Raya Reboot: Aaron Aziz and other celebs usher in Hari Raya with new beginnings

SINGAPORE – With Hari Raya coming up, The Straits Times checks in with celebrities on their big post-Covid-19 celebrations and plans in 2023.

Aaron Aziz puts KL Gangster controversy to rest, coming home to Singapore for Raya

For the first time in four years, actor Aaron Aziz will be celebrating Hari Raya in Singapore.

It will be a bittersweet affair, very different from the last time the Malaysia-based star was home for Hari Raya back in 2019.

Some family members will not be with him – his mother died in 2020 and his son, 19-year-old Danish Anaqi, who is studying in Japan, cannot travel because of exams.

Hari Raya also comes a month after the 47-year-old was

controversially axed from upcoming film The Original Gangster by Malaysian director Syamsul Yusof

over concerns about his “age, weight and health”.

Aaron took to Instagram to defend himself, saying that he had trained intensively for the role, as the director requested, but the latter had refused to meet to discuss the issue.

Aaron played the titular role in the previous two KL Gangster films (2011 and 2013), both of which were box-office hits.

In an interview with The Straits Times, he says that he considers the matter closed and wants to put it behind him.

He is looking forward to spending quality time with his family in Singapore, including with his mother-in-law, who recently underwent heart surgery, and his stepfather.

“Hari Raya to me is all about getting together, not just with your main family but also with extended family members,” says the actor, who holds the title of Dato’, an honorific conferred by the Sultan of Pahang in 2017.

His festive break will be brief as he, his manager-wife and fashion entrepreneur Diyana Halik, 41, and daughters Dwi Ariana, 17, and Dahlia Arissa, 13, plan to head back to Malaysia a couple of days after Hari Raya.

It is a busy period for him. During the fasting month, he and Diyana operated bazaar stalls at Singapore Expo and Geylang Serai, selling items such as hijabs and fragrances. They also travelled to Cambodia for charity work.

Filming for an upcoming police movie Sheriff, in which he will reprise his gangster role, will begin soon. He is also set to star in several other films, including 5 Lions, a crime and underworld-themed flick which he also directs.

“I don’t play only gangster roles, I played a gay man in Suamiku Lelaki Pendosa,” he says. The role in the drama series won him Best Actor at Malaysian award show Anugerah Drama Sangat 2023.

Still, he is best known for action roles, which have taken a toll on his body.

A bad fall while filming his own stunts on the first KL Gangster film 12 years ago led to chronic back pain. He suffers from cervical spondylosis, an age-related degeneration of the spinal bones and discs in one’s neck. A magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed that he also has schwannoma, a benign tumour of the nerve sheath.

His doctor has advised surgery, which he is considering. In the meantime, he takes prescribed painkillers.

“I think I’m doing fine,” he says. “Doing my favourite exercises like boxing and mixed-martial arts keeps me motivated and gives me ‘semangat’ (Malay for spirit).”

Syarif bounces back after losing half a million due to cafe closure

At the end of 2022, singer, actor and food and beverage (F&B) entrepreneur Syarif closed down his cafe, Missus, just six months after it opened.

The grilled cheese sandwich joint in Hamilton Road was a hit and drew crowds, but buckled under rising overhead costs and manpower issues. Trying to keep the business afloat took a toll on his mental health, and he ended up losing about half a million dollars.

“Those six months were really something I don’t wish anyone to go through. Anxiety was really foreign to me. I thought that I was in a hole and couldn’t get out. But, thankfully, there is now closure,” recounts Syarif, whose full name is Ahmad Syarifullah Ahmad Soribah.

Today, the 33-year-old is in a better place. He has sold off his cafe set-up to F&B management company The Black Hole Group.

He is looking forward to celebrate Hari Raya with his wife, co-business owner and former Singapore Idol contestant Malaque Mahdaly, 33, and their two young children, Selma Malika, seven, and Umar Nael, five.

The couple have been busy running their two other food kiosk businesses – churros joint Chulop! By The Syarifs and Boms & Buns, which specialises in choux puffs and cinnamon buns, both in Upper Changi Road.

The month of Ramadan, which precedes Hari Raya, has seen business spike 30 to 50 per cent. This is expected to continue throughout the Hari Raya season, which lasts a month.

The first day of Hari Raya, which falls on April 22, will be hectic. With Singapore out of the pandemic mode, the family of four plan to do a lot more visiting – up to five homes in a day. That is more than what they have done in the recent Covid-19-stricken years, but a far cry from the nine homes a day they used to hit, pre-pandemic.

“I think I like it that way because it’s quality rather than quantity, we really get to engage in conversation with our family members,” he says, adding that he will also invite family and close friends over to his home for cheese-platter gatherings.

Hari Raya in 2023 will be especially meaningful as it marks the end of the inaugural Ramadan fast for both his children. “This is the first time that they fully understand what this whole month is about. They have something to work towards, a day to celebrate.”

It will also mark the last time they celebrate the occasion at their flat in Punggol, which they will vacate soon to move to a new one in Kembangan, closer to their food kiosk outlets in East Village.

Running businesses means that Syarif has barely any time to focus on his music. He first came to fame as one-half of hip-hop/pop duo Sleeq with his cousin Alif. Popular in Singapore and Malaysia, the duo split up in 2015 to focus on their respective solo careers.

He has not done a concert since his 2019 performance in Esplanade and his last single, Cinta Yang Tertulis, was released in 2020.

But he says he scratches the musical itch by posting videos of himself doing cover songs occasionally.

He took a break from acting in 2020 during the pandemic to focus on his businesses, but is now open to taking on television roles again if the right offer comes along.

His past roles include a starring stint in award-winning Suria dramatic thriller Kultus (2019), which was filmed in New York.

“I’ve been focusing on the businesses, but now everything is pretty much on autopilot because I’ve a stable and great team.”

Chef Bob will have 50 guests at his house on Hari Raya

This coming Hari Raya will be a harried affair for celebrity chef Shahrizal Salleh, better known as Chef Bob.

For the first time, both immediate and extended family members will congregate at his Pasir Ris flat.

“I think I can expect around 50 guests throughout the whole day,” the 43-year-old estimates.

So what does a famous chef serve house guests?

“I don’t cook for Hari Raya because I do so much cooking for work, it’s tiring. So I will cater food from the restaurants I work with,” says the brand ambassador for The Landmark restaurant in Victoria Street and Royal Palm @ Orchid Country Club. He helps them come up with recipes, and often makes guest appearances on cooking shows on TV channel Suria.

The spread, he says, usually includes classics such as rendang, sayur lodeh and sambal udang. He will also serve his homemade cookies that come in sweet and savoury flavours, such as red velvet and sambal udang.

The chef and his wife, dental therapist Kamisah Khamis, 45, and son Umar Shahrizal, nine, will also be making their rounds to relatives’ and friends’ homes during the Hari Raya season.

What he is hoping to nosh on are his favourite Hari Raya snacks, specifically kueh makmur, a traditional Malay peanut snack. “It’s very hard to find good kueh makmur. The outer layer needs to be intact yet crumbly, and the inside, the peanut, needs to be coarse and crunchy,” he says.

He is a fan of handmade kueh, eschewing mass-produced, factory-made ones.

In recent years, he has made headlines for exchanging festive cookies and cooking pastes with his neighbour, an elderly Chinese woman, during Chinese New Year and Hari Raya. The videos of these exchanges which he posts on social media are widely shared.

This year will be no different. “It’s a time-honoured tradition for me and my followers on social media are already asking me what I will give her this year,” says the chef, who started cooking at his parents’ cafe at Katong Mall when he was still in school.

In the past weeks, his new stall at Kampong Glam’s Ramadan bazaar has been receiving rave reviews. Called Banh Banh, it sells his spicy version of Vietnamese banh mi, which includes unorthodox ingredients such as chinchalok and Thai green chilli sauce, served in either a baguette or with buttered pilaf rice.

“This is the first time I’m making banh mi and the first time I’m selling at a Ramadan bazaar.”

The stall was an instant hit. Rain or shine, patrons queue for up to an hour, gobbling down up to 400 baguettes (costing about $15 each) a day.

“I was overwhelmed with emotion. It is something that I am really thankful for, not only to the customers but also the team running the stall,” he says.

The stall is a joint venture between him and a childhood friend, and its success has inspired him to look into expanding the concept further.

He previously ran a restaurant, Sedap Corner, in Simpang Bedok, but was forced to shut it down a decade ago due to manpower issues. The difference this time, he says, is that he has a partner who will take care of operations, leaving him to focus on the food.

“When we have good synergy, we can scale it up. In Singapore, you cannot just have one outlet, it’s not sustainable. You’ve to have multiple outlets, so maybe we’ll do a franchise model.”

Nadiah M. Din’s first Hari Raya with new baby and in new home

The past few months have been momentous for Singaporean actress-host Nadiah M. Din.

In December, while heavily pregnant, the 33-year-old and her family relocated from Singapore to Melaka in search of a more outdoorsy lifestyle.

In February, she gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Naeema, there.

Hari Raya in 2023 will be extra special with a bigger family and in a new environment, she tells The Straits Times. Nadiah and her French husband Bilal Jeanpierre, 37, now working as a director of sales at a technology company there, have three other children – Nahyan, six; Inaaya, four; and Ezhaan, 15 months.

“I can imagine that it will be very hectic, trying to get all four kids ready on Hari Raya morning,” she says with a laugh.

There is a sense of deja vu, because she celebrated Hari Raya in 2022 in Singapore as mum to then-newborn Ezhaan.

It is a homecoming of sorts for her. “As a child, I used to celebrate Hari Raya in a kampung in Melaka with fireworks and all, so I’m happy that my children will be able to experience the same.”

Her father, the late Mohammad Din Mohammad, a prominent artist in the Malay arts scene, was born in Melaka, and Nadiah and her siblings often visited the family kampung.

One of her brothers lives in Melaka. Her mother will visit their families for a few days from Singapore.

Nadiah says she and her husband decided to move to Malaysia to raise their family amid sprawling nature and the great outdoors.

“For me, I believe that the kids need to be exposed to the natural environment to boost their immune system. When I was young, I would play hopscotch outside. I played with stones and sticks, and in the drain when it’s raining,” she says.

Her father, who was also a traditional healer, would often take her and her siblings to the nature reserves and parks around Singapore.

She is big on keeping things natural, even when delivering her children.

Nadiah, who does network marketing for immune systems company 4Life, delivered Naeema in a private hospital in Melaka via vaginal birth after caesarean, as with her second and third pregnancies.

Her first child was born via emergency caesarean after a 35-hour labour, and anaesthesia was unavoidable.

But she avoided pain management options such as laughing gas and epidural, and painkillers and antibiotics for her subsequent deliveries.

Becoming a mother was one of the main reasons she stopped full-time acting in Singaporean and Malaysian drama serials.

“The production houses would call, but I couldn’t commit because my ‘mum guilt’ was too strong,” she says, recounting how “there was too much pressure” because of the stress of pumping breastmilk at work, then rushing home. “This time, I don’t want to do any of that.”

But she reckons that when the kids are older, she will go back to acting and hosting if the right projects come knocking.

As for children, she is content with the brood she has now.

“Do I want to have more children? I don’t think so, no thank you, no way,” she says with a laugh.