An unusual suspect saved the uber-glamorous Festival de Cannes red carpet from being a farcical circus filled with ridiculous clothes instead of world-class couture. And that saviour was Alia Bhatt. The actor is known for many things—her immense histrionic talent, her blockbusters, her growing popularity. But her fashion game? Sorry.
At Cannes, Bhatt was the guest of the chief sponsor L’Oreal, and wore four outstanding looks over her four days there. The first was an ivory Schiaparelli strapless gown, textured with florals and a ruffled hem. She wore her hair back into a slick bun, and delicate diamonds on her ears. The dress was elegant and she played it safe. The next day she stepped out in another fail-safe shimmering Armani gown, but she teamed it with a flapper girl headpiece that brought on old-Hollywood glamour to the look.
Bhatt’s third look is where we all did a double-take. Dressed in Gucci (she has been its global brand ambassador for two years now), Bhatt had Audrey Hepburn pinned on her moodboard. She wore a canary yellow sleek pencil skirt with a bustier and a cropped jacket. On her head was a printed scarf and chic catty sunglasses as if she had just stepped out of a hoodless Ferrari driving around the Italian countryside. This is what is called today as a fashion ‘serve’. In other words, she hit it out of the park.
Alia Bhatt | instagram@Aliaabhatt
And finally, a Swarovski laden see-through (not really) Gucci three-piece sari/lehenga/gown, that really, and finally, nailed ‘red-carpet slayer’ on her bio. Bhatt is finally a fashion queen.
You see, the actor has long struggled with her looks in Bollywood. She is most certainly a very pretty face. But the actor has been blessed with a petite, almost tiny, body.
She looked remarkable in her two mega first films: Student of the Year (2012) and Highway (2014), but she essayed teen characters in both. In her third, the excellent Udta Punjab (2016) for which she won her first best actress award, she played a drug-addled young girl again. But in Raazi (2018), she looked diminutive compared to the co-star, the six-footer Vicky Kaushal.
Bhatt has always looked like a little girl, even though she was such a big star. In an industry where a leading lady has to be sexy (I don’t make the rules), Bhatt didn’t know how to bring out the woman. Around her, the top league comprised of the beautiful, long-standing Deepika Padukone—towering literally and metaphorically over her; Katrina Kaif (tall and oomphy, albeit on her way to her own happily-ever-after); Kareena Kapoor (a leading lady of 25 years with no plans of retiring); Kriti Sanon and Kiara Advani (both with swathes of sex appeal).
Then, in 2023, Bhatt showed up in a blue fringe Alexandre Vauthier mini with plunging neckline for a private event in Mumbai. She looked fresh and confident, embracing her smallness as a new kind of aesthetic. More super-low necks followed, a cerulean strappy and neck-less Rosario mid-calf dress for the premiere of Animal (2023); a burgundy tailored plunge for Sabato De Sarno at Gucci, and a beauteous bejewelled bra-blouse for Sabyasachi’s 25th anniversary last January with a plain black Murshidabad silk sari. In Jigra, her widely panned film of 2024, her clothes stood out for me: she wore oversized shirts and trousers without the fear of drowning in them.
Bhatt has gone through a fleet of stylists: the very talented Ami Patel, Anaita Shroff and Lakshmi Lehr (who turned her into a vision at 2024’s Met Gala in a pastel Sabyasachi lehenga with a necklace for a headpiece), the faultless Priyanka Kapadia and now, the finest—Rhea Kapoor (the stylist for this year’s Cannes looks). Bhatt realised less makeup works best for her, and made her go-to makeup girl Puneet Saini show off her freckles.
Bhatt had found her groove, and it was being a tiny little dynamite.
@namratazakaria