Face Off with Cyrus Merchant

Married?

"No. I have thought of getting married but I have a very high level of self-sufficiency and unless I am struck by true love I won’t get into it." n So what has this self-contained man been doing for a living?

He is a celebrity journalist who `stumbled’ into writing while he was holidaying in his ancestral home in Ahmedabad. "Later, I was at The Cellar, and I wrote an article about it I didn’t like the place and thought it was too congested and smoky. On an impulse I showed it to Shobha De who was the editor of a magazine called Celebrity. She loved it and asked me to try my hand at glamour journalism."

And what happened next is stuff dreams are made of.

He landed a job with Bhavna Somaiya at Movie, who pampered him with pizzas and ice creams. But that couldn’t lure him for too long and soon he moved on to the mother of all gossip mags Stardust. "Nari Hira read my article on a flight to New York and I joined Stardust in 1986."

What was it like grilling Bollywood’s hottest stars?

"My personality didn’t suit the Stardust brand of writing. I wanted to look beneath the glamour of these celebrities. So, I did some sensitive and off-beat interviews which are now considered very popular." And in case you missed his articles, he starts reeling off what he considers his many achievements: "My most memorable story has to be the one in which Aamir Khan introduced his wife to the press and public for the first time he had denied his marriage after Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak made him a teen sensation." Rajesh Khanna broke his eight-year-long silence and gave him an interview; so did Mumtaz when she made her disastrous comeback in the late ’80s. Another coup, insists Cyrus, was a story about the Tina and Anil Ambani romance followed by the grand wedding.

Then he shifted focus from film stars to socialites.

"I have interviewed everyone from Imran Khan, Goldie Hawn to Parmeshwar Godrej for Afternoon. I did what is now known as society journalism several years ago. It was a behind-the-mask of famous personalities. I also did features on celebrity homes including the Damanias, Zaveris and the Birlas." Well, well, so Cyrus is the culprit behind this brand of yellow journalism. Now that he’s owned up, we know who to blame!

Then how did he manage to change name-dropping to a first-name basis relationship?

"I already knew people in that circle and that made it much easier. I had friends in the modelling and celebrity circuit I used to meet people like Yash Birla and Jay Mehta on a regular basis. And after a particular point the people I interviewed ceased to be mere subjects because of the way I approached them." The man is rather immodest and he believes: `Cyrus thinks, therefore he Is’.

His high opinion of his thought prowess then led him to a spiritual column.

"I told Behram (Contractor) that I wanted to do something that hasn’t been done in India before — a column straight from the heart. I called it `The Sunday Sermon’. It was a very serious exercise about loving, losing, self esteem, self-worth, hurt, death and things that happen to us." And like all claims of `first of it’s kind’, the tom-tommers insist that it was a huge success. So, Cyrus says, people lapped up his spiritual notes and Malabar Hill housewives started to regularly fax copies to each other.

And then social fame, he claims, struck again and none other than good buddy Parmesh asked him to write a book. "The column was so popular that I decided it had to be a book. And Parmeshwar Godrej pushed me into it — she said I had to move on and write my own book. I didn’t want to take the lazy approach and merely compile all the articles. So in June, I started working on the book and this month it is over."

So how is the book different?

"It is not just a book, it is my way of talking to people. It is more of a buddy thing — very personal and informal. I am articulating things you already know. We already know that there are areas in our life that need healing but we neglect the real core of living. And the USP is that it’s the first of its kind in India." And since it’s a buddy-buddy thing you can be sure that the pages will be littered with names of the celebs that Cyrus so loves to know.

So is Cyrus just the mouthpiece of the stars or does he have an independent approach to life?

"I believe in God, goodness and hard work. The universe will have to change its equation if these three things don’t work for you." And you need a little help from your friends!

What is this philosopher-thinker-writer most likely to say?

(Long pause) "Be happy, be with God."And least likely?

(Another long pause) "Lies, if that is an answer."