7111 kamaayurveda.com
Coach Mumbai, Palladium Kérastase kerastase.in
022-2491 2210; Delhi, DLF Kiehl’s kiehls.com
Emporio, 011-4927 0626; Kunal Rawal Mumbai,
Bengaluru, 080-4865 1744 97696 47696
Comme Des Garçons Homme
Plus comme-des-garcons.com L
Lacoste Available at Parcos
D Louis Vuitton Mumbai,
Diesel Mumbai, Palladium, 022-6664 4134; Delhi, DLF
022-4004 6050; Delhi, DLF Emporio, 011-4669 0000;
Emporio, 011-4087 0072; Bengaluru, UB City,
Bengaluru, UB City, 080-4246 0000
080-4173 8001 L’Occitane loccitane.com
Dior Men Delhi, DLF L’Oreal Barber Club
Emporio, 011-4600 5900 Available at amazon.in
Dolce & Gabbana
PHOTO: JIGNESH JHAVERI
dolcegabbana.com; M
(Fragrances) Available at Maison Des Parfums
Parcos Mumbai, Palladium,
Dries Van Noten 022-4003 3233
driesvannoten.be Maison Kitsune
Dunhill dunhill.com maisonkitsune.com
LUXURY, FASHION, TRAVEL AND GROOMING IN STANDOUT STYLE
What’s inside?
Jockey – leading innerwear label – presents its International Collection.
Spirit of the land Featuring exquisitely soft and supremely stylish trunks, this collection is all about
A collection of luxury resorts in Karnataka, Evolve
craftsmanship and luxurious fabrics. Designed for the man who will settle for
Back brings you holidays steeped in the lore of
nothing but the best – inside or out – the highlights of this collection include the
the land. While their Chikkana Halli Estate, Coorg,
super-soft Tactel® nylon, elastane fabric, abstract prints and a metallic-style
is located in a 300-acre coffee plantation, Evolve
waistband. Perfect for a date night – we’d like to believe that it will boost your
Back Kuruba Safari Lodge, Kabini, draws you into
inner confidence.
the vibrant tapestry of its nature and local tribes.
Priced `319 onwards. Available at exclusive Jockey showrooms, leading retail outlets across
And Evolve Back Kamalapura Palace, Hampi, with India and on jockeyindia.com
its stone-paved boulevards and arched hallways,
recreates the regal past of its land. Wearing pride
Price on request. For reservations, call +91 80 4618 4444 or
visit evolveback.com This year, Polo Ralph Lauren partners
with Stonewall Community Foundation to
unveil its gender-neutral Pride Collection,
along with a campaign that celebrates
the LGBTQIA+ community. A percentage
of the proceeds will be donated to these
communities around the world. Comprising
graphic tees, Polo shirts, hoodies, totes,
baseball caps and more, featuring the
iconic pony in rainbow stripes, the collection
is available in a flurry of sizes for men,
women and children.
Price on request. Available on ralphlauren.com
Sporting Time
Get ready for the Fossil Sport Smartwatch
Mane reclaim – the brand’s first-ever timepiece based on
Advanced Hair Studio, the world’s largest Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 3100 and
hair replacement, restoration and retention Wear OS by Google™. It boasts several new
company, announces Sourav Ganguly as its brand technologies like extended battery life, battery
ambassador to mark 10 successful years in India. saving mode, enhanced ambient mode, integrated
During an exclusive event at ITC Grand Chola, heart rate, as well as NFC and GPS capabilities.
Chennai, the brand also celebrated how it has been While it lets you track your fitness, its sleek, ultra-
driving awareness across suburban markets about lightweight design and colourful silicone straps
the different ways to address hair loss conditions. make it the perfect style accomplice.
Since 2018, 10 camps with teams of experts offering Priced `17,995. Available across all Fossil stores and
personalised solutions have catered to more than authorised sales channels in India. For more
300 customers across South India. information, visit fossil.com
For more information, visit advancedhairstudioindia.com
164 — JULY 2019

Rare timepiece
The Tropical Bird Repeater is an all-
new limited-edition watch by Jaquet
Droz. Celebrating nature, its mother-
of-pearl dial springs to life with a
hummingbird, peacock, toucan,
butterfly and waterfall as well as
a few dragonflies, some tropical
flora and more. It also features
180 baguette-cut diamonds,
invisibly set in the centre of the dial
to play the role of the sun. Also, the
Staycation time lugs are set with an unprecedented
Take a vacay without leaving the city 36 baguette-cut diamonds.
at Trident, Bandra Kurla and Trident, Price on request.
Nariman Point in Mumbai; Trident, Available at Johnson Watch Co.
Hyderabad; Trident, Chennai; Trident,
Gurgaon; or Trident, Bhubaneswar. Think
complimentary breakfasts, best-in-class
amenities, exquisite culinary offerings,
relaxing spas, swimming pools, fitness
centres, recreation options and a host of
amazing benefits to ensure you have a
memorable stay.
Valid until September 30, 2019.
Make your reservations on tridenthotels.com,
email reservations@tridenthotels.com or call East meets West
011-23904473/ 1800 11 2122. Introducing KURTEES, a new menswear
For more information, visit tridenthotels.com/ label that’s kickstarting a trend and bridging
hotel-offers/trident-staycations
the gap between ethnic and contemporary
styles. In an effort to provide comfort and
style, it combines the diaphanous cut of
the kurta with the casual familiarity of the
T-shirt to give you the best of both worlds.
These all-weather fashion statements are
crafted from 100 per cent organic cotton
jersey fabric and are available in turtlenecks,
V-necks and crew-necks, button-up Henleys
and more, all in an array of solid colours,
stripes and prints.
Priced `1,999 onwards. Available on kurtees.com
Missing Bombay?
Relive its charm at the Bombay
Spritz to explore Coffee House. While the ambience
Montblanc Explorer is a fragrance that tells rustles up the nostalgia of days past
the story of adventures, quests of excellence with black and white photos, rustic
and explorations around the world. The furniture, ambient music and a
top notes burst with OrPur® bergamot, floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, the menu
French sage and pink pepper. Followed by includes 20 varieties of hot and cold
heart notes of leather and Vetiver, it rests coffee, milkshakes and iced teas;
on a base of patchouli, cocoa, Ambroxan™ favourites like masala chai and sev puri;
and Akigalawood®. Held in a bottle that’s international dishes like Penang curry,
wrapped in a leather-like sheath, which bears pastas and French croissandwiches;
the Saffiano motif, it also adorns the brand’s and an array of desserts.
signature star. Available in Mumbai at Bandra, Ballard Estate
Priced `6,750 (100ml) and `5,100 (50ml). Available and Kurla. Follow @bchbombay on Instagram
at Parcos and leading departmental stores and @bombaycoffeehouse on Facebook
JULY 2019 — 165

Humour
The Instagram
of Sisyphus
ILLUSTRATION: HAYLEY PHELAN
166 — JULY 2019

GQ India - July 2019

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O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P O P E N S U P

JULY 2019 `15 0

JACKET BY CALVIN KLEIN

24 Editor’s Letter 140

72 MANIFESTO: FREE FLOW

Ghosh gets on the horror bandwagon;

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Richa Khonde PR DIRECTOR Swati Katakam Samant

MANAGING DIRECTOR Alex Kuruvilla

CHAIRMAN, CONDE NAST INTERNATIONAL LTD. Jonathan Newhouse

S hop online at www.asics.com asicsindia asicsindia

JULY 2019 `15 0

Published under Joint Venture:

Published under License or Copyright Cooperation:

What a man’s got to do Chairman of the Board of Directors

CHI KKANA HALLI E S TATE , CO O RG K A MA L A PU R A PA L AC E, H A M PI K U RU BA SA FA R I LO D G E, K ABIN I

BENGAL TIGER PHYLLIDA JAY

This Is The End are great, but I love Rogen

Sonam Kapoor Ahuja

The Volkswagen display

Che Kurrien & Russell Peters

Anjali Lama & Gaurav Gupta

Kunal Rawal & Abhimanyu Dassani Bishwajeet Samal Ujjawal Dubey

Abhishek Kapoor &

Acquin Pais, Erika Packard & Sahil Shroff Nayaan Chaudhary

Mathieu Josso & Bhawna Sharma

Rishi Seth Armaan Ralhan & Mohit Marwah

Chaitanya Rao & Tony Luke

Akriti & Aparshakti

Sandeep Gonsalves, Sarah Gonsalves,

Aabha Pusalkar &

Aditya Seal at the Selected Homme Display Theron Carmine de Sousa,

Suket Dhir Sunila Duggal & Charu Adajania Sayani Gupta

Santoshi Shetty & Rahi Chadda

Shruti Arora &

CESS ACCESS ACCESS ACCESS ACCESS

Niranjan Iyengar Anupriya Goenka

Akansha Ranjan Kapoor Anita Khatri & Sneha Mahant Mehta

ACCESS ACCESS ACCE

Behram Siganporia Samir Srivastav

Kubra Sait Shamita Shetty

Neil Nitin Mukesh at the ARMR display

Rakul Preet Singh Pawan Sachdeva

WHERE SERENITY AWAITS

Book online at tajhotels.com, call the

In 1971, Roy Thomas

BITTEN BY THE bug

The name? “You can’t call a hero Spider-Man,

And so Amazing Fantasy No. 15 was born.

DINING SKY HIGH

A pile of new equipment – sporting new features – fine-tunes desktop gaming

ACER PREDATOR X34

This 34-inch display packs nearly two times

The Elite is a loot box of a keyboard, with

Headsets made just for gaming You don’t have to plug

*MRP as available on amazon.in

If you were to describe the Mercedes-Benz after-sales service to

What would you like to say about the Mercedes-Benz service

Suffice to say that your Mercedes-Benz experience does

A still from Typewriter;

TEARS FOR FEARS

Here, the cult classics Ghosh

CHILD’S PLAY (1988)

Chucky the evil doll is

THE OTHERS (2001)