A Dream Merchant Meets A Dream Girl - Manish Malhotra And Kiara Advani

Welcoming Hello! Into his sacred sanctum, a home overlooking the legendary Dilip Kumar’s bungalow, filled with a classic love of open spaces, greenery, wooden textures, persian carpets and an eclectic assembly of art and coffee table books, we witness a fashion encounter between hindi cinema’s favourite fashion architect and the new darling of the bolly-roulette, whose last caper Kabir Singh has reached blockbuster status not only in india, but has crossed the us$ one million mark even down under, in Australia!

- Sangeeta Wadhwani

We arrive at Manish Malhotra’s very private spaces, taking in a motley assembly of artworks that range from larger-than-life Tanjores to MF Husain reproductions, to a lot of paintings that may have crossed his path on his travels around the world. That Manish has a keen artistic sense, is hardly surprising. A little bird close to the designer shares that he loves to paint in his own study, and the colours for his delightful ensembles often come together in a colour storyboard, firstborn in his art. However, he keeps all his paintings hidden from public view. Perhaps one day, he may choose to change that stance but for now, we can only imagine him applying a rich palette of his celebrated biscuit and beige hues, his flirtatious pastels, on canvas, and then seeing those hues on hangers in subsequent collections.

In a city that packs a punch into every square metre (and into every minute), the luxury of Manish’s home is the sheer openness and old-world largeness it emanates. In here, there is a deceptive sense of relaxation – we know that Manish multi-tasks across so many portfolios, relaxing for him is a myth! Still, for us visitors, time seems to be a less precious commodity in the flow of things here, and the piped-in music (which he selects each morning) helps one switch off from the hurly-burly and savour the present moment, where we know the perfectionist designer is going to create unforgettable portraits with the lithe star ingenue, especially for HELLO!