The ELLE Collective - 29 People Who Owned 2025

Michelle Poonawala

Michelle Poonawala doesn’t compartmentalise her life. Philanthropy, business, design, and art don’t sit in separate lanes; they flow into one another, shaped by family values, long-term thinking, and a deeply personal relationship with creativity.

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Anamika Khanna

Anamika Khanna has always worked slightly ahead of fashion’s vocabulary. Long before Indian design comfortably occupied global conversations, she was already translating craft into structure and tradition into something sharply contemporary. Her work does not romanticise heritage; it reframes it. What makes her presence on the ELLE Collective enduring is longevity without repetition. She represents Indian fashion as thought rather than trend, and craftsmanship as a living language, not a preserved one.

Bhavitha Mandava

Bhavitha Mandava’s presence on the global runway marked a quiet but significant shift in representation. As the only Indian to have opened a Chanel show, her moment was not framed by spectacle, but by inevitability. She embodies a new phase of global fashion where Indian identity enters the room without explanation or novelty. Her inclusion signals progress not through noise, but through normalisation.

Bijoy Jain

In 2025, Bijoy Jain’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton brought Studio Mumbai’s philosophy to a global luxury stage without compromise. His work continues to foreground material honesty, process, and collaboration with artisans. Jain’s relevance lies in restraint, proving that design rooted in sustainability and craft can operate powerfully within global systems without losing its soul.

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Diljit Dosanjh

Diljit Dosanjh has carried regional identity onto global stages without dilution or apology. Whether through music, cinema, or personal style, he leads with pride and clarity. His success reflects a cultural shift where authenticity is currency, not limitation. He expands how Indian masculinity, celebrity, and confidence are perceived worldwide.

Jayanti Khan Chauhan

Few brands are as embedded in India’s daily life as Bisleri. As Vice Chairperson of Bisleri International, Jayanti Khan Chauhan leads a legacy defined by trust and scale, modernising operations while safeguarding the fundamentals that built them. Over the past decade, she has strengthened systems, introduced a premium lens through Vedica Himalayan Spring Water, and anchored sustainability in practice over promise.

Farhana Bodi

Farhana Bodi has lived many lives in full view of the world: fashion entrepreneur, digital force, reality-TV presence, and a woman who continues to rewrite what visibility can look like for Indian women globally. Her journey is of deliberate evolution, a reminder that confidence is practised, identity is layered, and ambition doesn’t wait for permission.

Dolly Singh

Dolly Singh stands apart as the only Indian Instagram creator selected for Meta’s global RING programme, marking her influence beyond national boundaries. Her voice resonates through humour, vulnerability, and cultural self-awareness. Moving fluidly between content creation and acting, she reflects modern Indian womanhood as it is lived unfiltered, ambitious, anddeeply relatable.

Dhaval Udeshi

Dhaval Udeshi has shaped India’s luxury hospitality landscape through restaurants like Gigi, Scarlet House, and others that define modern dining culture. His strength lies in building experiences that balance global sensibility with local relevance. His presence recognises leadership that quietly influences taste, lifestyle, and consumer behaviour from within the ecosystem.

Daiphi "Reble" Lamare

At just 22, Meghalaya-born rapper Reble has emerged as one of India’s most arresting new voices in hip-hop. Raised in the West Jaintia Hills, she has been writing and performing since childhood, shaping a sound rooted in grime, trap, and raw storytelling. Her breakout moment came in 2025 with her powerful contributions to Dhurandhar, bringing the Northeast into mainstream cinematic soundscapes. Fiercely independent and deeply intentional, Reble uses music as both expression and representation—amplifying regional narratives while mentoring the next generation of artists from India’s margins.

Harmanpreet Kaur

Harmanpreet Kaur’s leadership is built on endurance rather than theatrics. As captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, she has normalised ambition, strength, and authority in spaces that once resisted them. Her impact extends beyond wins or statistics; it lives in representation. She stands for consistency under pressure and visibility earned over time, making her presence resonate far beyond the pitch.

Ishaan Khatter

With Homebound earning international attention and an Oscars connection, Ishaan Khatter continues to chart a career defined by curiosity rather than formula. Comfortable across independent cinema and mainstream visibility, his choices reflect emotional depth and restraint. He represents a new masculinity in Indian cinemaless performative, more interior, and increasingly global.

Katseye

KATSEYE sits at the intersection of global pop culture and fashion, amplified by their role in GAP’s most viral campaign of the year. The group’s relevance for India is sharpened by Lara Raj, whose presence reflects how Indian identity now moves fluidly within Gen Z’s global mainstream. Together, they signal a shift in influence borderless, collaborative, and culturally hybrid.

Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai remains one of the most singular literary voices of our time, writing with restraint, depth, and emotional precision. With The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, her long-awaited return to fiction, she revisits themes of migration, love, and modern dislocation through a sharply contemporary lens. Desai’s work resists speed and spectacle, choosing complexity over closure. In an era of constant output, her presence on the ELLE Collective honours the power of patience, intelligence, and stories that linger long after the last page.

Manish Malhotra

In 2025, Manish Malhotra was everywhere that culture converged: global showcases, high-profile weddings, international red carpets, and fashion’s most-watched moments. Beyond visibility, his brand demonstrated cultural authority by hosting one of the year’s most talked-about fashion gatherings, bringing together cinema, couture, and global luxury. His relevance today lies in his ability to keep glamour contemporary, social, and unmistakably Indian.

Supriya Kataria

At Kumari, founder Supriya Kataria brings a refined sensibility to fine jewellery by merging emotional heritage with contemporary ease. Guided by the belief that pieces should feel lived-in rather than reserved for occasions, she has shaped a design language defined by softness, clean lines and quiet presence. With stores that reflect her understated philosophy and a growing community of women who reach for Kumari in their everyday lives, Kataria represents a new chapter in Indian fine jewellery — one where sentiment and simplicity coexist, and timelessness meets modernity.

Tamanna Punjabi Kapoor

Tamanna Punjabi Kapoor is one of Indian fashion’s most enduring names in occasion and bridalwear, building her brand long before the era of virality. Trained on the factory floor rather than the design studio, she translates decades of technical understanding into clothes defined by restraint, longevity, and emotional connection. Two decades on, her work continues to move across generations and geographies, held together by consistency of craft and a quiet, human-led approach to luxury.

Neeta Ambani

In 2025, Neeta Ambani represents a rare kind of influence that moves seamlessly between culture, capital, and national imagination. Through the Reliance Foundation and the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, she has positioned India not just as a market, but as a cultural force with global confidence. Her work is defined by institution-building at scale, where philanthropy, art, sport, and media operate as long-term systems rather than momentary gestures.

Priya Nair

As the only woman in her leadership position at Hindustan Unilever Limited, Priya Nair operates at a scale few can claim. Her influence shapes brands that sit inside everyday Indian life, quietly but powerfully. She understands consumers beyond data, navigating
aspiration, responsibility, and trust with precision. Her leadership matters not because it is loud, but because it proves that authority, accountability, and impact can coexist without spectacle.

Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan remains culturally central not by chasing relevance, but by understanding it. Across decades, industries, and global platforms, his influence has evolved without erasing its past. His emotional intelligence—balancing power, vulnerability, and reinvention—keeps him current in ways few achieve. He remains a constant in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape.

Sunil Sethi

Sunil Sethi has been a steady force behind the architecture of Indian fashion. As Chairman of the Fashion Design Council of India, he has focused on building systems rather than moments — expanding India’s global fashion presence, strengthening designer sustainability, and positioning craft within contemporary commerce. In 2025, his leadership reinforced Indian fashion’s credibility on international platforms, proving that long-term structure, not spectacle, is what allows creativity to endure.

Tanaaz Bhatia

Tanaaz Bhatia has quietly become one of the most influential architects behind India’s biggest cultural narratives. As the founder of Bottomline Media, she has built a rare bridge between Bollywood stardom and global brand strategy. Her agency’s campaigns aren’t advertising so much as cultural moments—whether driving merchandise breakthroughs on Shah Rukh Khan films, crafting luxury collaborations with Cartier and Suhana Khan, or shaping global launches featuring international icons. In 2025, her work continued to define the playbook for celebrity-led luxury in India, steering high-impact global brand collaborations.

Vandana Kohli

Vandana Kohli built Tulip Comfort Wear out of a simple but stubborn question: why can’t one outfit carry a woman through travel, meetings, errands and rest without sacrificing style. Rooted in empathy and real-life use rather than trend cycles, her brand treats comfort as smart design and emotional ease. As part of The ELLE Collective, she represents a quietly radical idea: when clothes stop fighting your body and your day, you finally have room to focus on the life you actually want to live.

Aartivijay Gupta

Rooted in Indian art yet unmistakably global, Aartivijay Gupta has built a design language that treats heritage not as nostalgia, but as a living, evolving force. Her work is defined by deep research, long-term collaboration with generational artisans, and an instinctive ability to translate centuries-old visual traditions into contemporary fashion that travels effortlessly across cultures. At a time when fashion often chases immediacy, Gupta’s practice stands apart for its patience, continuity, and belief that true luxury lies in craft, storytelling, and cultural integrity.

Meghna Ghai Puri 

Meghna Ghai Puri has spent over two decades shaping the future of India’s creative industries not through spectacle, but through structure, intent, and belief. As President of Whistling Woods International (WWI), she transformed an idea rooted in her father Subhash Ghai’s vision into one of the world’s most respected institutions for film, media, and creative arts education. Grounded, globally minded, and deeply invested in mentorship, Puri represents a generation of women leaders redefining how culture is taught, sustained, and scaled.

Kanwalpreet Walia

As Business Head of Women's Bag Division at Titan Company, Kanwalpreet Walia operates at a crossroads where emotion meets commerce. Her work falls into categories that are deeply personal—accessories and scent—yet she approaches them with the discipline of consumer insights, brand longevity, and design-led thinking. Over the years, she has helped Titan translate everyday desires into products that feel intuitive, stylish, and scalable, proving that lifestyle leadership is as much about understanding people as it is about shaping markets.

Ranjit Bindra

Ranjit Bindra is one of the defining forces behind India’s modern hospitality landscape. As the founder of Bastian Hospitality, he has reimagined dining and night life as immersive cultural experiences, blending global sensibility with Indian warmth. From destination restaurants to design-forward social spaces, Bindra has shaped how a new generation eats, gathers, and celebrates — making him a natural fit for the ELLE Collective.

Richa Singh

Richa Singh operates where intuition meets influence. As a Managing Director of the Natural Diamond Council (India & Middle East) reshaping how natural diamonds speak to women today—moving the category to be personal symbols of emotional equity, while speaking fluently to a new generation.

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