Mumbai: Kriti Sanon has reopened a chapter that still says a lot about how celebrity fashion is policed in Hindi cinema. Appearing on the sixth season of Kareena Kapoor Khan’s What Women Want, the actor looked back at the GIVA Raksha Bandhan advertisement in which the styling became the story rather than the jewellery.
“I couldn’t believe… when my choli had become like a six-person panel discussion on prime-time news.”
Kapoor Khan’s reply in the conversation was brief: “I know.”
The campaign behind the controversy
The GIVA campaign showed Sanon in a white bralette-style choli, a sheer cape and an embroidered skirt. Its festive framing included Sanon tying a rakhi on a pet dog, but social media quickly fixed on the outfit, questioning whether it belonged in a family celebration.
What began as a styling critique then scaled into something larger. Television debates used the advertisement to ask wider questions about clothing, culture and representation. Actor-politician Kangana Ranaut also criticised the look at the time, comparing the top to a bikini.
From a brand apology to a lasting question
GIVA eventually issued a public apology and withdrew the campaign from its television and digital platforms. Sanon’s own response pushed back against the idea that tradition is located in fabric. As she wrote after the backlash:
“Culture & Traditions are in her heart, not in her neckline!”
For readers who follow Hindi cinema closely, the episode is useful memory rather than old news. It shows how quickly a commercial campaign can be turned into a referendum on a woman actor’s choices—and how rarely the original product remains at the centre of the conversation.
Three threads from the episode still matter:
- The withdrawal: GIVA apologised and pulled the ad from television and digital, a reminder of how quickly a brand can retreat after a social media storm.
- The response: Sanon framed culture as internal rather than external, drawing a line against outfit-based judgements.
- The pattern: a celebrity woman’s clothing becomes the site of a larger debate about tradition, far beyond the campaign itself.
That dynamic is one reason the story still resonates. The garment became a stand-in for a wider anxiety about tradition and modern styling. By the time prime-time panels were debating the neckline, the campaign had ceased to be a jewellery advertisement in public discourse.
Sanon’s recollection on What Women Want also underlines what stays with actors after a controversy: the memory of being debated like a policy question. That is a familiar, and not especially flattering, loop in Hindi film culture.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
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