The business of being Manish Malhotra

With a renewed vision, a sizeable investment from Reliance Brands Limited and expansion plans firmly in place, the fashion designer talks about what’s next for his eponymous brand

Manish Malhotra was in the middle of a chock-full day when we met him at his new four-floor headquarters in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra last month. He had just returned from pulling an all-nighter at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC), ahead of its grand opening weekend, for which he designed 1,200 costumes for The Great Indian Musical: Civilization to Nation. As we settled in for lunch in the conference room, members from the design team flowed in and out for his approval—on Swarovski stones versus sequins for a costume, on the embroidery of a custom look for a star they were slated to dress, on the silhouette for another.

Barely a quarter into 2023, and it’s already been an exciting year for the designer and his team. He designed the entire wardrobe for superstar couple Kiara Advani and Siddharth Malhotra’s nuptials this February, teased a preview to his upcoming bespoke diamond jewellery on Advani, had Jennifer Aniston spotted in his chikankari lehenga in the movie Murder Mystery 2, staged a 102-model finale show at FDCI X Lakme Fashion Week for his brand ‘Diffuse’, and dressed influencer Alanna Panday for her now-viral wedding. “I am personally involved with every little thing that goes on here. I am a workaholic,” admits the designer, who seems committed to capturing the zeitgeist, in Bollywood and beyond. 

Star-studded success

Malhotra’s hugely successful career in fashion began with films. Before he was a fashion designer, he was a costume designer and a stylist. His filmography, including over 800 films, dates back to 1990, and boasts iconic silver-screen classics from Rangeela (1995), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) to Kalank (2019). It is then safe to say that Malhotra has played a key role in shaping Bollywood’s narrative in style.

“I got into costumes thinking that’s what I’ll always do. The label almost started as ‘let’s make saris as my name is popular because of all the superhit films’.” That’s how it was launched, in 2005. Malhotra’s A-list celebrity muses as well as his own popularity soon made him a household name across the country. Airports, restaurants, events—even today, it’s not uncommon for him to be stopped by admirers for selfies. Take Instagram, for example, where his personal profile has 7.3 million followers, compared to his brand profile’s 1.4 million followers.

But Malhotra isn’t looking to be bigger than his brand, which is why this ongoing phase is specifically about “transitioning from Manish Malhotra, the designer to Manish Malhotra, the label.” Fashion, he attests, is about reinvention. “I've seen artists and directors in the film industry lose relevance because they thought it was all about them. It’s not about me or the clothes I am making. It’s about who I am making them for,” he muses. 

A new dawn

The creative shift has been supplemented by a strategic business shift as well, brought, in large part, due to their partnership with Reliance Brands (RBL), part of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector enterprise. In October 2021, RBL—whose portfolio also includes recent investments in homegrown designers such as Anamika Khanna’s AK-OK, Rahul Mishra, Ritu Kumar, Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla and Satya Paul among others—bought a 40 per cent stake in the brand, Malhotra’s first external investment. “It’s like when movies got corporatised. We are seeing the same in fashion now. While the vision comes from the designer, fashion needs support in terms of funding, technology and administration,” he says. For his brand, it has led to an influx of support in distribution and supply chains, global outreach, better financial planning and resource allocation, and diving deeper into R&D.

The brand has reported a year-on-year growth of 30 per cent in profits in the last five years, with the exception of pandemic-struck 2020. There has been a 120-plus per cent or double-up growth in revenue and sales since the pre-lockdown period. His team of employees and karigars is over 600 today, with another 500 female artisans from Shabana Azmi’s NGO Mijwan Welfare Society who Malhotra works closely with for his revivalist chikankari line. 

“All the new launches have been on my mind, but it’s taken me time to do it. How to run a company or how to deal with so many people has also taken me time. It's not been an overnight journey. I haven't studied any of it. I’ve been observing and learning,” he admits. 

Diffuse, a more Gen-Z-focused line, Malhotra reveals, was on the drawing board for four years. “We kept reworking it with a different, younger team until it felt right. I was clear I did not want to do a brand of lighter saris or lehengas. It had to be a subsidiary, alternative brand for another audience. It's like, ‘Oh, I'm fond of Indian food, but today I really want a burger from a fun place.’ You know?” The high diamond jewellery line is another vertical he is excited about. Entirely separate from his already existing collaboration on uncut diamond jewellery with Jaipur-based jewellers Raniwala 1881. “The strategy for our diamond jewellery is different. It's very personalised, and won’t necessarily be in the stores or seen on everyone. It's more exclusive,” he adds.

And then there is the upcoming store in Dubai Mall’s Fashion Avenue, the brand’s first international store in addition to their four existing stores across Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad (the latter two sized at a sprawling 15,000 sq ft each). The Dubai store, slated to launch later this year, will bring Malhotra closer to the Indian diaspora in the Middle East, which, according to the Ministry of External Affairs, was 7.6 million in 2020. The largest portion of this number resides in the United Arab Emirates, according to the report. “The store is our first step in moving internationally, and we are working towards international silhouettes, similar to what you saw on Kiara [Advani] at her reception,” he explains. There are also plans to create designs with regional aesthetics and craftsmanship to appeal to the UAE shopper as well.

That’s not all. The beauty range continues to be a focus, there are plans to introduce premium accessories, amp up in-store experiences, open a bigger space in Mumbai, and create more androgynous, gender-fluid bridge collections. Can these overtake his bridal-wear business, the bread-and-butter of most design houses in India’s wedding-driven market? “It's too early to predict, but their potential to contribute to our growth and diversification is significant. There is a huge potential in pret and jewellery,” he adds.

At the heart of the business

Even as Malhotra continues to bring in the right people to drive the brand at its pivotal cusp of change, his work philosophy remains unchanged. Curiosity drives him. “You could be interested in something, but are you curious about it? Take Diffuse, for example. That oversized vibe and those silhouettes don’t come naturally to me. But I am curious about them.”

Another quality that has held Malhotra in good stead is being unaffected by naysayers around him. “I've never feared what people have to say. It doesn’t bother me; I keep going,” he declares. “I've never feared failure either. Everyone has the right to make mistakes, as much as they have the right to be successful. There are good days, and bad days. You want to point out my mistake? It's absolutely fine. But there will be days when there will be no mistakes. No one acknowledges those. And you know what? That's fine too.”

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