Manisha Malhotra is a popular name in the Indian entertainment industry. He has mesmerised people with his traditional and contemporary couture and with his costumes for several Bollywood films. Over the course of his decades-long career, the 57-year-old designer has made costumes for hundreds of films, including Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Mohabbatein, Dhadkan, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani and many more.
Recently, Manish Malhotra had a long conversation with Nikhil Taneja on the We Are Yuvaa YouTube channel's talk show, Be A Man, Yaar! He spoke at length about his childhood, how he started his career, and his experience on working with several A-list celebrities. During the conversation, the designer recalled an incident from the sets of Dhadkan, which starred Suniel Shetty, Shilpa Shetty and Akshay Kumar in lead roles.
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While sharing his thoughts on how he styles Bollywood actors, Manish recalled the time when he was in Switzerland to film a song for the film, Dhadkan, and he had suggested Akshay Kumar trim his chest hair because he had to wear a white shirt. Talking more about this incident, Manish said:
"I remember we were in Switzerland, we were shooting a song for 'Dhadkan', and I told Akshay Kumar to trim his chest hair because he was wearing a white shirt. And he was horrified. It was for 'Dil Ne Yeh Kaha Hai Dil Se'. And the director, Dharmesh Darshan, was very supportive of me, and he said, 'Yes, it's the correct thing'."
Manish further revealed that he always got the same brief for heroines, which was to make them look sexy on-screen. He also recalled once brief in which he was asked to make the heroine look sexy even though she was going to a funeral. This made him ponder over this, and finally, Manish's tailor informed him that the makers wanted the heroine to wear well-fitted clothes.
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In the same conversation, the fashion designer shared how he bonded with Karan Johar. Manish mentioned that he met Karan for the first time on the sets of the 1993 movie, Gumrah, which KJo’s father, Yash Johar, produced. He further revealed that he would often call Yash Ji's house, and Karan would pick up the call. Recalling how once the latter asked him why he never said a 'Hi' to him, Manish added:
"Whenever I used to call Yash ji with questions, Karan would pick up the phone. I would just say, ‘Can I speak with Yash ji?’ One day, he just told me, ‘You never say hi’. And I said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. Hi Karan, how are you, can I speak to Yash ji’. So it became like that. And then I met him a couple of times on set, and one night we decided to go out for dinner, and we chatted at that time. That’s how we became friends."
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Manish described Karan as a ‘very warm’ person and called their friendship ‘honest’. He also mentioned that he was grateful to be friends with the filmmaker because that helped him get in touch with Aditya Chopra, which in turn led him to bag an opportunity to work in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Sharing how it isn't easy to work with KJo, Manish said:
"He makes the effort. Through him, I met Aditya Chopra. I’m grateful to Karan for that. Dilwale happened through him. Our relationship is honest. That’s a difficult thing. For friends to work together for that many years, it’s very rare. Because Karan is Karan Johar, and not a lot of people would be comfortable telling him if something doesn’t work."
Manish Malhotra then went on to talk about a fight that he had with Karan over a lehenga. When asked if they really ‘had a pillow fight with a lehenga’, as KJo himself said earlier, the designer laughingly revealed that the filmmaker might have exaggerated the incident a bit. He recalled the incident that happened while they were shooting for Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and mentioned that he was hurt when KJo did not like his choice of lehenga. Manish added:
"No, we didn’t throw the lehenga at each other. Not at all! He’s just exaggerating. So, basically, I took this lehenga very excitedly to his office, and he looked at it and said, ‘This I don’t like’. I was personally hurt. My face started going red. I was very upset. And I just walked out from the office. I might have banged the lehenga on the table."
Check out the full interview here.
What do you think of Manish Malhotra's revelations about Akshay Kumar?
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