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Richa Moorjani grew up sharing her parents with the public every Diwali. Her parents were—and still are—musicians in a Bay Area Bollywood cover band called Geetanjali. “They used to perform at a lot of big Diwali melas, or fêtes, where there were hundreds of people, food trucks, and performances, and I used to go and be their little backstage kid,” the Never Have I Ever star tells Vogue from her home in Los Angeles.
When her family wasn’t performing, they either hosted or attended a big Diwali party with friends, family, and friends-who-are-like-family. “I think Diwali helped me fall in love with my culture as a young child," she says. “The whole family would get together, dress up in new traditional Indian clothes, and eat so much food.” It was also one of the only times in the year her mom made gujiyas, a stuffed, sweet pastry that Moorjani’s particularly nostalgic for. They drew rangoli designs with colored chalk powder in the entryway to the house and lit every single room with diyas.
These days, Moorjani’s festivities look a lot different. We’re Zooming as she gets ready to host a Diwali party at Baar Baar in downtown Los Angeles with Fable Mane, the Ayurveda-inspired hair brand which is a Sephora darling. Moorjani’s taken her time to prep with the whole Fable Mane line (pre-wash oil, shampoo and conditioner, leave-in conditioner and finishing oil) and her hair now seems to have the refraction index of a sheet of metal: i.e. ultra, mega shiny. Hairstylist Joseph Chase puts a bit of bend into a swatch for a half-up half-down style. Lilly Keys Westbrook just put the finishing touches on her makeup: a neutral lip to offset the smoked-out metallic eye with tones of rose gold shadow. It’s a modern take on the classic smoky eye that’s beloved of any girlie with even a speck of South Asian DNA. The gold tones are mirrored in her almond-shaped chrome manicure, which “look like diyas,” she says. The metallic tones are all designed to vibe with her custom two-piece gold fishtail lehenga and diaphanous dupatta by Papa Don’t Preach, styled by AmbiKa Sanjana.
Moorjani feels a true kinship with Fable Mane. Both the brand and actor debuted in April 2020, share a common South Asian heritage (the founders are siblings Akash and Nikita Mehta), and they re all intensely invested in animal welfare and wildlife conservation. And the products are working great too, she says, and her color treated hair’s been healthier and more lustrous ever since she started weekly scalp massages with the HoliRoots Hair Oil.
“These big Diwali parties and events didn t really exist even four or five years ago,” she says, referring to the glitzy, celebrity-filled scenes that are now a feature on the New York and L.A. social circuit. “It’s the one type of event that I go to where I feel like I truly belong, people look like me and I don t feel weird for asking the DJ to play Bollywood music. For me, Diwali is the hot new Fashion Week, everyone looks forward to the Instagram posts.”
Moorjani’s first was comedian Lilly Singh’s debut Diwali rager in 2021, featuring bhangra bangers and good vibes. She was hooked after that. “I had never met Lilly before that party, but she made it a point to reach out to me and everyone in the community that she could possibly think of to ensure everyone felt included, and that, to me, is the spirit of Diwali. And now we re such good friends!”
Giving back to the community has always been a big focus for her family, and beyond the frivolity, Moorjani uses Diwali as an opportunity to do some spring cleaning of the soul. The actual significance of Diwali is good overcoming evil, and light dispelling darkness and ignorance. “I try to focus on symbolically igniting love, compassion, and wisdom in my heart so I can work on dispelling ignorance, darkness, and any hatred from my body and mind,” she says.
She acknowledges the heaviness of our times and also sees the value in coming together as a community to celebrate. “It s important to hold space for light as much as we also hold space for the darkness. So we can be lights in the world and help bring healing to humanity and the planet, which is what we need a lot of right now.”
