Royal Requiem, writes Shalini Sharma

There are so many fabled stories around the Nizams of Hyderabad. Testimony was them being listed in the Guinness Book of Records in the 1960s as the richest family in the world, even above the Queen of England. But Independence and Indira Gandhi ensured that the family like many Indian royalty, were put under huge pressure with their properties being taken over by the Indian government. The current erstwhile Nizam Mukarram Jah dealt with the backlash by retreating to Turkey where he whiled away time marrying numerous women. (His first wife, the Turkish Princess Esra, currently holds fortress in Hyderabad and her tireless work in restoring the properties, especially Falaknuma Palace and Chowmahalla Palace, deserves its own story someday.)

But the Nizam’s third wife was the Turkish beauty queen Manolya Onur, who created a media splash a decade ago in India by trying to lay claim to the Nizam’s Chiran Palace in Banjara Hills, stating that it rightfully belonged to her child Niloufer. Nothing of course came of that. Manolya died a few months ago in London. She passed away on the operating table while undergoing a beauty procedure that went horribly wrong.  Princess Niloufer reached Chowmahalla Palace but was not allowed entry.    Another saga of the        Hyderabad royal family passes on.

Distressed Diamonds

The fashion and jewellery markets have been stunned into silence by the CBI raid on Nirav Modi, poster boy of the jewellery business in India. This Antwerp-based diamond trader shifted to India more than a decade ago and overnight became one of the biggest players in the fashion market with his huge spends in advertising. Priyanka Chopra, Lisa Haydon and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley were the brand ambassadors and no less than the world’s most expensive photographer Patrick Demarchelier was hired to shoot the campaign. But what raised the eyebrows of local jewellery traders was the businessman setting up numerous stores in the most expensive shopping boulevards in the world such as Bond Street in London and Fifth Avenue in New York. The buzz was that Nirav’s sales were nowhere near his huge spends and all wondered how he expected the numbers to crunch. At one point, Mumbai party boy Gaurav Bhatia, now with Sothebys’, joined the brand but hastily exited from it making one wonder if he sensed something was amiss there. Lifestyle publicist Srimoyi Bhattacharya also called off her relationship with Modi’s company six months ago adding to the uneasy speculation. The rumour in the market is that he got close to Rs 5000 crores in funding from banks. Probably sensing that the tentacles of law were closing in, Nirav with his family relocated to New York a year back.    Diamonds maybe forever but nothing loses sparkle faster than a reputation gone awry.   

Weak Week

Only three things stood out at the recently concluded Lakme India Fashion Week:

• Anamika Khanna’s stunning finale show which just about saved the week.
   
• Karan Johar’s white-mane look for Shane & Falguni Peacock.
   
• Shriya Som’s impeccable structured collection marking her as the only young designer to show consistent growth in the past two years. She also nailed the best red carpet look with Disha Patani.

Society insider Shalini Sharma has two decades experience observing and reporting on the commerce and confessions of people who are generously described as celebrities.