Shobhaa De: 'Nari Hira Was A Superstar'

Shobhaa De pays tribute to another legend who passed into the ages on August 23, publisher, producer and entrepreneur Nari Hira.

Shobha Rajadhyaksha, tall, svelte, beautiful, walked into her boss's office. Determined.

She had been a top, highly paid model who had quit the camera to turn copywriter, a job that paid her a pittance.

She thought it would challenge her, but she was to, put it mildly, bored.

Nari Hira, instead, offered her a new job. That of editor of a new film magazine. One that would break the clutter in the movie reporting scene, not kowtowing to the stars but making them take notice with their snappy, no-holds-barred content.

That magazine, which turned 51 in January this year, was Stardust.

It created a celebrity publisher, Nari Hira, a celebrity editor, Shobha Rajadhyaksha (now Shobhaa De) and a new definition and a new lexicon for film journalism.

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The screaming headline, a scandalous question about India's then heartthrob -- "He was bigger than all the Khans put together," De tells Savera R Someshwar/Rediff.com -- in an age when details about the stars' personal lives were skimpy and there no social media to bridge the gap was enough to make sure that the edition -- published in January 1971 -- made waves.

The scoop, says De, was Nari Hira's.

After that, almost every cover story packed a punch. The Hira-Shobha team went on to do things differently. They were bold. They were irreverent. And their ideas worked.

Nothing deterred them, not even when the stars got angry with Stardust.

There were also, smiles De, times that the magazine's arrogance would get taken down a peg or two.

He was probably the biggest superstar that India has ever seen. But in 1975 -- as India grappled with the Emergency -- a most unexpected battle took place between the media and Amitabh Bachchan. It was war between the towering actor and those who wrote about him.

De explains what happened and how peace was finally brokered.

As for Stardust, it simply went from strength to strength.

Garam Dharam.

Shotgun Sinha.

Idli Malini.

Stardust gave stars chatpata monikers. Some of them loved it. Some didn't. But did that matter to Mr Hira and Shobha?

When Mr Hira threw his annual bash, it too became news. And revealed even more secrets about the stars.

Like with all good things, this partnership too came an end.

Today, the magazine's legacy is lost.

Stardust has had new editors over the years but Mr Hira and Shobha remained firm friends.

After Stardust, Shobha took over as the editor of Society, Mr Hira's second magazine.

Much after she left, Mr Hira featured her on its cover and on the cover of Savvy, another magazine from his stable, Magna Publishing.

The tragedy today is that man who created Stardust is forgotten. Ask young journalists, even those who report on the movie world, today and no one knows who Mr Nari Hira is.

But he was, says Shobhaa De, "a superstar with a swashbuckling movie star like personality."

And she will always remember this "absolutely fantastic, dishy, dapper, sophisticated, gorgeous man."