I've to be careful to not let Bollywood's seductive charm take over my life: Chetan Bhagat

Selected by Fast Company magazine as one of the 100 most creative people in business, author of bestsellers tells Subhash K Jha the honour would help him promote creativity and innovation

You have just been selected by the magazine Fast Company as one of the 100 most creative people in business today. Your thoughts?
I am delighted. The two things I value most, influence and creativity, are exactly the things I have been recognised globally for. First the Time magazine list and now this one, I am surprised that they noticed my work while I'm based in India.

Do you like seeing your creativity as a business?
I do think creativity needs to be commercialised somewhat, to make it sustainable. If I could not earn anything from my creativity, I would still be working at the bank, thus curtailing my creative stuff. I feel commercialising creativity is also a creative act by itself, and one has to do it with grace.

How much does this honour mean to you?
It means a lot to me, as I want to promote Indian creativity and innovation. This will help give me credibility for that cause.

This is the accidental controversy of my life: Minissha Lamba

Minissha Lamba sounding cheerful, relieved & grateful on the morning after her trauma on Mumbai airport, speaks to Subhash K Jha.

Minissha, what happened?
It was just minor discrepancy in my papers for the jewellery. I’m just so shocked by the monstrous proportions that the incident acquired.

Is it true you were detained the whole night at the airport?
I was detained for sixteen hours. Which, if I may say so, was completely unnecessary in a case like this. However if my papers were not in order because of a minor technicality then the authorities were totally within their rights to detain me. We’ve to go by the book. No complaints about it.

Did you really have undeclared diamonds worth 40 lakh rupees?
Definitely not that much. The value was much much less. I can’t tell you how much because it involves a legality. I had the paperwork to authenticate it.

Bittu Late Than Never - Ranveer Can't Leave Bittu Behind

There is more excitement in Delhi for the shooting of Maneesh Sharma’s Ricky Bahl Versus The Ladies than expected. Apparently Ranveer Singh keeps slipping into his character Bittu’s accent from his debut film Band Baaja Baraat, leading to much amusement and some annoyance among the unit.

Ranveer Singh’s character Ricky Bahl in Ricky Bahl Versus The Ladies is actually based on someone the writer Habib Faizal knew in his growing days in Delhi. And Ricky Bahl is not the only hero in a Yashraj Film to be based on the same character.

Abhishek Bachchan in Shaad Ali’s Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom which Habib Faizal wrote was also based on the same character and even had the same name.

Habib doesn’t deny the similarities, “Yes, Abhishek’s character in Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom was named Ricky Thukral. Ranveer I’ve named Rick Bahl. Are they similar? They might be. They are both creations of the same mind. I grew up surrounded by Buntys and Rickys in Delhi. It’s important to use the spoken language that one hears around oneself for the characters. ”

While writing Ranveer’s second character Habib made a concerted effort to make them sound different. “Ranveer’s Bittu and Ricky both have their linguistic peculiarities. They both speak the way I think they should.

I often see the characters in our films speaking a language that no one speaks any more. I can guarantee you that Ranveer will sound as conversational and real in Ricky Bahl Versus The Ladies as he did in Band Baaja Baraat. ”

Though Habib has give Ricky Bahl his own speech patterns Ranveer is still somewhere stuck on Bittu in Band Baaja Baraat. It was hoped that the rigorous workshops in the last few weeks would flush Bittu out of Ranveer.

It got awkward with Deepika, after her Koffee With Karan: Ranbir Kapoor

Ranbir Kapoor, who features on the cover of this month's GQ, has spoken about Deepika Padukone and Sonam Kapoor. Here's an extract from the accompanying interview...

On being a womaniser: "Right now it's like I'm being linked left, right and centre. I open the paper and I'm actually dreading it sometimes.

Jesus Christ, you know? I'm 28 years old, I work hard, I'm fairly successful at my job and I'm attracted to women."

On Deepika: "With Deepika it was just kind of strange, because after she gave certain interviews post our break-up or that episode on Koffee With Karan, it got really awkward.

Deepika must be having some angst against me, which she probably took out through this interview. But I still respect her, I still like her, I still feel she's a really nice girl."

On Sonam: "I really have nothing to say about because she was just my co-star and I think she said a few things which she really didn't need to."

On relationships: "I don't believe in casual relationships. I don't believe in one-night stands. But I'm not really looking to date someone."