Manish Malhotra Discloses Reason Behind Not Working With Sanjay Leela Bhansali: ‘He Thought I Was Friendly With Karan Johar…’

Manish Malhotra is an ace designer who has been making costumes for Bollywood movies for many decades now. Besides having his own brand, his long association with the Hindi film industry is quite deep and strong, making him one of the most popular designers in the country. Malhotra, who made his debut as a costume designer in the Bollywood film Swarg in 1990, has a career span of over three decades designing outfits for some of the cult movies. But he had a brief time working with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The designer was recently asked about his brief association with the Devdas director.

Manish Malhotra, during his appearance on Kajol and Twinkle Khanna’s show, Two Much, spilled the beans about not working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He said, “I did only one film, Khamoshi. After that, we never worked together.” Salman Khan and Manisha Koirala starrer Khamoshi: The Musical was released in 1993. The film marked the directorial debut of Bhansali.

Manish also shared that he even confronted about the same. He said, “I think once somebody asked him that and he always thought I was very friendly with Karan Johar and Adi (Aditya Chopra), in that group kind of thing.”

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He added, “I said, ‘Sanjay, I am a professional and I can work with so many different actors.’ Yes, but sometimes some things just don’t happen, and then you just make your own path.” The designer’s journey with fashion began through his love for cinema. On the same show, Malhotra added, “I was born interested in movies. At the age of six, I would want to dance to every song, and I was interested in clothes. One thing, I have to give it to my mother; she encouraged my love of films. I wanted to change the way films look. Because, in the late 80s, movies had stopped looking good. All stars in the 70s were so stylish from Rajesh Khanna’s kurtas to Amit Ji’s collars, Zeenat Aman, and all of them. But in the late 80s, I think that was missing. And I was determined that I would only design for movies, and I’ll always be a costume designer. So yeah, that’s how films happened.”

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Manish Malhotra’s major breakthrough came in 1995 with Rangeela, where his contemporary, character-driven costumes for Urmila Matondkar made a sensation at that time. After the success of the movie, costume design became a central part of the discussion when making movies. By the late 90s and early 20s, Manish Malhotra became a huge name in the movie business.