“Jet lag is way more serious when you’re in your 30s,” Alia Bhatt sighs, over a Zoom call on the eve of her first appearance at the BAFTAs. The Bollywood superstar has flown in from Mumbai to present the award for Best Film Not in the English Language, but any telltale signs of long-haul travel were absent when she stepped onto the red carpet at Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night: a vision in custom Gucci that owed a debt to an icon of cinema, Marilyn Monroe.
The prospect of touching down in London in the midst of an even-more-relentlessly-damp-than-usual February is partly why Bhatt landed on a specific reference for her look: a photo of Marilyn in a shimmering silver gown, a fluffy white stole draped over her arms in true Old Hollywood style. “I was like, ‘Hey, it’s gonna be really cold and the dress is backless…’” the star says with a smile on the eve of the ceremony. Demna’s atelier dutifully conjured a shearling wrap for Bhatt to wear over her bespoke halter-neck dress, fashioned from tulle and embroidered entirely in silver sequins layered with delicate microbeads, for a “cinematic glow”.
Marco Bahler
