The stories about a particular diva’s strange ways are innumerable. She models herself after the reclusive Greta Garbo, and is considered one of Bollywood’s classic beauties. Throughout our meeting at her office eight years ago, her eyes kept darting to the mirrored wall opposite her. Suddenly, there was deafening silence. The star was staring at her reflection. “What do you see?” she asked me in an imperious tone, pointing at her reflection. “A confident woman?” Not waiting for an answer, she carried on. “Maybe. An articulate woman? Maybe. An independent woman? Perhaps. But beautiful…?”   She paused, dramatically. “Yes,” I murmured dutifully. “No!” she said, leaping from her seat. She was clearly fishing for a more emphatic compliment. I could hardly be blamed for sounding less than enthusiastic – grey roots were showing under a bad dye job, and she had on no make-up. This encounter was less surreal than the next, when she conversed with me from the other side of her bungalow gate. For 15-odd minutes, we discussed a photo shoot across her wooden slab of an entrance – the actress didn’t allow visitors into her home. It wouldn’t have been so embarrassing if her bungalow wasn’t on a sea-facing promenade, where amused passersby stopped to watch a grown man talking to a gate.

In this era of stars who tweet about their gym sessions and wardrobe acquisitions, it’s hard not to feel a strange fondness for those eccentricities that are the stuff of movie legends. Yesteryear stars guarded their privacy, cultivated an aura and conducted their lives pretty much as they pleased. Is there really anything we don’t know about Vivek Oberoi, Priyanka Chopra or Lara Dutta?