Mumbai paparazzi arrives with Hurley

‘‘It’s very unfortunate the kind of attention a private matter has attracted,’’ Nayar, a globe-trotting textile magnate, told The Indian Express.

That private matter has made international news, thanks to his celebrity-ridden arm-candy — Liz Hurley — who makes tabloids a million pounds everytime she sneezes, makes a dud film or has a baby.

Nayar is recuperating in his Mumbai residence. He has just been in a skiing accident in Switzerland, where he broke an arm and a leg.

‘‘I’ve got screws in my shoulder and leg,” he chuckles. Nayar and his girlfriend have had journos follow them at private parties, social events, even shopping sprees. But all of this in England, the home of the tabloid. That’s why Nayar thought that Mumbai would be kinder to him and his nouvelle belle.

But he was in for a rude shock when they were spotted at a cosy lunch, ending their privacy. It unfolded like this. Nayar brings his girlfriend to India. In the two days they spend in Mumbai, they decide to have a quiet lunch in a nondescript corner of one of the Oberoi Hotel’s restaurants.

Nayar’s mother, Gunnar, makes a reservation requesting privacy. A table is booked. The mother goes down first to okay the scene. It’s quiet enough. Only then, Nayar and Hurley pussyfoot downstairs to the restaurant. But by then, photographers have been tipped off and they wait tirelessly outside to get some photo-ops. Reporters are even informed of the menu the couple feasted on — sui mai dim sum and mango and onion spring rolls!

Nayar is caught unawares as he leaves through the side door. Hurley and Gunnar try to escape the desi papparazzi, but are forced to leave from the main entrance.

It’s common enough in the west, but the Indian media have never known to be celeb-hounders. Nayar had been contemplating bringing his girlfriend to meet his friends and family for a while.

‘‘He was wondering if it was still too early, if some amount of media attention had died down,’’ reveals a friend.

Most of the attention Nayar has drawn has been rather unkind towards him. He’s been made out to be the bad guy, who left his wife uninformed of an affair with an international supermodel-cum-actress.

There have been stories about his drug and alcohol abuse and of him leaving his wife as she couldn’t have a baby.

Other reports alleged she hated living in India and one even said that Nayar couldn’t be trusted because he wore a Nehru jacket!

‘‘I don’t care what people write about this entire situation,’’ he says.

‘‘By principle, I won’t speak to the media.’’ Nayar has maintained a dignified silence on his love affair with Hurley, in India as well as the west.

‘‘He’s always fought shy of publicity,’’ a close friend reveals.

‘‘He studied at Wharton and has moved with the creme de la creme of high society, like the Rothschilds.’’ Nayar doesn’t need to cash in on the media hoopla. He could have easily cleaned the slate for himself if he did agree to offer his side of the story, but he prefers to exercise refrain.

‘‘He is actually a very nice guy,’’ a friend adds. ‘‘Marriages do break up and someone is always left behind. The truth is that Arun’s and Valentina’s (Italian model Valentina Pedroni) marriage had been over for a while, they had been separated for months.’’