It ain't
easy being a politico. Vinod Khanna, actor, Osho-ite, BJP MP of late,
learnt that the hard way last week. At a press conference on aids awareness in Delhi
addressed by Hollywood hunk Richard Gere and Bollywood firebrand Shabana Azmi, Khanna --
seated among the audience -- stirred up a storm. "At the Osho commune," he
announced grandly, "as far back as 1983, everyone had to undergo an HIV test. Those
who were found HIV-positive had to wear badges. Why can't we have that everywhere?"
Gere gasped, Khanna was under fire from all sides, and the much chastened man took his
seat. "I was misquoted," he told us later (though we know we heard him say it).
"At the commune we had to carry an identity card that stated whether or not you were
HIV-positive. You don't wear it outside your shirt, you just show it whenever you
participate in sessions so that the other person knows." Now that's a much smarter
idea.
All About Eve
He's not a nice man to know, we all know
that. But everybody still wants to know him. Touching 85 and still going strong, Khushwant
Singh will spend the coming weeks chatting up Persis Khambatta, Jayalalitha,
Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani writer Tehmina Durrani (in the picture) and other women
celebrities. No, it's not his night out on the town. The peripatetic sardarji is shooting
a chat show for Star Plus titled Not A Nice Man to Know. "I manage so much because I
keep fit," says Singh. Adds the show's producer, long-time friend Sadia Dehlvi (to
whom he dedicated his book of the same name, remember?): "Khushwant's success with
women is legendary. Every woman who meets him trusts him, and I'm not sure he's a person
to trust." But Jayalalitha? Has the lady really said yes? "I'm counting on
Khushwant's friendship with her," says Dehlvi. But can she trust him?
On the Flick Side
After the Bandit Queen, comes the Brigand
King. Except that this one's suave, slick and he does not haunt the Chambal ravines. So
when director Prakash Varma's movie, Charles Sobhraj: The Other Story, is
out next year, expect stuff on "the brilliant mind that is able to spot legal
loopholes with ease", apart from Sobhraj's troubled childhood, his crimes, and so on.
And since he couldn't find anybody else who looked the part, Varma's playing the glib goon
himself. "It's just like if you can't find the perfect Gandhi, you can't make a film
on Gandhi," says the on-and-off film and TV-serial maker who once trained under B.R.
Chopra and brother Yash, and whose credits include one of the early Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya
Bhaduri starrers, Bansi Birju (1972). He's a trifle tubby, but what the heck! Does he
think he makes the perfect Sobhraj? "I think I come pretty close."
RICHARD
GERE
In India as patron of an aids-awareness programme, the
world's most handsome Buddhist took time off for a chat:
How did Buddhism come to you? I discovered Buddhism when I was in my early 20s ...
Before the recent US-China accord, did you lobby for
Tibet? No, the Clinton Administration has been unilateral. I wish I hadn't
supported Clinton in his first election. The second time, I did not.
Because of his position on China? On China, and on aids. Before his election these were A-1 priorities.
Why did that change? Because he has a very short attention span and he speaks from the hip. You
need to talk about such issues with honesty, commitment. This President is not capable of
that.
It ain't
easy being a politico. Vinod Khanna, actor, Osho-ite, BJP MP of late,
learnt that the hard way last week. At a press conference on aids awareness in Delhi
addressed by Hollywood hunk Richard Gere and Bollywood firebrand Shabana Azmi, Khanna --
seated among the audience -- stirred up a storm. "At the Osho commune," he
announced grandly, "as far back as 1983, everyone had to undergo an HIV test. Those
who were found HIV-positive had to wear badges. Why can't we have that everywhere?"
Gere gasped, Khanna was under fire from all sides, and the much chastened man took his
seat. "I was misquoted," he told us later (though we know we heard him say it).
"At the commune we had to carry an identity card that stated whether or not you were
HIV-positive. You don't wear it outside your shirt, you just show it whenever you
participate in sessions so that the other person knows." Now that's a much smarter
idea. 
He's not a nice man to know, we all know
that. But everybody still wants to know him. Touching 85 and still going strong, Khushwant
Singh will spend the coming weeks chatting up Persis Khambatta, Jayalalitha,
Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani writer Tehmina Durrani (in the picture) and other women
celebrities. No, it's not his night out on the town. The peripatetic sardarji is shooting
a chat show for Star Plus titled Not A Nice Man to Know. "I manage so much because I
keep fit," says Singh. Adds the show's producer, long-time friend Sadia Dehlvi (to
whom he dedicated his book of the same name, remember?): "Khushwant's success with
women is legendary. Every woman who meets him trusts him, and I'm not sure he's a person
to trust." But Jayalalitha? Has the lady really said yes? "I'm counting on
Khushwant's friendship with her," says Dehlvi. But can she trust him? 
After the Bandit Queen, comes the Brigand
King. Except that this one's suave, slick and he does not haunt the Chambal ravines. So
when director Prakash Varma's movie, Charles Sobhraj: The Other Story, is
out next year, expect stuff on "the brilliant mind that is able to spot legal
loopholes with ease", apart from Sobhraj's troubled childhood, his crimes, and so on.
And since he couldn't find anybody else who looked the part, Varma's playing the glib goon
himself. "It's just like if you can't find the perfect Gandhi, you can't make a film
on Gandhi," says the on-and-off film and TV-serial maker who once trained under B.R.
Chopra and brother Yash, and whose credits include one of the early Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya
Bhaduri starrers, Bansi Birju (1972). He's a trifle tubby, but what the heck! Does he
think he makes the perfect Sobhraj? "I think I come pretty close." 
