A STAR IS BORN BRENDAN FERNANDES' VERY BIG YEAR

Few artists on the global scene are as multi-talented and inventive as the Goan-Canadian Brendan Fernandes. The 40-year-old rising star, who works at the intersection of dance and the visual arts, had a spectacular 2019, including a headline slot at the prestigious Whitney Biennale. Last year, he debuted a witty online work that riffs on our current Zoom-dominated reality. Vivek Menezes tells you why this creative powerhouse should be firmly on your radar

NO FILTER

Rajkummar Rao delivered two superlative back-to-back performances last year – as a diffident school PE teacher in Hansal Mehta’s Chhalaang and an endearing small-town lover in Ludo, reminding us that few actors can do what he does. Arun Janardhan spoke to the versatile actor who stars in this month’s much anticipated Netflix release The White Tiger, about his craft and what’s next for him

WRITTEN IN THE STARS

From the easy vibe of his flagship restaurant, Spago, Beverly Hills, to being caterer-elect of the Oscars for 25 years running, Wolfgang Puck unwittingly cracked the formula to being Hollywood’s favourite chef early on

THE MYSTIQUE OF MIRAZUR

Chef Mauro Colagreco helms the reigning No 1 restaurant on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants List. He was also voted the world’s No 1 chef by the esteemed Gault & Millau guide this year. We had a tête-à-tête with the culinary superstar as part of GQ India’s first virtual Food and Drink Festival

PRESCRIPTION FOR DISASTER

The story of hydroxychloroquine is a strange and twisted tale pitting power against knowledge. Let’s not repeat it

GLOBAL POP ICON: MALUMA

From Medellín to the world, Maluma’s ascent to global pop superstardom has been stratospheric. His tracks are dance-floor anthems across the planet, with 55 million followers on Instagram who watch his every move. He’s as adventurous with his style as he is with his music, an evangelist for the power of cross-cultural expression and collaboration. With a clear eye on Asia in 2021, it’s just onwards and upwards for this “farm boy” from Colombia.

CHIVAS PRESENTS ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR: NIKHIL KAMATH

This Bengaluru native dropped out of school at 14 to play chess professionally. Three years later, he started trading stocks. By the age of 23, he’d launched Zerodha along with his elder brother Nithin Kamath: A future-forward platform that effectively hauled the Indian stock market into the 21st century. Zerodha has grown into a unicorn and is now one of India’s hottest companies, making him the country’s youngest billionaire at 34. With the asset management company True Beacon, his next disruption lies in the hedge funds space. Soft-spoken and introspective, Kamath represents the ambition and dexterity of an upwardly-mobile generation bullish about their prospects in an increasingly digital world.

FLIP THE SCRIPT

How to turn 2020 on its head, and prep for a brand new year

JEEP PRESENTS THE HUMANITARIAN AWARD: SONU SOOD

Back in the spring of 2020, as the pandemic paralysed human activity around the world, one man sprung into action. Sood supported everyone he could, from the very beginning of the lockdown: Helping thousands of migrant workers reach their homes, transporting stranded students from overseas and opening the doors of his Juhu hotel for medical personnel. The good work doesn’t stop: He is now in the process of building a platform to skill and connect informal workers with job opportunities. As they say, you don’t need a cape to be a superhero.

FASHION ICON: SIR PAUL SMITH

Sir Paul Smith is a fashion industry legend, a menswear maestro who created his eponymous label and grew it into a multi-million dollar empire. Although, now venerated around the globe for his impeccable taste, Smith’s roots are humble: Born into a working-class family in a provincial English town; opening a small shop in Nottingham where he first began designing and getting noticed; and on to Paris where he first showed his menswear collection in 1976. Since then, the label has developed into a powerhouse fashion brand, with a cult following in Japan, and a global fan base that reveres his quirky twists on classic tailoring. Over the decades his signature multicoloured stripes have found fans among aesthetes everywhere – including Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford and David Bowie. The Paul Smith brand celebrates its 50th anniversary this year: Half a century of pioneering style, independence and creativity. And to mark the occasion, Sir Paul is doing what all true legends do: Giving back, by working through his foundation to empower and enrich the creative class across the planet.

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR: HANSAL MEHTA

Mehta’s powerful storytelling has always brought to life the humour and humanity behind headline-making events and figures. With notable films like Shahid, Aligarh and Omertà, he has chronicled the shifting contours of Indian society. Long a favourite of the critics, he impressed audiences far and wide this year with the masterful Scam1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. He also forayed into the mainstream masala space like never before with Chhalaang. With 23 years in the industry behind him, he stands at the cusp of a new decade and phase in his career. Among India’s most acclaimed film-makers, this is Hansal Mehta 4.0.

COAT TALES

Wonder how we select the season’s sexiest outerwear? Oh, the lengths we go to

Inside Beirut's Broken Heart

After the catastrophic blast of August 4 – one of the largest recorded explosions in human history – Beirut was coming to terms with an unbearable trauma. In the days that followed, Nasri Atallah grappled with his country’s past, present and future

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

You’ve heard it before: Social media is addictive and manipulative and rewiring your brain every day. But the truth is, it is possible to break out of the tech cage, if you subtract the hyperbole and induce incremental changes. Going cold turkey never worked for anyone

THE ARCHIVISTS OF ASSAGAO

Meet Chef Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar and Shalini Krishan, the duo behind the country’s most quietly revolutionary culinary landmark: Goa’s Edible Archives

LOVE, ACTUALLY

In its new season, The Crown tackles the saga of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer. Julie Miller catches up with actors Emma Corrin and Josh O’Connor about portraying one of the most famous (and ill-fated) couples of the 20th century

JUST MALUMA

With a superhit album in 2020, Papi Juancho, the Latin pop star from Medellín caps a decade of massive highs, collaborations and making music that moves the world. But Maluma, also known for his eclectic taste in fashion, is just getting started on the next phase of this ascent, a journey of exploring languages and cultures – beginning with a plan to conquer Asia in 2021

High Stakes

Fintech wizkid and the founder of Zerodha, Nithin Kamath, has parlayed a personal passion for trading into building the country’s leading broking firm in the span of a decade. And now he’s overseeing a period of explosive growth for the company in the midst of a pandemic, thanks to a new generation of first-time investors. Arun Janardhan gets the low-down

Big UP

Why you need to bulk up before you can shred

NO Reservations

In Ravi Patel’s jocular, ever-expanding universe, any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely intentional. It is also a means to find answers to the big questions, discover parts unknown and build community. The American actor-creator of Indian origin weighs in on his extraordinary journey so far – from an investment banker to a stint in Wonder Woman 1984 – and his future capers on the road to world domination

Covid-19 Has Not Killed Off The Office

The truth is, it died years ago

Nuclear Fusion

Acquaint yourself with the world-melding sounds of Yanchan, the Canadian hip-hop artist of Sri Lankan descent, who is drawing new energy from an ancient instrument

SUBLIME

When he became the first person of Arab descent to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, Rami Malek had climbed the mountain. Now, with a starring role in an iconic franchise, he s̓standing on one summit and staring at a whole new peak

FLYING SOLO

For three decades, Aasif Mandvi, the British-American actor-creator of Indian origin, has worked hard to mainstream the immigrant experience in Hollywood and theatre. He’s played the skeptic, the cynic, the empiricist, the debunker, the myth-buster. Now, as he learns his way around fatherhood, and returns to an ever-more woke workplace, Mandvi takes stock of the world as it was, is and as he’d like for it to be

STRAIGHT SHOOTER

The world is in flux. And investors are on the hunt. Some countries will rise, others will lag. Powerhouse investor and writer Ruchir Sharma has refined his formula for what lies around the corner