Eyecatchers

India Today, February 15, 1999
Feb 15, 1999

Lime'n Lemony Govinda
Govinda and Amitabh Bachchan

Coke did a take on Ghulam with its "Peeti kya Coca-Cola" ad. Then Pepsi did a youthful turn by roping in the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai team of Shah Rukh-Rani-Kajol. Now Mirinda Lemon has signed on Govinda, the darling of the masses, for its new ad based on last year's crowd-puller, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. Govinda teams up with Amitabh Bachchan, who's already been doing the "Zor ka jhatka, dheere se lage" ads for Mirinda. Only, it's Govinda now who'll get to say the famous line. "Govinda has the effervescence to give the product a new jhatka (spin)," gushes a Pepsi Foods official. Now, let's see if bade miyan can match chote miyan's thunder.

Talent on Board
When Sameera Savarala's mother offered her a gift subscription, the 11-year-old demanded the National Geographic World, a children's magazine from National Geographic. Now she finds herself becoming an adviser to her favourite publication. Kentucky-based Sameera, who was three when her parents migrated from Hyderabad, is one of the 139 young people, and the first Indian, named to the 1999 advisory board for the magazine. "I have suggested that they should have more stories on people like Buddha and places like the Taj Mahal," says Sameera. The first step into journalism, right? Sameera is not so sure. "I might become an astronomer or a space scientist." That'll make quite a story.

Love Match
Leander Paes with Vicki Labbe For once they were not interested in his game. Fans who came to watch Leander Paes at Calcutta's South Club during the Indian Oil-Servo ATP Challenger tournament, were more taken up by Vicki Labbe, his Canadian-Brazilian girlfriend of five months. The romance blossomed at the Canadian Open in Montreal last year, where the dusky Labbe, a second-degree karate black belt, was in charge of venue security. "It happened fairly instantly," recollects Paes. Labbe is aiming for a business management degree in Quebec. To manage his career, perhaps.

Driving Passion
Kaniyaboyina Sudhakar in his camera-car It looks like a Nikon F-3. Only the motor drive is a 60 cc engine that can make it run at 40 km an hour. This 400 kg single-seater camera-car is the latest creation of Kaniyaboyina Sudhakar, a 36-year-old car designer from Hyderabad. Latest is the key word, for Sudhakar's garage already holds 48 model cars, including replicas of 14 jalopies and the world's smallest double decker. "For me this is a driving passion," he says. Still to come: helmet-car, binocular-car, and a life-size motorised elephant. Guess he needs a bigger garage.

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