Please keep it private: Society to the Shroffs

Everyone loves a good divorce. Yet everyone is also wishing Jaidev Shroff and Poonam Bhagat do their bickering behind locked doors. The public display of their troubles started in April with allegations of black magic, physical abuse, infidelity and defamation, yet no one from their social circle has defended either or taken sides.

This silence has less to do with allegiance and more with wanting to keep away from the noise. Reportedly, both parties have reached out to their friends in the media – either directly, or through spokespersons and lawyers – to snitch out unsavoury information about parenting skills, infidelities, financial and business skeletons in the closet. Yet there has been no attempt to build a public wave of sympathy for either side. “One just wants to stay away because they are noisy; and also because they are both very manipulative and no one likes being used in such an obvious manner.”

In a milieu where etiquette and politeness is currency, both Poonam and Jaidev have been found to be broke. Poonam, whose maternal family, the Bhagats of Pali Hill, represents old, genteel money, built a formidable reputation in the art circles with her chic salons where Cherie Blair, Anish Kapoor and representatives from Sotheby’s mingled with Shirin Gandy. She’s listed as a patron at the Kochi Biennale Foundation, representing Nirlon Foundation Trust.

Yet, in the circle of ladies-who-brunch she’s shunned as someone who is vocally judgmental of what you wear, and is both, mean and rude. “She hosted a party for Christian Louboutin last year and openly told my friend that she was inviting her because ‘You have a surname’. My friend did not go,” says a source. “She’ll talk about how she gets her hair dyed in Paris and her private jet. It’s too showy for some tastes.” It is assumed that she won’t have too many invitations from the business world once the divorce is final.

Jaidev’s reputation as a shrewd businessman is as formidable as his notoriety as a ladies man. “Anyone getting married to him would have known what he’s about,” says a school friend. In comparison to the Bhagat’s old money, the Shroffs of United Phosphorous are relatively newer. He is not known to have artistic or philanthropic interests, and many debate that the creative world would have not been welcomed into his home were it not for Poonam. The divorce from the artistic circles will be by mutual consent. It’s his rippling legal muscle that’s putting Poonam in the shade as the underdog.

What’s embittering watchers is how nothing has remained holy between the two. Photographs and information about parents, children and business dealings are being offered as chess pieces to the media. Business partners, acquaintances, family members and staff is being manipulated without an attempt at subtlety or sophistication. The matter being sub-judice seems to harness no respect from either party.

So, society is laying low, hoping the ruckus will die down so that everyone can go back to sipping champagne together.