From Diljit Dosanjh to Ananya Panday, Here Are Bollywood’s Best-Dressed Celebrities Off-Duty

We all know that it takes an army to make our movie stars look as fabulous as they do. A gargantuan team of stylists, hair and make-up artists, photographers and the like are employed to put together looks that always look, well, effortless. But there are a few genuine aesthetes who can get by without any help at all. Here’s our dazzling dozen:

SONAM KAPOOR

Sonam Kapoor’s fashion game has been so superlative, it’s possibly eaten up her career altogether. No sniggers here — she did pull off more than decent performances in Neerja (taking home a National Award for this one in 2016), Delhi 6 (2009), Raanjhanaa (2013) and Veere di Wedding (2018). Her dressing-up mantra goes by the adage, ‘People are going to stare, make it worth their while’. Highlights from her wardrobe include oversized jackets, anti-fit styles, historically referenced Indian wear (she has a fashion designer for a mother, an interior designer for an aunt, and an ace stylist for a sister), and picks from international luxury labels, from Ralph & Russo to Valentino to Giambattista Valli. Another feather in her cap? In 2024, she was made international brand ambassador for Dior.

TWINKLE KHANNA

Twinkle Khanna is perhaps going to balk at being on this list. The former actor-turned-author and digital entrepreneur much prefers a life away from the arc lights, but can we help it if she’s so beautiful and so quotable all the time? While Khanna likes easy separates and oversized clothing, no one carries off Indian wear better than her (no, not even her iconic mother Dimple Kapadia). Watch her dress for Diwali or a wedding, and you’ll see what a natural head-turner she is.

RANVEER SINGH

More than an actor or a star, Ranveer Singh is a cultural moment. I have been an admirer of Singh since his first film, Band Baaja Baaraat (2010). But soon enough, his public persona came to be larger than the films he starred in. How did he do it? By masterfully using fashion to build his profile. Singh’s rise and the birth of Instagram coincided, and he cleverly understood how to ace the visual game online. He dressed powerfully, in vivid colours and eye-grabbing styles, pushing the boundaries of gender, celebrity behaviour and even media. Singh came out tops, all the time.

SARA ALI KHAN

A controversial pick, as Sara Ali Khan is mostly derided for her fashion game. But that’s only when she’s styled by stylists or is at an event. Her personal style is really so simple and stark — cotton chikankari or printed salwar kameezs paired with mojris and an armful of bangles — she really looks to the manor-born, or, in her case, the Pataudi Palace. I really wish more of her original style was maintained when styling her in public. To have seen her before her career launched was so refreshing, when the other star kids were dressing to tease.

ANANYA PANDAY

I’m going to say this loud and clear: nobody does summer style better than Ananya Panday. Her vacation wardrobe is all the goals you need for a beach holiday. She’s perennially in tank tops and ganjis, wearing them with ordinary denim shorts, summer skirts and easy shoes (even her flip-flops are Chanel, the luxury label she now endorses). She wears a bikini bottom with a scarf for a blouse. At home, when she’s hanging with her girl gang (Suhana Khan, Shanaya Kapoor), she’s in easy athleisure — tiny sports bras and crop tops, track pants, and a nice day bag. It’s a look that screams ‘rich Bombay –girl’ but it’s also an LA-girl vibe.

DILJIT DOSANJH

I don’t think anyone saw the rise and rise of Diljit Dosanjh coming. A good actor and a great singer, Dosanjh is unarguably India’s most famous Indian abroad at the moment. In 2020, his 11th studio album, G.O.A.T., hit the Billboard Social 50 chart. In 2023, he performed at Coachella and made the world fall in love with a turbaned Indian who barely spoke English. Appearances on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Met Gala followed. In each of his looks, much like his earworms, Dosanjh pays homage to Punjab by wearing a turban, a kurta, and often a lungi. Even though he loves American rapper-style fashion, he has discovered his real glory comes from being authentic to his culture, often spotted in shorter kurtas and slimmer pyjamas. As he roars: ‘Punjabi aa gaye oye’.

ZAHAN KAPOOR

Zahan Kapoor is so good, you almost don’t notice him. Quietly confident, he knocked the socks off the audience with his acting debut in the show Black Warrant (2025), whose second season has just been announced. But the unassuming lad has his pedigree to thank, not just for his histrionics but also his sense of style. Kapoor is quite the chameleon wearing bandhgalas (at magazine awards), and jeans and a white t-shirt (Louis Vuitton, mind you). But older photographs of him on holiday as just as chic: a classy leather jacket with a golf t-shirt and chinos, cashmere sweaters, easy solids — all spelling quiet luxury.

DIA MIRZA

The doe-eyed Dia Mirza’s personal style is really something more people should emulate. She’s elegant, she’s sensible, she’s conscious. Everything she puts on is meaningful, every outfit is made out of natural fabric. I can’t imagine her in high-street clothing; she’s almost always in elegant Indian ensembles. Even her wedding sari was a simple red Benarasi as she wanted to have something that would offer multiple wears. A proponent of sustainability, she had auctioned away her lehenga from her first wedding too.

KARISMA KAPOOR

This Kapoor sister may have ruled the roost wearing ridiculous clothes in her films with Govinda through the 1990s, but she’s more than made up for it with her penchant for classic basics. Karisma Kapoor is almost always in blacks or whites, including well-tailored, oversize shirts with straight trousers or full skirts. Her natural, no-make-up beauty and neat, glossy long hair is further enhanced with giant black spectacles or sunglasses. Kapoor’s ladylike demeanour certainly makes you want to sit upright in her company.

KARAN JOHAR

Yes, the most obvious choice, but Karan Johar is inescapable. Other than a successful director and producer, he is a lesson in being one’s own brand. His flamboyance outshines any actor, and this is singularly why I adore his dressing-up game. Designer jackets galore, attention-grabbing brooches, high-heeled shoes, possibly the biggest collection of Hermes Birkin handbags – Johar is truly India’s fashion star. But he’s on this list because he stands for something so significant – men don’t have to dress in a conventional ‘masculine’ manner. When someone so mainstream and successful as Johar plays with fashion, jewellery and make-up, he inadvertently normalises it for a younger and closeted generation.

KIRAN RAO

She’s still gathering accolades for her touching yet sharp film Laapataa Ladies (2023), but Kiran Rao has been a winner ever since we set our eyes on her. She’s unarguably among the most fashion-forward individuals there is out there, with her finger on the pulse of the finest Indian fashion and an impeccably innate sartorial sense — one that teams Japanese-style structures to suit her diminutive frame with homegrown textiles. She’s worn Raw Mango’s shimmering Benarasi saris as well as humble sootis, EKA’s co-ords, slip dresses from Bodice, and jackets from Akaaro. There’s some Nor Black Nor White and SWGT thrown in, and even a kaashta sari for a family wedding — all of them made chicer with her buzz cut and sometimes blue-hued curls. If you want to know who the coolest, and possibly underground, designers are in the Indian fashion landscape, look no further.

KANGANA RANAUT

Kangana Ranaut may have few friends in the film industry and fewer fans of her politics, but her personal style is ungainsayable good. In an interview several years ago, Ranaut stated that fashion was important to her as an outsider in Bollywood: “I wanted to look like I deserve to be here”. While she has worked with top stylists like Ami Patel, Patel is quick to state that Ranaut’s style is her own. One of her most famous airport looks (sans stylist) comprised a handloom sari, a Lady Dior bag, sneakers, and her crazy curls held up in a ponytail, almost like a queen’s diadem.

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