Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara has been the biggest surprise hit of 2025, already collecting Rs 150 crore. The film has made audiences weep, dance, and clap with joy. But one standout feature has been the look of its newcomers — effortlessly relatable to Gen Z.
“When we had our first discussion, Mohit Suri told me that he wanted the film to be character aspirational instead of fashion aspirational,” said fashion and costume designer Sheetal Iqbal Sharma. “People should feel like they have seen young people like the two characters and that was the starting point of creating the mood board.”
The concept was nostalgia, but Gen Z-coded.
Unlike a typical Yash Raj Films (YRF) venture, there are no routine dance numbers or exotic foreign locales — elements that provide scope for fashion that looks straight out of a runway. In the world of glamour and glitz, Krish (Ahaan Panday) and Vaani (Aneet Padda) embody melodramatic, old-school romance. The story of a brat and the girl-next-door journalist and writer unfold on the streets of Mumbai, and they look like they belong to the city, as they slowly make their way into each other’s hearts and into that of the audience.
“The audience should not feel like they haven’t ever seen anyone like Krish and Vaani in real life. It was important to break away from the larger-than-life looks,” said Sharma.
Their fashion choices also helped set them apart from other high-profile debuts in recent years.
“It’s the story of a common boy who wants to be a musician, and the outfits and look were so relatable you overlook the star kids who are wearing them. It is not a launch like, say, a Hrithik Roshan wearing high-fashion,” said Taran Adarsh, adding that the low-key promotions not involving curated outfits helped the film click with audiences.
Also read: Saiyaara proves star kids don’t need hype, just a good film and a killer soundtrack
Creation of Vaani and Krish
Sharma, who has designed clothes for the Telugu period romance Sita Ramam (2022), understood how today’s generation loves the demure, modest, old-school aesthetic. He kept that in mind while designing the sartorial choices for the lead pair in Saiyaara. In one scene, Vaani, at a house in Alibaug, takes off her t-shirt and shorts and runs toward the beach. It is not a typical slow-motion Bollywood reveal of an actor’s carefully curated bikini. Instead, she is shown wearing a pair of mismatched innerwear.
“We wanted to show that she has not planned this moment from the time she gets on the bike with Krish in Mumbai. It is spur-of-the-moment. A regular middle-class girl does not wear matching lingerie; she would rather opt for comfort,” said Sharma.
The aim was to give Vaani an anti-glamourous look and make her appear like any young woman aspiring for a job in a big city while being rooted to her middle-class sensibilities. As she opens up with the popular kid Krish, she tries on a dress and even borrows his t-shirts as they laze around. The love story is buoyed with these details in the way the characters dress.
Love stories involving a brooding popular guy and a girl-next-door is a familiar trope. One can recall films like Tere Naam (2003) and Rockstar (2011). While the former popularised middle-parted hairstyle sported by Radhe Mohan (Salman Khan), Janardan Jakhar (Ranbir Kapoor)’s unshaven 10-day old stubble in the latter similarly became a fashion phenomenon among the youth. In Saiyaara, it’s Krish’s band tattoos, carefully tousled hair, and stack of leather and thread bracelets.
Krish’s casual looks also form the perfect foil to Vaani’s entrepreneur-ex, Mahesh (Shaan Grover). He is mostly dressed in tailored suits, which emphasise his arrogance and dismissal of Vaani because she does not match his upper-class status. He is the only one who wears expensive brands, and through his emphasis on pedigree, he is also established as a red flag.
Sharma started with the current Gen Z-craze, Korean fashion.
“I watched a lot of K dramas and films and opted for a clean, simple aesthetic for Ahaan, with plaid oversized shirts, basic jeans and vests. It was elevated basics — the colours were darker, keeping in line with how young musicians like to often dress in black,” said Sharma.
That’s why he wears cut sleeve t-shirts — a distinctly Gen Z aesthetic — and all-black ensembles on stage to stick true to the performer/rockstar concept.
That’s what makes him stand apart from Janardan or Rahul Jaykar (Aditya Roy Kapoor) in Aashiqui 2 (2013), both singers and stage performers. The rugged, haggard look is replaced by a soft stubble, and shoulder-length curly hair. Despite what Ahaan goes through, he is still a young guy figuring things out, unlike Janardan and Rahul, who have aged, both in years and experience.
Anti-glamour, anti-YRF
Keeping with the relatability, Aneet’s clothes were sourced from the popular flea market at Hill Road in Bandra, and her kurtis came from Hasnabad lane in Santa Cruz, famous for Lakhnavi kurtas. Her jeans were sourced from Westside.
“Aneet’s look was anti-YRF, with more everyday clothes, and a nod to the 1990s cute, dainty characters like Suman in Maine Pyar Kiya (1989). You will see girls like that walking in Dadar and Bandra. The idea was to create a demure girl, who will put on her jhumkas, but also wear shorts — a mix of rebellion and obedience,” said Sharma.
While Bhagyashree became synonymous with her character image wearing a cap with ‘Friend’ written on it, Aneet’s signature look involves her carrying a backpack at all times. Sharma even debated adding the viral Stanley sipper to her look, but eventually decided against it. Except for kajal and gloss, Aneet is free of makeup throughout the film. Even on her wedding day, she is wearing minimal makeup.
“In recent debuts of female actors, everyone has been very fashionable, with mini skirts and crop tops ruling the wardrobes. We have seen high fashion on screen. It was time for the regular cute girl. These clothes had to look like apparels youngsters could actually buy with their pocket money,” said Sharma.
Even the wedding of Krish and Vaani was the antithesis of the massive affairs that Bollywood films usually make of such occasions. Krish wears an embroidered white kurta while Vaani wears a soft pink organza saree with scalloped edges, a small mangtika and bright red chooda.
“We wanted a soothing colour. Instead of festive reds and maroons, we wanted to create sadness but also a sense of hope,” said Sharma.
Sharma mostly stuck to creating looks that were anti-YRF glamour. But he did add a nod to Yash Raj dressing up his heroines in white — in the wedding scene where Vaani is left at the altar by her fiance Mahesh early in the film. She is dressed in a white saree, like a traditional South Indian bride.
“This film will change the way we look at fashion and marketing,” said Adarsh. “Spending too much money is not always the answer. You have to make people curious about the characters, and feel for them. Saiyaara does it.”
(Edited by Prashant)