Heirlooms That Hold Time: From Radhika Apte to Dia Mirza, Here Is The Jewellery That Shaped Them

For centuries, artists and thinkers have explored the fleeting nature of beauty. Poet Robert Frost believed that ‘Nothing gold can stay’, while P.B. Shelley wrote about the vanishing nature of existence and power. Our need to be remembered is always in a constant tug of war with time. We are repositories of stories and memories — we hoard the tangible and create the intangible in an attempt to gain a sense of control over the larger world.

But as we make art and read silent prayers, the objects we collect become a way through which we hold onto people and experiences that slip away from our hands like sand. Some of the many things we hold on to are jewellery. In our struggle against erasure, objects of ornamentation play an important role. They are intertwined with our understanding of who we are and the world beyond. Some of the earliest signs of our civilisation come from a black statue of a woman with stacked bangles from the Indus, frozen in time, infamously known as the Dancing Girl, a living example of how the act of adornment has been an integral part of our history. It is a practice to keep something alive — a memory, a ritual, and personal history.

Our year began with an interrogation on these rituals of inheritance. What objects do we want to live beyond us? Who gets to own a little part of us when we’re gone? What value do we place on these objects? For our style issue, Dia Mirza, Radhika Apte, Shilpa Rao, and Pernia Qureshi welcome us into their inner world and share the closest pieces of jewellery that define their lives.

Golden Inheritance

“I am probably the wrong person to ask this,” actor Radhika Apte says; she feels her jewellery collection isn’t fancy. Her earliest memory of jewellery is connected with her grandmother, who wore a simple set of two gold bangles with a “zig zag” design. She later inherited them, and it remains one of her most prized possessions of all time. The bangles hung on her wrists on the day of her wedding, along with earrings that belonged to her mother. Apte’s wedding was a simple affair. She was head-to-toe dressed in her mum’s and grandmom’s clothes and jewellery. From the signing to the after-party and the dinner, she was enveloped in the blessings of the women who came before her. She fondly remembers Makar Sankranti mornings when her grandmother made tilgur, a sweet she isn’t particularly fond of, but secretly stole a few before they were brought out for everyone.

The sensorial memory of the gold bangles makes her nostalgic about easier times, the sound of its jingling and how it stood out, irrespective of being invisible because of its simplicity. Her grandmother wore one on each wrist, stacked with monochrome coloured bangles. When asked about what she wants to pass down to her daughter, she exclaims, “Gold! She is going to get gold!” and bursts into laughter.

“She will inherit everything I have, and everything I have has been blessed and put together by my mum and grandmum.”

Pearls of Wisdom

For actor Dia Mirza, her inherited jewellery is a lesson on life and resilience. She received a pair of pearl bangles from her mother, Deepa Mirza, which instilled in her the importance of financial agency. “They are a reminder of hard work, sacrifice and of my mother’s determination to build something of her own. They carry the weight of her choices and the love that shaped them,” she says.

The seemingly simple pair is more valuable than anything else she has bought with her money. They set the precedent for how she has chosen to walk her own path and the principles she continues to stand for. The bangles have become a medium to hold close the lessons of life that she wishes to pass on to her children.

Mirza takes immense pride in curating a jewellery collection for her children. Every piece collected is marked by a milestone, a moment, and is intentional at heart. Her recent addition is a century-old pair of chand balis she wore at poet Kaifi Azmi’s birthday celebrations. There are necklaces, earrings and many other pieces she adores, but amidst them all, the pearl bangles make her pause and think of the life she has created for herself and why she continues to move forward. It is a gentle reminder to breathe and to stay true to where she comes from.

Strung With Memory

Shilpa Rao finds herself clutching her Hyderabadi pearls, quite literally. It is a necklace passed down to her by her mother that holds a special memory for her. It was handed to her, and she wore it to her first Filmfare Awards night.

Rao grew up seeing women in her home draped in elegant saris and delicate strings of pearls gracing their necks.

“It was instinctive,” she says. “They always feel right. When you’re in doubt, wear pearls. One can never go wrong with them.”

She now believes that pearls make the best present. “A two-rowed pearl necklace with white lilies or rajnigandha. Nothing comes close to that.” It is an act that feels sacred to her. Shilpa is also a jhumka girl through and through. “I love wearing and collecting jhumkas of all kinds. They are the best.”

One of her favourites is a simple pair of heavy, silver jhumkas she bought from Shahpur Jat in Delhi. They have been oxidised, almost like a love letter penned by time itself. She refuses to fix that.

“I carry them with me all the time,” she shares.

Starring Role

Pernia Qureshi’s most beloved piece of jewellery is a testament to her multi-hyphenated identity — she is a kuchipudi dancer, a stylist and a fashion entrepreneur. In the centre of it is an antique jhela-style pair of earrings by Amrapali Jewels. She first wore them for her debut film Jaanisaar (2015). Qureshi played the role of a revolutionary tawaif whose costume storytelling was driven by old ornaments. “I first wore them for a song called “Teri Katili Nighaon Ne Mara”, where we styled it with a red choli and a dupatta. The earrings framed my face beautifully.”

That was just the beginning of her love affair with the earrings from a time bygone. The elaborate design overwhelms the viewer, but as one slowly decodes it, they fall in love with one detail at a time. At her wedding, Qureshi’s parents gifted them to her. Her wedding reception look was complete with the earrings, a maang tika and a quintessential nath. She paired them with her mother’s farshi gharara because, “I wanted something old and traditional”, and hence, she was reunited with an object she held dearly.

Qureshi doesn’t know who originally owned it, but she looks forward to passing it down to her daughter. They carry the weight of time, memory, and the nature of our unpredictable lives.

To read more exclusive stories from The Hollywood Reporter India's February 2026 print issue, pick up a copy of the magazine from your nearest book store or newspaper stand.

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