Almost the first question that one asks any fashion designer these days is: “Who’s your showstopper?” It may have started out with just a couple of designers with Bollywood friends looking to garner sufficient media attention for their shows, but these days every designer manages to rope in a Tinsel-towner to be their showstopper. From Shah Rukh Khan to Minissha Lamba— almost every Bollywood denizen has obliged their designer friends and walked the runway.

Ask any actor why they do it and the instant answer is friendship. When Salman Khan’s charity foundation Being Human made its runway debut, most of Bollywood’s leading men like Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan and

Akshay Kumar obliged the actor by walking the ramp—the reticent Aamir Khan went so far as to be the showstopper and give an encore-and-a-half when urged by an applauding public. Govinda, who was part of the celebrity crowd at the Being Human show on Tuesday, explains, “We would not do it for commercial reasons. We did it because alman, a good friend, requested us. Also, it’s for a good cause.”

Neil Nitin Mukesh agrees with Govinda but adds that sometimes, when one’s movie is up for release, one has to do a lot to publicise the project. This involves walking the ramp for a designer. “At IIFA awards, I walked the ramp for Manav Gangwani. That we did because Jail’s release was around the corner.” Of course, there are actors, like Bipasha Basu, Celina Jaitly and John Abraham, who get paid for it. Some designers stress it’s less about grabbing eyeballs any which way than about finding suitable brand representation. Gangwani, who had actor and good friend Zayed Khan walk the ramp for him at the HDIL India Couture Week on Thursday, says, “

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