Celebrity Tales: In their own words

Books, personally authored by Bollywood film personalities, are on the incline. Although Shah Rukh Khan still has to complete the promised tome on his early years, trying to seek fame and fortune in show town, many others are in discussion with publishers to make it to the bestseller list.
Shah Rukh Khan often reveals sections of the book he has been writing for over a decade and a half now, to his close friends and family. But that's it. Meanwhile, snazzily designed coffee table books on the Khan have registered buoyant sales, and more are in the offing. After all, SRK has a huge collection of childhood photos and assorted memorabilia, perfect for volumes that have more visuals than prose. Since he's pretty sharp and articulate, that down-memory-lane memoir has been eagerly awaited.
Meanwhile, Salman Khan has shooed away dozens of publishers and wannabe chroniclers of his dramatic life. At this point, when court cases are still pending against him, it wouldn't be politically correct to come up with a frank and forthright look back at pain and pleasure, would it?
As for Aamir Khan, he did okay a book that analysed his career, but refused to be interviewed by the besotted, fan-like author. Neither did he accede to promote it at any kind of book launch, austere or splashy.
However, the aloof Aamir Khan did fetch up at the book launch of Mrs Funnybones, a compilation of a newspaper column by his once-upon-a-time-co-star Twinkle Khanna. The columns have been a wryly witty take on the daily grind of a star housewife, alluding incessantly to the ?"man of the house" (read Akshay Kumar), their two kids, the mother-in-law, the domestic help, gal pals, doctors and a variety of etceteras.
In the vein of chick-lit, some of the columns included in the book do demonstrate that Twinkle is sufficiently well-read and has that rare trait of laughing at her own helplessness when a day is going asunder. The compilation's amusing, yes. A must-possess, it isn't.
Neither is it revelatory of the curious ways of B-town. Ergo, her book springs no surprises. Mrs Funnybones doesn't contain any startling disclosures. No hints at the turmoil she may have endured while dealing with the lights, camera and the studios. Why on earth was she disenchanted with her acting career? Why did she pack up? If you ask me, that would have been a more valuable paperback. Instead, Mrs Funnybones is something of a déjà vu read - quite predictable.
That any book requires glitzy publicity was once again asserted at the Mrs Funnybones launch, what with the presence of hubby Akshay, Aamir Khan, mum Dimple Kapadia, Jaya Bachchan and the ubiquitous Karan Johar, who admitted that he had once nurtured a schoolboy crush on Twinkle, who turned down a role for herself in his Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, the one that made Rani Mukherjee an instant star. Tsk.
Cut to the launch of Anusual: Memoir of a Girl who Came Back from the Dead. The event's USP was a yoga interlude, with the invitees breaking into breathing exercises, besides imbibing instructions on how to meditate. That was surely unusual, what with the waiters still circulating beverages and exotic canapes while the guests drifted into yoga action. In addition, the music purring from the speakers wasn't the same 'ole Bollywood numbers; instead, it was light jazz.
Trust Anu Aggarwal - the dusky supermodel who became an overnight sensation with Aashiqui back in 1990 - to fashion an offbeat evening. In her prime, she had quit acting to wander around the world, often wondering what the heck she was doing in the fake, fake world of Bollywood. On returning to Mumbai, she was involved in a near-fatal accident. After languishing in a coma for 29 days, she came back to life, went off to an ashram at the tip of the Himalayas, where she studied yoga. Today, she teaches yoga, healing people without charging so much as a token fee.
Hers is quite a story, packed with candid confessions. Disappointingly though, at 180 pages, it is much too brief and calls for a sequel. Expectedly, her Aashiqui mentor Mahesh Bhatt presided over the launch, hinting at a possible film sometime in the future, adapted from the book.
Incidentally, a star biography that I've been really looking forward to is none other than Rishi Kapoor's, who has never ever minced his words. It's been in the works for the last three years. "It's complete," the actor states, admitting, "I've been a bit lazy in selecting the photographs to go into the book. There are so many photos at the RK Studio and at home, that I don't where to begin."
Till then, his regular posts on Twitter could be compiled into a book as well. They're as spicy and spontaneous as Rishi Kapoor is on and off the screen. Way to tweet @chintskap!