Moment of truth and Gabbana suits

Rajeev Khandelwal’s career is on a roll. As the host of Sach Ka Saamna, a desi version of Moment of Truth, on Star Plus, Khandelwal quips that he enjoys it when designers and makeup artists fuss over his look on the show.

“Left on my own I would love to hang out in jeans and comfortable tees. I’ve always been the boy-next-door because of my casual look,” he says, taking a break from the shooting of Sach Ka Saamna. Though he was never into “brands”, Khandelwal says that over time and because of his professional requirements, he now finds that there are some brands that he just can’t do without. “Guess and Pepe,” he says, “have the best fit in jeans and since I wear jeans very often I don’t have a problem investing in these brands.” To finish a casual yet chic look, Khandelwal prefers Calvin Klein tees.

The actor’s dressing style, in fact, could be a pointer to a smart-casual style for any young, urban male. While Guess jeans typically cost Rs 5,000, teaming them with Calvin Klein T-shirts will cost you Rs 1,320 more.

Being a sportsperson (Khandelwal plays tennis and works out regularly), he has a lot of shoes and sportswear from Adidas, Reebok and Nike. “Adidas is a personal favourite,” he adds. In fact, Adidas has recently introduced Fresh Impact, a special edition fragrance for the Indian summer this year, at Rs 325. Reebok, on its part, has introduced new technology in running shoes. Called Hexride, these shoes (for which cricketer MS Dhoni and actor Bipasha Basu have appeared together in a commercial) start at a price range of Rs 6,599. Nike has introduced the new water-resistant armband that gives runners information on distance, pace, time and calories burned. The new version has a screen with a white background to enhance visibility. It will be a while before it comes to India but it’s priced at $59.

Interestingly, Khandelwal, despite being an avid watch collector, doesn’t wear any timepiece. “I am not into accessories at all and even on Sach Ka Saamna I’m not wearing watches or other accessories,” he says. However, Khandelwal has a collection of a lot of sports watches including Swatch, Tag Heuer, Guess, Nike and Casio, besides watches from Christian Dior. Dior’s Christal Chronograph water resistant watch in black dial with pyramid cut sapphire crystals and stainless steel buttons, by the way, costs $2,500 easily. Khandelwal should dash off to Japan where Tag Heuer’s just released a limited edition of its very popular Carrera watch, set in a mother of pearl dial. Our personal suggestion would be to have Khandelwal sport trendy timepieces on the show.

He sports Dolce & Gabbana on the show (Rs 55,000 upwards). Rahul Agasti, Khandelwal’s personal stylist and Priya of Synergy have designed his look on the show.

Khandelwal also loves his Honda CRV that comes for Rs 25 lakh, his new Macbook Pro (Rs 1 lakh), his cell phone, Nokia E 71, priced at Rs 18,000, and his iPod, which is complete with a docking station from Bose. Interestingly, Khandelwal collects juicers and on his last trip to Goa ended up serving fresh juice to other guests in his hotel!