Well THAT was awesome! I just got back from my first IIFA experience in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and it was epic! I tried to vlog almost everything I saw and did for you, but incase you want just my major highlights, this is the blog for you! (Of course there’s a whole section on MissMalini.com dedicated to IIFA coverage still, so check that out here.) But for now, here’s my insider view of IIFA 2015, just for you! xoxo
1. My BFF, Anil Kapoor!
After a little walk-about in the KL rain and visit to the Petronas Towers, the first person I ran into at IIFA was of course, the inimitable Anil Kapoor! He is all kinds of adorable (and I think we’re pals now!). And a world where Mr. India is your friend, is a good world, is all I’m saying.
2. When Arjun Kapoor Danced to Chiitya Kaliyaan
*See full video above
As you may have noticed, the press conference was full of Bollywood energy and I love that Arjun Kapoor pushed Jacqueline Fernandez up front to dance to Kanika Kapoor‘s rendition of Chittiya Kalaiya from her film Roy. Jacqueline even taught Ayushmann Khurrana the moves while she was at it!
3. Those Orangutans, awwwwie!
IIFA 2015 Press Conference
IIFA 2015 Press Conference
IIFA 2015 Press Conference
IIFA 2015 Press Conference
IIFA 2015 Press ConferenceIIFA 2015 Press Conference
IIFA 2015 Press Conference
The Orangutang is the animal that represents Malaysia tourism, so everyone on stage was given a furry friend to take home! How cute is that? Also now I have no choice but to stop and play you my favourite song from The Jungle Book…
4. The MAC Studio Makeovers
Part of the joy of going to glam events is looking the part, so I have to give a massive shout out to the good people at the MAC suite that dolled me up everyday 🙂 it was so much fun and I think I know what my next makeup haul is going to be!
5. Hosting the Green Carpet!
This year, even the carpet at IIFA made an eco-fashion statement by going green and I was super thrilled to be invited to host!
This basically involves stopping all the celebrities on their way into IIFA Rocks and asking them a bunch of questions. Here’s what they said…
And because there were sooooo many, I had to vlog it in two parts! #NotComplaining
6. Selfies With the Stars
Ergo #letmetakeaselfie all day long!
As Priyanka Chopra once said, “lets take a selfie, selfie’s are more interesting!” And there you go, she was right 🙂 check out all my IIFA selfies here! (The funniest of course was when Sonakshi Sinha and I tried to take one and took a video selfie instead.) #StillNotComplaining
7. Aditi Rao Hydari’s Exceptional Style
The girl with the style IQ. Aditi Rao Hydari always looks fabulous, everywhere. In fact, the moment we saw her at the IIFA press con, we were in love. And then I got really excited that she was wearing Payal Khandwala because that’s whose skirt I wore to the green carpet! Great stylists I tell you 🙂 and thank you Mz. P!
For someone so petite, Aditi gets mega props from us for batting it out of the park every single time!
Aditi Rao Hyadari
Aditi Rao Hyadari in Sabyasachi
8. The Darling Deshmukhs!
These two are seriously SO cute that you almost want to kill them! But I love that they carry around this infectious energy of young love. #RelationshipGoals I tell ya. I also love that when I asked who plays good cop and who plays bad cop with Riaan, Genelia Deshmukh was like, “I’m always bad cop, always” and Riteish Deshmukh grinned and was like, “he’s allowed to do whatever he wants!”
Oh and then I bumped into Riteish Deshmukh and baby Riaan chilling in the coffee shop together! *Awww* #Winning
And obviously I had to take a selfie!
9. Watching DDD with Anupam (and Gulshan Grover!)
Um ya, so that happened! One of the perks of attending IIFA 2015 in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, was watching Dil Dhadakne Do with the cast! Priyanka Chopra, Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Rahul Bose & Anil Kapoor. Bonus? We sat between Gulshan Grover and Anupam Kher and that was utterly AWESOME!
Btw, Dil Dhadakne Do is an absolute must watch! The characters, the cruise, the dialogue, the music, the vibe, the freshness, the family and the dog. It’s all there, a quadruple dose! Priyanka Chopra is so adorable and vulnerable you want to hug her, Anushka Sharma looks hotter than she has ever looked before, Farhan Akhtar is the boyfriend we ALL wish we had and Ranveer Singh is unbelievable, new AND entirely amazing! Shefali Shah also nails the Mrs. Mehra angst right down to the button but the film belongs whole-heartedly to Anil Kapoor, who is BOSS – and I love him!!! Zoya Akhtar you’re a genius! So IF you haven’t see it yet you’re truly missing out. Go now go, I’ll hold the door.. 🙂
PS. Honorable mentions to Zarina Wahab for playing the quintessential mummy matriarch, Rahul Bose, that guy you never want to marry and Ridhima Sud & Vikrath Massey as the modern desi Romeo & Juliet! #CantWaitToWatchItOneMoreTime
10. Arjun Kapoor, My Bae 🙂
MissMalini and Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini & Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini & Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini & Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini & Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini & Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini and Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini and Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini and Arjun Kapoor
MissMalini and Arjun Kapoor
Arjun Kapoor is fast becoming one of my favourite Bollywood stars to interview, just because he’s so easy about it all… He’ll chill, he’ll chat, he’ll make you laugh and he doesn’t act like he’s doing you a huge favour either. (Nope, I’m not naming any names!) And we have this running joke now, that somehow I always end up doing my interviews with him in his hotel room and lo and behold here we go again!
PS. This is just a teaser, there’s a full cut coming soon to the IIFA YouTube channel and of course answers to all of your #21TwitterQs on mine! Don’t forget to click here to SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss that when it’s out 🙂
11. The Utter Cheesiness of Day 2!
So the Fashion Extravaganza was kind of a “live studio audience recording” for playback on Colors TV, hosted by Vivek Oberoi, Neha Dhupia and a Hero cycle! Now don’t judge me, but sometimes I watch Indian television just for the OTT-ness of it all. It’s in my blood, I can’t help it. So imagine my delight when this happened: Vivek Oberoi: “Your legs are like the Petronas Towers, Lisa.” Lisa Haydon: “Do you want to take the elevator up, Vivek?” Bahahaha!
But just like any good cheese platter is always served with wine, the fashion was on point, featuring shows by Gaurang Shah, Masaba Gupta and Rocky S. (My fave part of this was hanging out with the director crew who kept saying, “bhabiji ka show hai!” because Masaba has now practically married into the filmy fraternity! LOL! I also really enjoyed the Umraojaan soundtrack 🙂
12. The Food! *NomNomNom*
Contrary to popular belief, even fashion & Bollywood bloggers like to eat. In fact some of us live to eat! (I’m look at you Anushka.) So another mega highlight of this trip was the food! The Petronas Towers food court for me and the breakfast buffet and McDonald’s for us both. Can you say yummy with a capital YUM? 🙂 Even the breakfast at the airport in Colombo wasn’t half bad LOL and thank god for 4:00am Room service at the Renaissance, Kuala Lumpur!
13. My Wardrobe Genie
Before I left for KL my stylist extraordinaire Marvin D’Souza sorted out my outfits by day and night! This is probably the lightest I have ever packed! (Because I knew exactly what I was going to wear everyday – shoes, accessories the works. Did you see our glam trip travel tips btw? (And thank you Sapphire for all the bling bling!)
MissMalini & Marv
Turquoise & Gold dress
Payal Khandwala skirt
Turquoise & Gold top
Sonaakshi Raj bodysuit
Mayyur Girotra
14. My #geekchic arsenal!
Ever since I got this vlogging camera, life has become one big reality show! (Oh which reminds me, Season 2 of MissMalini’s World is also coming soon to TLC, yay! Stay tuned for deets!)
Meanwhile if you thought that’s ALL I travel with, guess again! Take a look at the whole shebang right here 🙂 with a few new gadgets on every trip for good measure.
15. My Pocket!
This is Anushka, she’s my Pocket Stylist (aka “Pocket!”) and she is all kinds of entertaining, particularly due to the fact that she very often breaks out into a wide-eyed “what do you mean?!” which makes it endlessly more entertaining to bug her 😛 On this trip she was my sanity and fellow McDonalds aficionado. She also did a quick hair rescue when I needed one so thank you Miss Pocket! Oh and of course she later admitted that the ONLY reason she was so excited to come to IIFA was to watch Dil Dhadakne Do with the cast! Oh fashion girls, you can laugh at them, but you can’t kill them 🙂
16. Hosting the Facebook booth
Now this was super cool! I got to introduce Bollywood’s finest to the Facebook booth! This meant that they could select a question from the touch screen and answer directly into the camera for all you lovely Facebookers to see! (There are a lot more videos coming soon in the run up to the final telecast in July so stay tuned.) For now here’s Anil Kapoor & Parineeti Chopra!
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17. The backstage vibe
Now THIS was something I was really curious to see! And it was really really special. In fact I cannot wait to see all the footage we got for the official IIFA YouTube channel as I caught Neha Dhupia, Bipasha Basu, Malaika Arora Khan, Deepika Padukone, Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana, Arjun Kapoor and loads more as they were hopping on and off stage for performances and hosting, WOO-HOO! Here’s just a teensie peak of that on my vlog because obviously that was SUPER exclusive to the IIFA channel, but yay I got to host! 🙂 Oh and I got some fun gossip for you too!
18. Deepika Padukone’s kiss!
Ok, not only did Deepika Padukone tell me that she’s a “big fan” of my blog, mid my Malaika Arora Khan interview (which I was doing kneeling by the sofa because Malaika’s swan like dress needed the room!) DP bent down to kiss my on the cheek and gave me a full sunshine smile as she walked by! And later she chatted with me too, even though her minders were trying to sweep her away!
I won’t lie, that totally made my day and my smarting toes no longer complained about the hours I had spent in high heels! #GirlCrush
19. The hosts
You’ve probably seen the flood of love and applause for Ranveer and Arjun as the hosts of the night. So let me add my own! move over Karan-Arjun, Bollywood, tere bete aagaye!!! Arjun aur Ranveer! #NuffSaid, now watch the show because I’m told Arjun told a special knock knock joke that I told him in our interview, because it had the right “filmy texture” how cool is that! 😛 #WinningSomeMore
Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone
Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor
Ranveer, Arjun, Hrithik and Tiger
Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor
Without giving away too much, please also look out for a hilarious DDLJ sketch, one liners to the max, a Tiger Shroff dance off and Ranveer getting down on one knee for Deepika!
PS. Did anyone else think their outfit twinning was on purpose? Glitter sequins always. Always glitter sequins!
20. Hrithik Roshan’s power packed performance
Oh boom. Or shall I say Bang? IIFA closed with a performance so high energy that even the hosts said something to the effect of, “ab iske baad humme kuch kehna bhi nahi chahiye!” I also love that after the show Hrithik went backstage to thank Shiamak Davar and the dancers. Something he apparently always does 🙂
He was also the host of the after party that which understandably raged till 9:00am considering the show only wrapped at 4:00am!
21. One Love.
And finally I wanted to share something that struck me while I was chatting with Farhan Akhtar backstage and he was animatedly telling me about the high octane chaos and energy that exists behind-the-scenes for every show like this. I realised with out a doubt that night that the filmy fraternity (and most deffy Bollywood’s gen next) are just one Big Fat Filmy family. (Just like the DDD Mehras!) They laugh, they cry, they sing, they dance… and mostly they love each other and do everything they can to entertain us! (Totally get those Hum Saath Saath Hain vibes now!) What’s not to love? 🙂 #BollywoodForever
So thank you Wizcraft & IIFA for this awesome experience, I hope to relive it all over again in 2016!#Bangistaan
See the rest of our comprehensive coverage IIFA 2015 LIVE & Behind-The-Scenes from IIFA 2015!