Sunday nights, 9 pm to 10, are no longer going to be for champagne or coke. Keep that prime-time hour on the weekend reserved for stimulating coffee, instead. Had out of a sexy black gold-rimmed mug. With the irrepressible Karan Johar, no one else. Back on Star World with Season 6 of undeniably the most popular English chat show on Indian television, KJo killed it. Literally! Right from the moment, his elegant boot with sparkle and heel stepped out of a red Audi A4.
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This is a new KJo we are seeing. Spiffy and chutzpahish. Looking lean, looking sharp, and looking young. Hair stylishly coiffeured. And dressed by the versatile Nikita Jaisinghani in rags that are meant to be a talking point long after the show when his guests have gone home to bed. In between, when you aren’t focusing on him, take in the new sets of Koffee with Karan. Out of this world. Colours that are dark but bright. The couch for the session, inviting. The ambience, warm and very intimate. Into this, hand-in-hand, walked his first guests of Season 6 – vivacious Alia Bhatt and statuesque Deepika Padukone.
He talked about the new Girl Power in Bollywood by talking about their films first before coaxing them to come out in the open with their love lives. “Performances precede relationships,” KJo said wickedly leading Deepika and Alia to the couch. And then, it was one rollicking rollercoaster ride as KJo the impresario and genial host became cut-and-thrust quiz master and proceeded to get the actresses to open up with the more intimate details of their lives. That’s what the show is all about and that’s what people have been getting into training to watch.
The girls were lovelier than on the Bollywood screen. Alia, looking sinful in dark blue shimmer dress, with sexy collar bones exposed and sleek legs below perfect knees jiggling with impatience every now and then. Her jewelry was minimal. Just a couple of rings with which she kept playing. Deepika, all demure in a white gown, showing off tanned and toned arms carried forward from Padmaavat, and wearing more rings than Alia plus a heavy watch, a three-layered necklace and two bracelets.
Relationships were strictly within limits tonight as KJo got Deepika and Alia to admit that the awkwardness they faced initially about “having dated” and “dating” Ranbir Kapoor had now turned to a cool zone of acceptance, peace and content. Little by little, coffee sip after coffee sip, he artfully chiseled and chipped their professional reticence away and reduced them to helplessly giggling girls who revealed among other closed secrets one of the high points of their togetherness was “taking a pee” in the “men’s loo” at a Coldplay concert in Europe and their individually making the Mile High Club membership.
Not just Ranbir’s lover boy image, but Ranveer Singh’s madness and his bizarre sense of fashion too was dissed whenever KJo managed to get a word in edgewise once Alia and Deepika really warmed up and got going. But KJo failed to get out the Deepika-Ranveer marriage details. The actresses gave him as good as they got, confirming that when it came to gossip and seeking relationship advice, KJo was the one all of Bollywood turned to. The hour ran by with three ad breaks in between that were cleverly used by Garnier and L’Oreal using their lovely brand ambassadresses – yes, Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone. It was their night, you weren’t getting away from them, not even during the breaks.
KJo had them fighting tooth and nail for his coveted hampers on the Point Game, the Rapid Fire Round, the Google Poll and his new Gaming Zone where he introduced a new segment called “Not Without My Phone”. And then, to show that all was fair in love and war and that God was in his heaven and all was well in Bollywood, KJo coaxed Alia and Deepika to sing Ranbir’s song Channa Mereyafrom his film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. A neon sign said in the background, “Stop Making Sense!” Damn right...
