It’s Bollywood’s best-kept secret: the shindig behind the publicity photo-session, the cost of which has mounted from scores of thousands to lakhs. An indie film, okay a short one albeit, could be squeezed out of the constantly soaring moolah invested in a single shoot – usually before the release of a star’s film.

And once in a tinsel moon, it’s for magazine covers (not many left there, though, but for the Asian editions of fashion glammies), come spring, fall (do we have one?) and winter fashion specials.

Quickly, I may tell you an A-list star at such shoots has been traditionally enriched by his or her hair-stylist, makeup-person, designer and car chauffer. But for the designer, the other worthies have to be paid cushy sums, an extra give-or-beat-it ritual besides the star salary coughed up by the film producer.