Alia Bhatt Revisits Her Life in Looks, From Preppy Beginnings to Moschino Pantsuits to A Chai-Dipped Wedding Sari

Hi Vogue, this is Alia Bhatt,

and this is My Life in Looks.

[relaxed jazz music]

[gasps] Oh my God.

This was the press conference

for the trailer for my first-ever movie.

and I do not recognize this human being.

In terms of looks, there was only one brief

that we had to look like students,

so that s why there s this like little dress,

and we re wearing this blazer that says,

Saint Theresa, I think.

We had to dress like closest to our character,

and that particular movie, I wore a lot of like headbands,

so I m wearing a headband.

And all I remember was nerves,

it was my first time facing the press.

I mean, way to start with this particular image,

because this is like just the beginning

of my career, you know?

[relaxed jazz music stops]

[gasps] Ah.

Oh, the millennial issue. Oh my god.

So I am a millennial.

I keep having this conversation with people, what am I?

So I am the millennial, like clearly.

Styled by the one and only Anaita Shroff Adajania.

She, I remember very clearly came to me and said,

I wanna do a denim and diamond issue,

and we re gonna shoot it in the blue city

that we call Jodhpur.

I shot with Greg for the first time,

that was his first photo shoot.

And then Greg went on to become this superstar photographer,

and every time that he and I meet again, I m like,

Oh my God, do you remember that shoot?,

He s like, I will never forget,

because that was my first sort of photo shoot.

I do like this headline,

What makes Alia Bhatt the coolest girl in Bollywood?,

I do like that.

I like to be known as cool,

cause my sister would just say that I m very uncool,

but I like to be cool. [chuckles]

I m gonna go to the next one. Oh my god.

That s a good shot. [chuckles]

This is from a movie of mind called Badrinath Ki Dulhania,

and the particular step

[relaxed jazz music]

that I m sort of midway doing

is a dance number called Tamma Tamma, okay?

And Tamma Tamma is an iconic track from Indian cinema,

from Bollywood for like years.

It featured Madhuri Dixit and Sanjay Dutt, originally.

It was choreographed by Bosco and Caesar,

the idea of choreography was to play homage

to the original track.

And we had a blast doing it.

And Bollywood is all about the celebration of music,

like we love songs.

Like, I m waiting to shoot my next song.

The outfit is simple jeans, a shiny T-shirt,

a jacket where it has some sort of like Indian motive print,

because she s a girl from, you know, the heartland of India.

Varun and I, we started our career together.

We starred in Student of the Earth, you know,

that camaraderie and that friendship,

and just also equal sort of admiration

and respect for each other as actors, and as also friends.

You don t make that every day, so that s very special.

[relaxed jazz music subsides]

[gasps] Oh my god.

I remember this day.

This was the year 2018, if I m not mistaken.

[chill jazz music]

And I remember 2018 was the busiest year that I ve had

as a working professional,

cause I was shooting three movies at the time.

This was a strong memory,

truly encapsulating the year that it was

in terms of the chaos,

but also the calm that you have to put, you know,

on your face when you are in an environment

that requires you to be with it.

Whenever we are putting together the beauty look,

it s genuinely like,

what you are feeling on that particular day,

what s the story behind it?

So, I m guessing on this day,

a little bit more retro Hollywood waves,

a bit of a winged liner, soft blush.

The aspect of putting together a look,

whether it lands or not, that s not in your control,

but the collaboration of everybody coming together.

Like, it s actually way more enjoyable during the process.

[chill jazz music subsides]

[gasps] Oh my god.

This was our dear friend Sonam Kapoor s wedding,

her reception party.

So when you go for a wedding reception,

you either dress up in the langa, or a sari,

or like some Indian-inspired outfit.

I chose to go with a langa that day,

and this beautiful Sabyasachi Mukherjee langa.

[tranquil music]

I chose it for the color,

cause I had not worn a color like this

in an Indian outfit,

so I was like, oh my god, I love the color.

And I think this was the beginning of my journey with Sabya,

even though it was like a high-neck outfit.

I said, you know, I don t usually wear neck jewelry,

but I want to wear a statement neck piece.

And we went with that, and a maang tikka,

which is very typical

when it comes to wedding jewelry especially,

cause it gives you a beautiful separation with the hair.

You look so like royal and fresh at the same time.

I get to like live out my royalty fantasy. [chuckles]

Next. [tranquil music stops]

[gasps] Ah. [lively jazz music]

The Berlin Film Festival. Funny story with this look.

We were there for the premier of our film Gully Boy.

It was actually the first time

any media people were gonna be seeing the film,

so I was very, very excited,

and it was the day that we were doing press for the film.

And I saw this mosquito pants suit,

and it was styled by Ami Patel,

I went mad over the pants suit,

I thought it was so interesting.

And when we were driving past Berlin,

I saw this wall which had like art on it

and I was like, oh my god,

we have to wear the mosquito pantsuit and come and shoot it.

We have literally raced, you know, with all our might

to get to this wall to take a couple of photos,

I think I had about five minutes

to just like walk up and down front.

But I remember the chaos to get this particular shot,

and I m so glad we did it,

because now it s in My Life in Looks,

so it s been worth it.

That evening was the premier,

and Gully Boy got a lot of love.

Zoya is a wonderful filmmaker,

and you know, Ranveer, who headlined the movie,

he was the gully boy, was just outstanding,

like even the music and the rap,

still today I think just has such a solid vibe.

[lively jazz music stops]

[gasps] So this was a special night, again.

I actually was there very last minute.

I called up Anaita, who was at Vogue at the time,

and I said, Someone I know is winning an award,

and he was my fitness instructor at the time, Sohrab.

I wanted to come and give him that award,

and I was like, I think it ll be a surprise,

so let s just kind of hook this up.

It was totally worth it, because he was so shocked

and confused and happy, [chuckles] all things that I love.

And Anaita was like, Okay,

we have to make you something fabulous.

So you know, come up to the room,

she had a couple of outfits laid out.

This was like shimmery and shiny,

and it caught my eye, and it had this beautiful cut,

and like a really high slit.

[relaxed jazz music]

Super comfortable, chic, glamorous,

all things that you would like for your beauty award night.

[gasps] This is too special.

Premier night at the Berlin Film Festival

for my film, Gangubai Kathiawadi.

This film has a very special place in my heart,

because it was the first time I was working with Sanjay, so.

We were actually meant to do another movie together,

which got shelved.

He said, I m gonna call you in two weeks.

Don t do anything, just go for a holiday and come back.

And I came back and he said, I have this movie for you.

It s a true story, it s about this young girl who,

you know, was thrown into prostitution,

and she became like this mafia queen.

I heard this script and I was like,

How am I going to play this character?

You know, it s so far away from who I am, where I ve been.

And he said, Just know it, and you ll do it.

So I actually was doubtful.

He tells this story famously, being like, She ran away,

she heard the script and she ran away.

I did not run away.

Maybe I just like trotted away,

because I was so nervous.

And then cut to here, watching the movie with the audience,

wearing a white sari.

So the white sari is very symbolic in Gangubai s life.

That s what we did in the film,

she just was obsessed with white,

she would wear white everywhere.

Through promotions, all I did was wear white saris.

It s a very memorable film in my life.

I think one of the most memorable films.

[relaxed jazz music subsides]

Ah. [chuckles]

And from one sari to another.

[calm jazz music]

This is my wedding day.

And again, Sabyasachi Mukherjee sari.

I have said this time and again, but I feel so comfortable

and so myself in a sari.

When I did my first zoom call with Sabya,

he said, What do you wanna wear?,

I said, I m just so sure that I want to be comfortable,

and I want to wear a sari.

And he said, Okay, what color do you want to wear?,

and I said, I m feeling something like white and gold.

And he said, Okay, let s do a chai-dipped white,

which is like a tea-dipped white,

and we ll do an organza sari because it s very simple

and it looks really grand, you don t have to do much.

We had this long sort of train,

he personalized it with my wedding day,

and like a coat which said Mrs. Hipster,

that s like a inside thing between me and my husband.

The jewelry is all Sabya as well.

I was like okay, I want a big neck piece.

Big earrings, again, maang tikka.

The beauty about this day,

of course the fact that it s my wedding day,

but is that we got married in our own home.

I got ready in my house, we finished getting married,

and went to sleep in my bedroom.

This is just the comfort Pro Max, [chuckles]

was my wedding day.

Okay, I m gonna go to the next one.

Ah. [calm lounge music]

So this is a very special moment in our lives.

So this particular occasion is called a godh bharai.

It s sort of like a ritual where you pray

for the wellbeing and the health,

the mother and the baby.

I m wearing a custom Raji Ramniq outfit.

I chose the color, I said I m really feeling like this,

sort of like a mango color.

Again, I was very comfortable.

The jewelry was gifted to me by Ranbir s mom,

my mother-in-law,

so we just seamlessly blended the two together.

We are big photo collectors,

and I ve been obsessively collecting photos

for the last couple of years,

because we were about to move into our new home

and I m like, okay, we have to,

the home has to have photos of us, and family photos,

and baby photos, life photos, food photos, just photos.

Because that s what makes a home, it s not the walls,

it s the memories that come with,

and it s the photos.

And, this is there, it s one of those photos.

[gasps] [upbeat jazz music]

So this, it s not just me in this photo,

it s me and my little baby.

This was the Time 100 Impact Awards,

I was winning an award, which is such a huge honor,

just to be in the same room with so many wonderful people

that have impacted the world in different ways.

And this is a custom Gauri and Nainika outfit

styled by Anaita Shroff.

And I told Anaita, I said again,

I just wanna be comfortable.

And the idea behind the outfit was

to be like golden in this mother age,

in this new sort of role that I was adopting.

At the time, Raha, my daughter,

was kicking me like continuously.

I remember when I received my award

and I was talking through my speech,

she was just kicking away.

[vivacious music]

This is recently after giving birth.

I mean, I think I m looking pretty good,

if I can say so myself. [chuckles]

Walking for Manish Malhotra s fashion show,

and I remember, we had gone for rehearsals for the show

and it was, you know, I was walking after a while,

so I was quite nervous.

And I remember wearing the langa, it kept dragging,

and I said, Why is the langa dragging?

It s not sitting correctly,

and he said, Because the floor is carpeted.

We decided to change it this time

and go for a carpet floor instead.

I said, Without thinking

about what it would do to the langa?

And he said, Oh. [chuckles]

Ah.

Nice one.

[tranquil music]

So this is from film promotions

of the film Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.

My character s name in the film is Rani,

and I m wearing a Rani pink sari,

to really like symbolize my character.

But I remember these saris became quite the rage.

The saris in India, like, is our little black dress.

It s really comfortable, it suits every occasion,

and when you give it pop and you give it color,

it becomes super fun,

so my character would wear saris all the time.

And I really wanted to bring that out

even in the promotions, and that s what we did.

And we actually did a capsule collection,

we did like an online sale,

and you know, that money went to charity,

and like, it crashed the website,

like it sold out in three and a half minutes.

That s how much of a rage the saris became.

Next.

[gasps]

I m so proud of this moment for various reasons.

Joy Awards, I m wearing Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla.

This sari is very unique and special,

again, style by Rhea Kapoor.

So this is an Ajrakh print sari.

[lively jazz music]

Ajrakh is a textile form that originates from Kutch.

For me, displaying craftsmanship

and this level of craft on a global stage will always trump

any sort of moment in life.

Especially today in the age of fast fashion and AI,

where everything is just accessible at, you know,

the drop of a hat,

something like this that is just like hand embroidered,

takes a lot of time.

And India is all about the craft in different sort of forms.

So I was really proud to wear this outfit on the red carpet,

it was a big night, there were lot of celebrities, you know,

from all over the world coming together,

so a lot of attention.

I met Sir Anthony Hopkins that evening, he was winning,

like I think one of the most prestigious awards

at that function,

and just to be in the same room as him was just like,

yeah, it was too big a moment.

So yeah, I m really glad I could bring out Ajrakh

to this carpet. [chuckles]

[lively jazz music stops]

Ah. [chill jazz music]

Me for Gucci s Cruise Collection.

We went really experimental with this look

in terms of the lip color,

because the dress is super maroon,

so I was like, okay, I usually don t do it,

but let s match the dress.

Again, a memorable night,

cause I met Demi Moore for the first time,

and she was sitting right next to me.

She brought her little dog with her,

and I was interacting with the dog as well.

But I love to see what the new collection is,

I love the story behind it,

The hard work of different people

coming from all across the world to see, you know,

one person s vision come to life.

I just love that.

[chill jazz music stops]

How could this not be in the book?

I was just actually waiting for this moment.

Wearing a sari at the Met Gala

with the 20-foot pallu, which is like a train.

The theme, the Garden of Time.

The idea was to celebrate craft,

[calm jazz music]

and bring together a timeless look.

That s what we understood from it, Sabya, myself, Anaita.

All out with jewelry, with big stones,

sort of like a headband and a maang tikka,

big earrings, lots of different rings.

And the pallu was just elongated

to cover the steps of the MET.

I just remember fully feeling so proud to be wearing a sari,

it was just too special.

Yes. [calm jazz music]

Celebrating my dear friends Anant and Radhika s big wedding.

This was the wedding that everyone talked about in 2024.

I think Katy Perry performed this night.

I m wearing Elie Saab.

And this is one picture, and there was another photo

where like I m posing with Ranbir,

where he had this mask on his face,

and people were like wondering, why is he wearing a mask?

It was because it was supposed to be like a ball,

even I had a mask, but I didn t wear it,

he s like, why is the only one?

I literally took 25 minutes for glam on this.

Easy makeup, cause the outfit is doing all the talking.

Elie Saab and I have, again, you know,

worked together a lot on some great, you know,

memorable moments together in terms of outfits.

I love the color of this outfit,

I think that s what really got to me.

When I m picking an outfit, dor me key is comfort.

And if it s not comfortable, then it has to be a quick event

[chuckles]

so that I can be uncomfortable for a short period of time.

And this was pretty comfortable.

Okay, I m gonna go to the next one.

[cheery jazz music]

A continuation of the Ambani wedding.

This was their wedding day in Mumbai.

I m wearing a 160-year-old vintage sari.

Manish Malhotra, brought together by my stylist,

Priyanka Kapadia.

I was so nervous wearing the sari,

because 160 years old, I don t want people stepping on it,

I don t want to tear it,

I mean, like I have to be precious with it.

But again, just a beautiful color, perfect for weddings,

because when you go for somebody s wedding,

the idea is you just go bright with colors,

and it s a happy occasion, so you know, you re fully,

you know, out there in your glory.

The photographer had a great idea of putting up a carpet

and taking a picture against the carpet,

and I thought that was a really nice touch.

[relaxed jazz music]

So this, again, a part of the Ambani wedding.

I m wearing Faraz Manan, and it s langa-pant situation.

And this was sanghit nights.

So sanghit nights, it s like a dance-off sort of a thing

between one party and the other party.

Very comfortable look, but heavy,

cause there s a lot of work on it.

And for Faraz Manan s embroidery is beautiful.

Black is not usually a color that I would go for,

but it just felt like this was like a cocktail,

sort of party night, so it fit the occasion.

And I m glad I wore it,

because I think it worked really well

when we were doing the dance on stage.

This is my most recent-slash-special outing

[upbeat jazz music]

in a custom Gucci,

this is for the Cannes Film Festival.

This is for the closing ceremony.

Rhea and I said, you know,

we want to do something sari-inspired.

So this is their take on it, it s like a sari gown,

sari langa, call it whatever you want.

But the idea of that, the top represents the choli,

the skirt represents, you know, the petticoat,

and the long train represents the pallu,

or the dupatta, or whatever.

I think the memory of the night is that, again,

my first time at Cannes,

wearing a custom Gucci outfit that is sari-inspired,

just putting all those things together,

and having a wonderful time on the red carpet.

And Jane Fonda was there as well,

and she liked my jewelry and my outfit.

So that was My Life in Looks.

I have to say this was quite an interesting exercise,

because to go through your own life, really like,

I feel pretty nostalgic at this moment,

like it really feels like I ve lived my career.

Thank you, Vogue, for doing that for me,

and I shall see you next time.

Bye.

[upbeat jazz music continues]

[upbeat jazz music subsides]