Divas with style
Kangana Ranaut chose a heavily sequinned but sensual black sari as she exuded an old world charm with her bouffant-inspired hairdo for her first appearance at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. The stylish actress looked resplendent in a Sabyasachi Mukherjee sari. The designer described it as an an ultra-glamorous rendition of the brand’s famous ‘akash-tara’ (starry skies) sari. “The sari is hand-dyed and embellished with hand-cut sequins that are individually sewn using zardosi technique to create a metallic, yet fluid fabric.”The look was accessorised with a Sabyasachi batua and the teenmaniya necklace, crafted out of rose-cut diamonds, Colombian emeralds and basra pearls from the Sabyasachi Heritage Jewellery collection.
Deepika Padukone is already making headlines on the Riviera with her casual spin. First it was the tied up white blouse over jeans, then came the candy-striped summer chic followed by a Philosophy pink and black maxi dress paired with Alberta Ferreti shoes.
Diva with substance
Taking the #MeToo campaign forward at Cannes, actress Huma Qureshi said, “I have had to deal with people making advances at me, but not just people from the business of film industry, but people across different professions and different strata. I think it has a lot to do with power, it is not only limited to the film business.”
And though so many women were at the receiving end, she said that it was difficult to speak up. “In India and elsewhere in the world, the moment a woman speaks out against harassment, people start making all sorts of character judgments about her, about her morality, about what she was wearing and all such things and I think that is not fair,” she added.“If a woman is saying something out loud, she is asking for help and you have no business to character assassinate her. You have to reach out to her and help her and protect her and I think we need to protect our women and children.”She also spoke about the series of rapes and sexual harassment incidents in the country. “Only laws cannot help, the change has to be more profound and more voluntary and from within,” she said.The actress touched upon democratisation of cinema during the inauguration of the India Pavilion. “More and more people are turning to digital, which makes the whole thing far cheaper and hence filmmaking is no longer a protected, elitist, closed medium anymore.