With Mumbai finally playing home to one of the most luxurious Parisian fashion brands, Shweta Shiware catches luxe fashion's latest Bollywood acquisition, Kangna Ranaut, at the Dior boutique to talk walk-in wardrobes and spending all she earned from her first film on a red designer dress

The Universe devours a good story. Especially the kind where the wide-eyed protagonist dusts off her modest beginnings to venture into an urban jungle, shaped with delightfully rustic candidness. Kangna Ranaut is on her way to be that Jai Ho! allegory.


Kangna Ranaut wears a Dior dress for Sunday Mid Day's exclusive photoshoot.
pic/Hashim Badani

The National Award for Best Supporting Actress (for her modishly battered portrayal of Geetanjali Nagpal in Fashion, the film that released in 2008) brought credence to the young actress' powerhouse presence.
Six years after her debut in Gangster and more than a dozen films later, the girl from Bhamla, a small town near Manali, wants to talk fashion.

"She represents a genre of young stars who seem to pack in so much into their lives. They are achievers. Kangna is like a chameleon; she morphs into avatars, drawing from her personal taste. That, I think, is unique," says Kalyani Saha Chawla, VP Marketing and Communications, Christian Dior Couture, India. "She is classic, sophisticated and individualistic with an edge... and that's also what Dior stands for," she says. The actress made a quick stopover to the mint new Christian Dior boutique at the Taj Mahal Hotel this week, for a store promotion, before taking a flight to London.

Here is luxe fashion's latest acquisition in an exclusive chat, looking and sounding very little like a Bollywood actress:

As a young girl, what was your first, vivid memory of Dior?
Luxury brands like Dior are like a wish... it's not something you just go and buy. You have to see it ufffd you come across an image in a magazine, or glance at it while passing a store window, or someone carrying it swishes past, you wish for it ...then it happens... and that's good, because that's how you treasure it.