Bollywood’s most stylish designer and its sassiest star are spilling secrets, swapping laughs and serving looks this week on Prime Video’s Two Much With Kajol and Twinkle. Manish Malhotra and Sonakshi Sinha get real about first encounters, fashion fumbles and fairytale love, all stitched together with honesty, nostalgia and unfiltered fun.
Manish’s journey with fashion began through his love for cinema, “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 ya, that’s how films happened.”
Kajol spills a never-heard-before BTS moment from the sets of her ICONIC film KKHH which recently celebrated its 27th release anniversary, “Manish has got me ready for this whole Kuch Kuch Hota Hai wedding sequence. Manish is like, ‘Wow, you’re looking so nice today.’ The lehenga’s really heavy right, I pick up the lehenga and…” Manish interrupts and exclaims, “Sneakers down! Pointing at Kajol, he admitted, “But actually, the trend of sneakers with the lehenga, you started that. I mean, a lot of girls wear sneakers with their lehengas.”
Sonakshi reveals she knew Zaheer was ‘the one’ almost instantly, “When I saw him, it was an instant click. I just knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this guy. In a month, I told him I’m going to marry you only, and then 7 years later, we did get married.” Taking a ‘no stylist’ approach to her wedding look, she explains, “This is always a vision that I’ve had for myself. I wanted to be something that I can remember for the rest of my life. So I said, you know what, I’ll wear my mom’s sari. And I went to my mom, and I told her, ‘Ma, just show me your saris.’ Within 5 minutes, I selected the sari that I wore, which was a beautiful chikankari, off-white sari.”
Sonakshi admits that acting wasn’t part of the plan, but once she began, she knew she was meant for it. “Growing up, I never wanted to be an actor toh (so) when I became an actor, the gold standard was that ‘Jab tak Manish Malhotra ke kapde nahi pehene, tab tak tu successful heroine nahi banegi’ (until you don’t wear Manish Malhotra’s clothes, you won’t be successful). So he styled me for Rowdy Rathore, which is a film I did with Akshay.”
She credits Akshay and her Son of Sardaar costar Ajay for her on-set discipline, “I learned how to be on time from Akshay. Ajay is so quick with everything that he’s doing, like there’s no nonsense in the middle of set, everything is like quick, quick, quick.”
During a fun round of the This or That game, when asked if ‘friends can make or break your relationship’, Manish cheekily switches sides and admits, “I’ve never had a relationship ever, it’s true. I am in the best relationship, and that relationship is with me and my work.” Later, Twinkle couldn’t resist clapping back with her signature wit, quipping, “There are only two virgins in the industry, Salman and Manish!”
Manish Malhotra’s actresses never faced weight-shaming, Kajol credits him for always making them feel comfortable in their own skin and says, “Manish has never once told me, ‘Listen you should lose some weight for the outfit.’ In fact, when I came up to him and I said, ‘You know I’ve put on weight, I think I’m looking very fat.’ If I have said that, he has turned around and he has told me, ‘Listen, you’re fine the way you are. Just calm down, you’re fine.’”
Conceptualised and produced by Banijay Asia, this one-of-a-kind talk show is presented by Oppo and co-presented by Kohler, Kalyan Jewellers, and Fevi Kwik. The sixth episode of Two Much with Kajol and Twinkle will stream exclusively on Prime Video on October 30 in over 240 countries and territories worldwide, with new episodes dropping every Thursday.
