Meet India’s New ‘It Girls’

A new generation of “It girls” were in the spotlight last week at global events celebrating Diwali, with many generating valuable publicity for fashion and jewellery brands during what is a crucial moment in India’s retail calendar. The festival of lights has become an increasingly important sales and marketing opportunity for brands looking to tap the rapidly growing luxury market in a country where celebrity culture often reigns supreme.

Ananya Panday, who featured in Swarovski’s latest Diwali season campaign, was seen at designer Manish Malhotra’s annual star-studded party in Mumbai which was also attended by fellow Bollywood actress Khushi Kapoor and beauty entrepreneur Mira Rajput Kapoor. In London, heiress Tania Shroff’s strapless Anita Dongre dress turned heads at the Diwali ball hosted by Condé Nast Traveller and Cartier.

What these and other Diwali season marketing moments had in common was that the protagonists were mostly young “It girl” celebrities. The elusive term, describing a girl or woman with a certain allure, has been in and out of fashion for nearly a century and hotly debated for much of that time. But what constitutes an ‘It girl’ in the modern Indian context?

“It’s someone who is almost like [an embodiment of the] zeitgeist of the times,” offers Nonita Kalra, editor-in-chief of Indian multi-brand e-commerce major Tata Cliq, noting that It girls can either be counterculture figures or ‘culture multipliers’. “They are of the moment, but they also present a very exciting version and essence of the future that’s almost indescribable. A lot of it is very in the air, which is why it grabs the imagination of people.”

Kalra points to, among others, Tania Shroff, a burgeoning style icon and influencer who was recently featured on a digital cover of the Indian edition of Harper’s Bazaar.

“Everything Tania wears feels like it has come from her cupboard. She’s worn it… and done the perfect test drive,” adds Kalra, who formerly served as editor-in-chief of Elle India and Harper’s Bazaar India. “You almost associate no brand with her so if she does work with one, it doesn’t feel paid for. That’s the ultimate endorsement.”

Daughter of billionaire industrialist Jai Shroff, chairman of chemical and agribusiness giant UPL, Tania is part of the international jet-set. She can be seen sitting front row at a Burberry show one day, hosting a party for Puma on another, and then attending Sofia Richie’s wedding the next. The latter appearance, which saw her dress in Schiaparelli and Miss Sohee, had TikTok fashion commentators and many of her half-million Instagram followers declare her the best-dressed guest at the event.

“I started social media in school, and soon realised I had a passion for putting together looks and shooting them in a cool way. That’s what set me apart I think — not my outfits or where I am in the world — but more how I capture and put my posts together,” Shroff tells BoF, revealing that she wants to explore creative direction and investing in fashion brands next.

It girls like Shroff admit that they are especially “picky” about who they work with, preferring brands that either feel like an organic fit or offer a lot of creative freedom. “My most prized brand collaboration is with Harrods, because I have so many memories at the store as a kid,” says Shroff, referring to the social media content she created for the London luxury department store, including a reel where she got ready for a show at The Royal Ballet in Harrods’ eveningwear room.

Indian tastemakers, muses and style icons with the ‘it factor’ — particularly those whose lifestyles reflect the dreams that global luxury brands try to sell — are increasingly in demand. Annual luxury goods spending by Indian consumers is expected to roughly triple by 2030, reaching €25 to €30 billion ($28-32 billion), according to Bain & Company.

Alluring and charismatic film stars

The It girl term first gained widespread prominence in the 1920s, when American actress Clara Bow starred in a movie called It, and then went on to be referred to as the “It girl”. Every decade since has seen It girls lead the social scenes of major cities as a rolling cast of actresses, supermodels, fashion designers, party girls, heiresses and society doyennes. The 1990s and 2000s were arguably the heyday of stylish It girls in London and New York, featuring names like Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Sienna Miller, Kate Moss, Olivia Palermo and Chloë Sevigny.

In India, the It girls who most captured public imagination often emerged from Bollywood, a testament to the film industry’s mammoth impact on popular culture. Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi in the 1970s; Sonali Bendre, Sushmita Sen and Karisma Kapoor in the 1990s, and in more recent decades Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Deepika Padukone.

A small group of female Gen-Z film stars fits the bill today. Five years since she entered the film industry, 26-year-old Ananya Panday has gone on to become one of the most emblematic It girls of her generation, according to fashion industry observers. Her recent coming-of-age comedy series Call Me Bae, where her character and its wardrobe drew wide comparisons to Emily in Paris, further cemented this tag.

Fashion brands have started to clock her appeal. Panday is an ambassador for both Swarovski and Timex and previously fronted local campaigns for Jimmy Choo. Her role as the face of beauty brand Lakmé makes her the showstopper at the runway finale show at Mumbai and Delhi fashion weeks where the brand is title sponsor. Recently, Panday was also spotted in Paris, sitting front row at a Chanel show.

“As a promising young actor who has a focus and deep respect for her craft, Ananya stood out in the spectrum of talent in India. Her self-confidence is striking, and with every new project, it is evident that she is making a mark for herself in the film industry,” a Chanel India spokesperson told BoF of its choice to invite her, adding that Panday embodies the knack for “cultivating one’s allure.”

According to social media analytics firm Launchmetrics, the MIV (media impact value) of Panday’s main post about Chanel during Paris Fashion Week amounted to $603,000 for the brand while the ‘Echo MIV’ (social media mentions by others that include the relevant keywords) was worth $1.4 million. So far in 2024, her 18 social media posts mentioning Swarovski drove $7 million in MIV for the brand.

Khushi Kapoor is another name whose wardrobe garners nearly as much attention as her life, a fact which has helped her secure collaborations with Christian Dior, YSL Beauty and Sol De Janeiro, as well as an ambassador role for Korean skincare brand The Face Shop.

“You see this ease of knowing what works for her and that there’s a point of view” with her sartorial choices, said Kalra.

Hailing from a film dynasty, the 24-year-old has often spoken about growing up in a family that loves fashion. The youngest daughter of late legendary actress Sridevi, Khushi Kapoor counts fashion icon Sonam Kapoor Ahuja (who was recently announced Dior’s new brand ambassador), and stylist and film producer Rhea Kapoor as cousins.

Another film star in the running for It girl status is the elusive Athiya Shetty, whose appeal comes largely from being a ‘fashion girl’ who engages with the social scene intermittently and at her own pace, lending her an air of mystery.

In a sea of peers who dress alike off screen and play similar characters on screen, actresses like Sobhita Dhulipala and Anasuya Sengupta are seen by many as a breath of fresh air, a quality which gives them more credibility as It girls.

Dhulipala, for instance, decided to strip away the customary bling to get engaged to superstar Naga Chaitanya Akkineni, dressing instead in traditional textiles from Andhra Pradesh state. Sengupta was the first Indian to win the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her unconventional role in crime drama The Shameless, and is unafraid of bold fashion choices too, often favouring unexpected pieces from Chanel or edgy looks by Rishta by Arjun Saluja, Amit Aggarwal and Gaurav Gupta.

Socialites and aristocrats with substance

Until recently, few global luxury brands tapped Indian celebrity ambassadors from non-acting backgrounds. Yet a certain kind of socialite has long qualified as an ‘It girl’ in the eyes of the fashion establishment, both in India and overseas.

“They were It girls because they didn’t include you in the conversation. You had no access to them. You wanted their life, but it was because you couldn’t have their life,” Kalra explains.

Since the rise of online influencers, however, the scope of the socialite muse has stretched to include self-made social media content creators like Komal Pandey who has amassed a following of nearly 2 million on Instagram.

“While [actress] Ananya Panday is the ultimate It girl today, for a huge chunk of India, Komal Pandey is also an It girl,” confirms Kalra, citing “a cultural shift.”

“At the heart of what you’re seeing these [new] It girls in India expressing is financial independence [in addition to] taking control of their destiny, making empowered choices and enjoying their success,” Kalra adds.

However, some suggest that it’s no longer enough for It girl muses to be charismatic, cool, authentic and fashion-forward. Those without great talent, substance or accomplishments could be potentially counterproductive for brands of a certain calibre. “The value of that ‘It-ness’, if based on the superfluous, is very transitory, and lacks any authentic grip,” warns culture journalist and sustainability advocate Bandana Tewari.

While social media has levelled the playing field, it also led to the rise of homogeneity. In the age of people who are sometimes ‘famous for being famous’, not every successful Instagram influencer is an It girl.

In addition to being authentic, “she has to be somebody who… colours outside the lines a little bit but is pretty comfortable in her own self-expression. Ultimately, the tag comes from an outside gaze; no one can call themselves an It girl,” says beauty entrepreneur Mira Rajput Kapoor, who came into the limelight following her marriage to actor Shahid Kapoor in 2015, and is considered by many to be an It girl herself.

Over the years, Kapoor has chosen to not be defined by the celebrity spouse role, carving out her own niche instead. “Earlier, people were following me from a sense of voyeurism to know more about Shahid’s life,” she says, but after following her “chosen path” in the beauty and wellness industry where she co-founded skincare brand Akind, that has changed.

While she often attends brand events and fashion shows for the likes of Christian Dior and Valentino — sometimes even walking the runway for brands like Jade by Monica & Karishma — Kapoor says she “doesn’t think about clothes too much.” Her 4.8 million Instagram followers don’t seem to expect a glossy image. “My homepage feed is a mess, and it doesn’t matter. I don’t want it to be super curated nor do I need to be elusive like an actor. I like to be relatable and reachable,” she tells BoF.

At the other end of the relatability spectrum is Jimmy Choo ambassador Gauravi Kumari, the titular princess from the royal family of Jaipur. The young aristocrat is the co-founder of The PDKF Store, a non-profit that supports her mother’s charitable foundation upskilling Rajasthani women in local crafts.

Jimmy Choo creative director Sandra Choi describes Kumari as being “inspiring in many different and multifaceted dimensions,” including her philanthropic work. In India specifically, the brand looks for celebrity partners who can “connect with both contemporary and traditional Indian audiences, reflecting the duality of the Indian luxury consumer,” she says.

While Kumari doesn’t think of herself as an It girl, she believes the influence of one is linked to broader cultural appeal, rather than just “influencing lifestyle choices by example,” as is the case with other influencers active on social media. “Yes, there is a fair amount of curiosity about my life and work because of my family. However, I try to use my platform to talk about causes that I am passionate about, such as women’s empowerment.”

Most of her recent associations, with brands ranging from Anita Dongre to Ralph Lauren, purposefully link back to raising money for the foundation, rather than simply placing Kumari front-and-centre.

The men crowned as ‘It boys’

There are fashion-conscious men who are considered to have the ‘It factor’ too. One of the most iconic examples of an Indian ‘It boy’ today is musician Diljit Dosanjh.

The sway Dosanjh has over a certain segment of Indian society and the diaspora is in a league of its own. As he makes history and disrupts culture, he has collected ample firsts along the way including being the first Indian artist to perform live at Coachella. It’s not just his chart-topping music but also the pride with which he wears his Punjabi-ness (including traditional garb on global stages) that has led to his loyal fandom, including 23 million Instagram followers. “Diljit is the coolest man in the world,” says Kalra.

His love for fashion is evident in his wardrobe ranging from Chanel, Balenciaga, Yohji Yamamoto and Celine to a diamond-encrusted Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Hublot Big Bang watches. Though he hasn’t yet signed with a global luxury brand, Indian luggage maker Mokobara recently partnered with him and Levi’s dropped limited-edition merchandise for his Dil-Luminati tour.

A younger It boy on the fashion radar is Gen-Z actor Vedang Raina, who has been anointed as the next big star of his generation by film industry watchdogs. While Raina has been spotted at fashion events for Tiffany & Co and Vogue India and walked the runway for couturier Gaurav Gupta, he is still honing in on his fashion footing. Even so, he has been featured in a Tarun Tahiliani campaign and was roped in as one of the ambassadors for Crocs.

Aristocratic young men are of particular interest to luxury fashion. One blue-blooded It boy who is creating a lot of buzz is Ibrahim Ali Khan Pataudi, son of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan and grandson of late cricketing legend and nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, who recently scored a brand ambassadorship for Puma. A similar fascination extends to the life of polo player Sawai Padmanabh Singh, also known as ‘Pacho’, the 26-year-old titular maharaja of Jaipur (Kumari’s older brother). Considered one of the best-dressed men in the country, Singh has already fronted covers for GQ India, sat front row at Dior shows and taken part in social media campaigns for brands like Piaget.

Tastemakers who help define the culture, set trends and wield influence over consumer behaviour are increasingly important mouthpieces for brands looking to widen their reach in India. As Gen-Z consumers become even more of a focal point, this new crop of It boys and It girls will almost certainly secure more endorsement deals as ambassadors, capsule collaborators and campaign models.

Still, industry leaders warn that brands must do more than just choose their celebrity partners wisely. “You have to collaborate with these personalities without ‘owning’ or subverting them,” advises Kalra, adding that brands should collaborate in more interesting, unexpected ways while also allowing the celebrities to “bring their tone of voice, style and purpose to the brand.”

“Here’s the thing — does an It girl or an It personality stay ‘It’ if they’re ‘bought’ by a brand? My answer is a hard no. They stay ‘It’ because when they wear a brand, the brand benefits more than they do.”