In 1989, Manish was offered to style Divya Bharati.
Before getting the big turn in his career, Manish Malhotra used to model and work in a boutique for a salary of Rs 500 a month.
Today, Manish Malhotra is one of the most popular and loved names amongst all the Bollywood designers. Manish not only designs clothes for celebrities and costumes for films but also has been a known name for designing outfits for other events. His collections are significantly lavish and very particular to the person who is going to be styled by the Manish Malhotra designs.
However, this self-taught designer had not always been this big name in the industry. Similar to many other celebrities, Manish has also gone through a long-struggling period before stepping into the golden hour of his career in the fashion industry. Many of us might not know, that this Punjabi boy was once a model and sketch artist at a boutique where he used to earn only Rs 500 a month.
Manish Malhotra once mentioned in one of his interviews about his childhood when he used to help his mother choose sarees. He used to love sketching and painting from a very young age. During his college days, Manish started to model and create the first collection of his designs. Eventually, after a long duration of struggles and working in the boutique, he got his first significant break at the age of 25.
Initially, in 1989, Manish was offered to style Divya Bharati for a song in a David Dhavan movie, which was later cancelled. Following the same, in 1990 he again got a chance to style Juhi Chawla for the movie Swarg. However, this project did not get the designer much recognition in the industry. In the meantime, Manish continued to work on several other Bollywood projects which did not get his career any ignition to step forward.
After struggling to stay in the industry, in 1995, his designs for Urmila Matondkar in the movie Rangeela became the turning point for his career. Till this moment, costume designers were not considered to be a part of the script readings, however, Manish’s entry into the industry changed the scenario and he became one of the first such designers to look for costume designing as a part of the storytelling.
After his trend-setting designs in Rangeela, his next work in Dil Toh Pagal Hai made him a consistent costume designer in the film industry. Apart from that, this film also gave him recognition not only in India but also worldwide.
Recently, Parineeti Chopra and Raghav Chaddha wore wedding outfits designed by Manish Malhotra while earlier this month, the Shershaah duo Kiara Advani and Siddharth Malhotra also chose to wear wedding outfits designed by Manish Malhotra.
Apart from designing for celebrities, Manish is currently working on designing clothes for over 10,000 employees of Air India.
