The Next Big Things

NEELAM JOHAL

Model

It’s a life-altering year for Johal. She made her runway debut for Burberry Prorsum Spring/Summer 2014, successfully ensuring that she’s a fixture on our pages for practically half of 2014. Then the 18-year-old Coventry girl went and outdid herself by bagging their campaign. Well played.

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KAVITA AHUJA

Perfumer

ICYMI, Garance Doré is in love with New Yorkers Kavita Ahuja and David Moltz’s indie perfume brand – “I fell all over myself for my latest scent, Poppy Rouge by D.S.& Durga”. Aw. We love them too. The label’s recent baby, HYLNDS, is inspired by the English countryside and is exclusively available at Barneys, New York. Newsflash: Fashion and beauty collaborations expected.

ANUPAMA CHANDRASEKHAR

Playwright

With her plays Free Outgoing (2007) and Disconnect (2010) opening to gushing reviews at the Royal Court Theatre, this playwright is hardly new to the London stage. In 2011, she worked on an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic Snow Queen. This year, she is chipping away at three plays, one of which is for the Tricycle Theatre, London. 

BOB ODENKIRK

Actor

You knew him as ‘that funny guy in that movie’ until Bob Odenkirk turned slippery attorney for Walter White on Breaking Bad. The drug drama fished the 51-year-old comedy veteran and former Saturday Night Live sketch writer out of relative obscurity as lawyer Saul Goodman, with an office in a strip mall and the moral compass of a chair. And now he’s getting his own spin-off, Better Call Saul, which will air on AMC. This, aside from the simultaneous rave reviews he garnered for Alexander Payne’s critically acclaimed drama, Nebraska. He’s also been roped into play a cop in the Coen Brothers’ TV adaptation of Fargo that will air later this year. When it rains, it pours.

DAVID KOMA

Fashion designer

Koma knows what it takes to rule a fashion empire. His own, started in 2009, retails across 55 stores around the world. Plus, his architectural designs have been spotted on Jennifer Lawrence and Cheryl Cole. Now he’s taken on the mantle of Creative Director at Thierry Mugler – replacing Lady Gaga’s BFF Nicola Formichetti.

DHRUV KAPUR

Fashion designer

If you’ve read reports from the trenches of Indian fashion weeks, you’ll remember his name. You’ve probably seen him too, dressed in threads from his label, DRVV: Tube dresses (yes!) with zip details or shirts with exaggerated collars. Minimalist, utilitarian and austere, his clothes speak urban coolth. Actor Freida Pinto was spotted in one of his looks, too. And we love his campaign featuring real women (including ELLE Fashion Director Malini Banerji).

AMIT SHARMA

Ad film-maker

The ad he directed for Google recorded half a million hits within hours of arriving on the interwebs. Those three-and-a half minutes, about the separation of old friends who drifted away after Partition and their ultimate reunion (courtesy Google, of course), made everyone reach for a box of tissues. His first Bollywood film (Tevar) starring Sonakshi Sinha and Arjun Kapoor, releases this year. Brace yourselves, just in case it’s another tear jerker.

SAMANTHA ROLLINSON

Model

Looks familiar? Thanks to Zara, the 19-year-old’s face was splashed everywhere last year and Rollison followed it up with Burberry, Balenciaga, Kurt Geiger and Sonia Rykiel. The English up-and-comer walked the ramp for over 30 Spring/Summer 2014 shows including Louis Vuitton in Paris, Prada in Milan, Christopher Kane in London and Alexander Wang in New York. We just want those cheekbones.

LAUREN OWEN

Writer

The 29-year-old English author’s career began the way many writing careers are wont to begin in the era of JK Rowling – with Harry Potter fan fic. Set in Victorian London, Lauren Owen’s debut novel, a gothic potboiler called The Quick, follows the lives of tragedy-bound siblings who become embroiled in a club of England’s most powerful men. Booker veteran Hilary Mantel calls the novel “a sly and glittering addition to the literature of the macabre”. ’Nuff said.

DAKOTA JOHNSON

Actor

Actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson’s offspring was already showing star quality with appearances in big-ticket films like The Social Network and 21 Jump Street to fronting fashion brands like Mango, Uniqlo and Oliver Peoples. She’s been picked to play the one role every starlet would kill for – Anastasia Steele in the big-screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey. And we know the 24-year-old won’t be daunted by those explicit bedroom romps either (refer her between-the-sheets action with Jason Segel in Five Year Engagement.)

MAHESH RAO

Writer

Mysore is posed for global recognition this month – and three of its women, mired in three separate realities, are slowly unravelling. Yeah, we weren’t floored by the sound of Mahesh Rao’s debut, The Smoke is Rising, either. Until we sampled some of this former lawyer and bookseller’s sparkling short stories (The Agony of Leaves, for one). Droll wit meets dull-ache musings and you’ll want to weep for his endearing everyman characters.

KANGAN ARORA

Textile designer

Arora has shown at the London Design Festival (where she will be showing later this year as well), the Southbank Centre, the V&A Museum and at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. Her optical-illusion prints and doodle-crazy cushion covers can be seen at London’s iconic furniture and furnishing store, Heal’s.

NATALIE YOUNG

Writer

When it comes to inexplicable bestsellers, cannibalism might well trump sado-masochism. London-based Young is being pegged as the new EL James for Season to Taste, a book where a middle-aged woman, Lizzie, kills her husband of 30 years, chops him into pieces and eats him. 

LORDE

Singer

If end-of-year lists are any measure of one’s success, then note: Lorde (pronounced ‘Lord’, NOT ‘Lor-day’) was in almost all of them – for good reason. Her single ‘Royals’ ruled the Billboard top 100 charts for a good five weeks, then she became that pop sensation with a multi-million dollar book deal. The singer commenced her North American tour this month and will release her next album later this year. Did we mention she’s only 17? Commence existential crisis.

NUCLEYA

DJ and music producer

Udyan Sagar started off as one half of the Bandish Projekt in the late ’90s, became Nucleya in 2008, and has been persistently reinventing his sound throughout. From Asian underground to Bollywood remixes to South Indian dubstep – his only prerogative is that you never leave the dance floor. A remixed version of his EP Koocha Monster is out this month. 

LUPITA NYONG’O

Actor

This Mexi-Kenyan Yale School of Drama graduate beat out 1,000 other actors for the role of tortured slave Patsey in Steve McQueen’s Oscar-destined 12 Years a Slave. She’s also snapped up a role in the Liam Neeson thriller Non-Stop. Best-dressed lists love her for her range: From imperious crystal-dusted Prada to whimsy bird-print Miu Miu to indie leather-brocade Rodarte – all accessorised with that million-watt smile.

NIK THAKKAR

Entrepreneur

We’ll just call him that as a mild way to describe the sheer number of pies this handsome London and New York-based 26-year-old has his hands in. As a brand strategist, he forged big fashion partnerships for Diet Coke (think Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier). He runs menswear label Ada+Nik, is a columnist at the Huffington Post, is the face of Jean Paul Gaultier’s Autumn/Winter 2013-14 and has modelled the Chapman Brothers’ Collection for Louis Vuitton. Under miscellaneous activities, file: DJing, starring in TV shows, running a blog and curating design and art exhibitions.

SAHEJ RAHAL

Performance artist

You never know what to expect from the multi-disciplinary artist who uses sculpture, video, photography and performance to explore ideas. What you can count on is that it’s always exciting, what with the random objects, outlandish props and costumes in his theatrical works. Rahal has already added some topknot chart residencies to his CV: Gasworks, London and MACRO Museum, Rome. This year, he’s working on a public art project in Vancouver – inspired by spy princess Noor Inayat Khan – which will be shown at the Vancouver Biennale in 2015.

SIAN PASCALE

Furniture designer

The willowy Australian expat has a thing for rejects. She makes clay cups called ‘Pi Ke Puht’, with seeds embedded in the sides. When junked, the biodegradable cups sprout trees. (How we love incidental karma points.) Her chair line, ‘Bombay Bunai Kursi’, gives the old plastic method a mod, minimalist do-over. For a quick sample of her aesthetic, head to Mumbai’s Kombava Café – packed with bamboo shoots and earthy goodness – or Abode, Colaba’s new boutique hotel.

RUZWANA BASHIR

Tech entrepreneur

Armed with degrees from Oxford and Harvard, Ruzwana Bashir cofounded Peek – a company that, through its website (launched in 2012 to much popularity) and app, helps you plan holidays that are anything but run-of-the-mill. The New York Times called the site one “you want to visit again and again”. And when the iOS app launched in December 2013, it rose sharply into iTunes’ Best New Apps section. Recommendations soon poured in via Twitter from Piers Morgan and Alice + Olivia. Peek expands to cover 15 more cities this year.