The Cannes Red carpet has become Bollywood’s favorite obsession. Now, we are not here to talk about how silly it is but we know that France does make a good place to be seen this summer. It began with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who since 2002 has been a part of the Festival de Cannes as L’Oreal Ambassador and will be going minus Abhishek Bachchan this time. Over the years, her presence is a field day for fashion critics who want to rip apart what she’s wearing. More recently, Sonam Kapoor was also roped in by the brand to represent them. And, this year Frieda Pinto will be joining the team which is sure to leave shutterbugs and crazy fans of the girls in a frenzied stupor. Out of the Bollywood babes, Minissha Lamba will also be adding to the oomph factor on the Cannes red carpet.
Each year, the Chivas red carpet walk of fame plays host to several Hollywood celebrities and other international stars. This time around, Chivas Regal in partnership with Cannes has chosen their brand ambassador Saif Ali Khan to represent them at the 2011 edition of this much talked about festival. I was at the press meet announcing the invitation of Saif to walk the haloed red carpet on the opening night. Saif, at his usual witty self was excited about addressing the media about this association with a brand that symbolizes chivalry and luxury. He spoke about his feelings of anticipation and the advice from his mother, Sharmila Tagore who knows members of the jury at Cannes.
Talking about his personal style statement, he credited a lot of his look to his style guru and girlfriend, Kareena Kapoor. He was wearing a Tom Ford shirt and shoes that he admitted were ‘by a guy from Matheran’. Talking about his look on the Cannes red carpet, Saif revealed that he is going to be wearing a Tom Ford black tux (you can’t go too wrong with that). Internationally, he expressed his love for designers like Gucci and YSL. The conversation kept drifting into personal (Kareena Kapoor) territory and he disapproved as he felt it would take away from the event (typical). Saif also spoke about his upcoming home production, Agent Vinod, Race 2 and Aarakshan. He truly had us in splits with his presence of mind, witty sarcasm and a rather nasty sense of humor (we like) Total stunner that he is, our desi rockstar managed to charm us all the way. Chivas Regal, with their ‘Live with Chivalry’ philosophy couldn’t have asked for a better ambassador. Saif personifies classy elegance and good values and being from a family of Nawabs adds to his royal persona. I am truly excited to see how Saif’s personal style and his uber-cool representation of the legend of Chivas makes for great eye candy at the ‘red carpet walkway’. Long live chivalry Bollywood style!