10 celebrities on the bond they share with their BFF
A tale of #galentines and #palentines
By ELLE team February 13th, 2019
No one knows us like our best friend does. On Valentine’s Day, we decided to celebrate a different kind of love as well—one that sees us through thick and thin. Here are 10 celebrities talking about their BFFs:
"Meet my best friend, Alena Podloznaya. Here, we are at a Russian restaurant that she took me to. It was a fantastic experience; we got to wear the Russian head piece and we danced on ‘Kalinka, kalinka, kalinka moya’ which, I thought, was a remake of ‘Darling, ankhon se ankhein char kar do’ from 7 Khoon Maaf. We spent half the night debating which song came first!
I met her in the model apartment in New York and we bonded so well straight away. I am so lucky to have found a genuine friend in her.
We have this ritual we do, we call it the morning ritual—whenever we meet for one day, we for go for meditation in the morning, go to Bibble and Sip on 51st street, New York City, to have jasmine matcha tea and catch up with each other, and then go for a walk in Central Park and be grateful for everything we have in life.
Also, she is going to kill me for saying this but Alena has a habit—whenever she used to wake up in the morning in the model apartment, the first thing she would say is, “Girls, beautiful life, it’s a beautiful day”—that made us call her ‘Beautiful Spirit Alena’." - Pooja Mor
"My best friend is Farah Pavri. She is a strong and fierce woman who is the bonafide mother of her niece. She is a terrific dancer and has no filters. But she is a chameleon—she can be quiet and listen and can be vocal and put your brain back in its place. She is bossy and a complete whacko. No party can exist without her dhinchak Bollywood desi numbers and her taking over the microphone and the DJ console. She is my rock, the only one who ensured I kept my smile and head up through all those dancing frightful days when I was shooting for Cuckoo’s character in Sacred Games. She’s always a phone call away. I also feel like I’m cheating on Natasha Kasliwal as I write this. I think we would be three to tango—if she lived in Mumbai." - Kubbra Sait
"I moved in with Naren many years ago, and suddenly, things blew up. Neerja released, I got cast in other things. He, a composer, got bigger and bigger projects. He’d already composed for Harud, Ship of Theseus, Killa, and while we were roomies: Nil Battey Sannata, Udta Punjab, Gurgaon, Newton, Qarib Qarib Singlle, Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait, Ghoul and Sonchiraiya (amongst others). Holy fu*k, right?
We’d disappear for weeks into work, and reconvene, slipping right back into where we left off, discussing our lives, our loves, and our careers with equal passion and irreverence.
I like this picture because it has a strange nostalgic quality, like we were alive before we were born. Featured in between us is Naren’s cat, Begum, and my, does she know it.
The finger marring this otherwise wholesome portrait of brotherly love, belongs to Mansi Multani, the girlfriend; and, much like her offending finger, she creeped into our lives, breaking up the band. Naren and Mansi live together now, ‘happily,’ and I wander the streets aimlessly, forlorn." - Jim Sarbh
"Eugenie and I have a special friendship. We love to travel the world together, have fun together and spend endless hours talking and laughing and enjoying life... And being Greek, we also love our summers in Greece!
She is a special, creative, sensitive and loyal person and friend. We loved each other from the first day we met over 10 years ago in LA. Some of our most treasured memories are from when we were at Burning Man. Those days on the dry lake are like nowhere else. Eug and I love being there with our other best friend Bianca Brandolini and my boyfriend Peter Dundas. Basically, Eug and I always have fun no matter where we are. The time is always spent laughing." - Evangelo
"Monica and I met 30 years ago, in April 1989, at my home where she was a guest. We took to each other instantly because she was an Italian and I was learning to speak Italian. From there on we began our adventurous journey of travel and friendship that spanned many continents and exotic cities where we made it a point to spend common holidays over the years. Monica is my partner in crime, my travel buddy and my soul sister. We are very much alike even though we come from different cultures. We have the same likes, dislikes and habits, and if there is one person who knows me inside out, it has to be Monica. We both can shop till we drop in the most fashionable cities with as much passion as in a bustling street market where we will find great treasures because we both share an eye for detail and for rare, beautiful things. Though we have our own personal style for dressing, we have shared clothes and often ended up wearing each other’s things.
There’s nothing I hate about her, but she can sure sleep for 14 to 16 hours at a stretch and I am an early riser. So when we are together, she makes the effort to wake up earlier so that we can spend time together.
We have so many memories together that its difficult to say which one is memorable but the one memory that keeps popping up with her is when I visited Italy in my 20s and had all these young guys on the street approach me to flirt with me and Monica got protective and shooed them off in the choicest of Italian language. I was bugged then with her because the men were very handsome and I was young but now I know that she was only looking out for me. If there is anyone I can depend on and trust implicitly with my eyes shut, Monica would have to be that person because she isn’t just my soul sister, she is my family and someone I can't imagine my life without." - Farah Khan Ali
Best buds since Ranbir’s film, Wake Up Sid, which was directed by Ayan. Ranbir has gone on record to call Ayan a true friend: "People say this industry is fickle and only salutes people who are successful and ignores when they fail. But that's when you realise who your true friends are. When you are not successful, people won't be around and as long as you have sense of that, you will be fine. I would say Ayan has been a true friend so far.”
Ayan, on the other hand, has admitted that he can bank on Ranbir like a family member. He said, “I don't know what to say about him that would not sound mushy or patronising, but, after my parents, he is one of the five most important people in my life. I had lots of good friends but no one whom I could have called my best friend. I know I have an edge with him that nobody else has and really feel kicked about the fact that no one can match what both of us can create with our friendship. It's almost like a teenage thing, but he is my best friend. I am not possessive about him and, in fact, am confident about our relationship is really tight. I can bank on Ranbir like I would on my father.”
The besties sweat it out in the gym together, travel together, and consider each other soul sisters. “There are times when Bebo is forming new friendships and I do get a little jealous,” Amrita admitted on Kareena’s radio show. Kareena didn’t miss a chance to pull Amrita’s leg, replying with, “I always message Amu ‘You are being replaced’.” The duo often hang out with Karisma Kapoor and Malaika Arora, making it one big girl squad.
Alia and Akanksha do everything you expect from childhood BFFs. They party, travel, work out and make goofy Instagram videos together. In 2016, Alia flew down to Spain to surprise Akanksha on her birthday. “Happy birthday sister/boyfriend/best friend/ love/family/everything. only ur (sic) face could bring me across the globe for just one day! I love you to be moon and back! Here's to many more crazy birthdays and lives together till death do us part haha,” she captioned their photograph.
If you think two leading actors can’t get along, think again. Sonam and Jacqueline are each other’s 3am friends and have been photographed walking hand-in-hand. The two met at the screening of Sonam’s film Mausam in 2011, got along like a house on fire and have been pretty much inseparable ever since. Jacqueline said, “The weirdest thing is we don’t know how our friendship started. We were just kind of bumping into each other and meeting one another. There’s this mutual respect we have for each other and there’s no sense of competition between the both of us. We help each other a lot. She has really seen me through a lot of struggles, and has always been there for me. I could not have asked for a better friend in Bollywood. She really has my back. And I really love that girl because of how genuine she is.” And oh, they call each other Jack and Sones.
"Maria Goretti and I were always friends waiting to happen. We met as MTV VJs in 1999 and this year will mark our 20th friendaversary. We are very different from each other, yet we are like two pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle. We have spent most of our adult lives together, going through professional highs, childbirth, schooling, even doing up our homes together. We both love food and are insanely crazy about travel, and once a year we take a big trip alone. It's funny how we share the same values in life, but plod through situations differently. And I know that if I were ever stuck in a deep dark dungeon, she would be sitting there too, holding my hand, with a bottle of wine and two glasses. From all the adventures we've had together, I'd say my favourite has been having each other." - Mini Mathur
