Superstar Shah Rukh Khan is set to make his Met Gala debut on May 5 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where he will reportedly collaborate with designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. SRK's look will reportedly be on the lines of the theme 'Superfine Tailoring Black Style'. Other prominent Bollywood celebrities expected at the Met Gala this year include Alia Bhatt and Kiara Advani, who's on the way to becoming a mother soon.
Over the years, the glamorous red carpet has seen the who's who of entertainment industries globally, including some of the biggest names from Hollywood. It is a night of high fashion and style which the highly-coveted event is most known for.
While Bollywood and other known Indian celebrities have always attempted to put its best step forward, there have been times when they collectively failed to leave a mark. It has largely been a mixed bag. While some stars have stunned on the red carpet, others haven't quite made the same impact.
All in all, so far, India's who's who—the OG—have failed to leave a lasting impression at the Gala, an event famed primarily for its avant-gardism and thematic fashion, but our desi celebs either played it too safe or failed to leap beyond the 'boundary of elegance', not quite aligning with the Gala’s famously theatrical spirit.
After all, the Met Gala is all about full, high-fashion fantasy that demands risk, drama, and a little bit of madness. One cannot play it safe, because that will fail to truly capture the disruptive spirit that the Met Gala rewards.
Here are some notable misses in the past years.
Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone
Priyanka Chopra's Dior Haute Couture (2019) look was undeniably elegant, but failed to rise to the occasion. Although well-intentioned, it didn't quite live up to expectations. The outfit felt overly simplistic, lacking the “wow” factor typically associated with Met Gala appearances. Some fans even joked that her hair and makeup veered into "Halloween" territory: it did look more messy than artful.
That same year, Deepika Padukone, dressed up as a Barbie doll in a metallic pink Zac Posen gown which veered too far away from the themes of 'excess, irony, and exaggerated flair'. While she looked stunning in a classic sense, the outfit felt too safe and subdued compared to the night's wilder subtext. Again in 2022, Padukone, in her Louis Vuitton look, didn't particularly stand out amidst the sea of innovative and daring outfits.
Natasha Poonawalla
A consistent Met Gala attendee, Poonawalla's ambitious ensembles have often been seen as over-styled or lacking in emotional resonance with the Met Gala’s theme. Her outfits sometimes read more as art pieces than wearable fashion. In 2022, she was said to have taken a "high fashion risk", with a hybrid combination of Sabyasachi and Schiaparelli.
Isha Ambani
Born to one of India's richest families, Isha has attended the Met Gala multiple times, dressed by luxury houses like Valentino and Prabal Gurung. Her looks are always polished, beautiful, and couture-grade but it is exactly that which is the problem, say experts. They say that her style remains underwhelming, featuring a 'red carpet elegance', rather than Met Gala theme specificity, or a 'rebellious' nature.
Alia Bhatt
As one of Bollywood’s brightest stars, known for her acting prowess and evolving fashion sensibility, expectations were high that Bhatt might bring a fresh, daring energy to the Gala in 2023, her debut year. Instead, her appearance—a custom Prabal Gurung white gown, hand-embroidered with thousands of pearls, felt underwhelming. Her look was angelic, but it didn't fully gel with the night's theme, 'Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty', which called for a bold homage to Lagerfeld’s legendary aesthetics. And that's how Bhatt's graceful debut with minimal dramatics, minus its boundary pushing spirit, faded into the background.
