You may know Punit Balana as that occasion-wear designer who is on the speed dial of every A-list Bollywood celebrity (and their stylist). Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Alia Bhatt and Aditya Rao Hydari are just some of the stars who are spotted in his creations regularly. Ananya Panday recently closed a runway show that marked 10 years of his label.
But what you probably don’t know is that Balana’s decade-old brand is the result of the 25 years he’s been in the business of fashion. Back in 2000, Bikaner-raised, Jaipur-based Balana, then an Art graduate, was supplying Jaipuri block-print fabric to businesses and stores across the country. The label came about organically, as a small unit in his house, and a slim team of 10. “Yes, we did become known as a celebrity-driven brand early on, but it was never by design. It’s just that I received such a warm welcome into the industry, and as a young brand we wanted to make the most of these opportunities,” he tells The Nod over a phone call.
“But what really drives me is spotlighting the craft traditions and techniques of Rajasthan and making them relevant for current times. It’s a story I am trying to tell our customers more consciously too now,” he says. Early in his career, Balana learnt to execute many of these techniques himself, understanding the ins and outs directly from the generational weavers with whom he worked closely. “I can’t work with a craft I don’t understand the technicalities of. That’s just how I function. It’s the only way I can innovate and experiment with them. If we hit a roadblock, I have all the knowledge required to troubleshoot as well,” he explains.
From his humble beginnings to a series of stores across Jaipur, Delhi, and Mumbai today, Balana’s eponymous label has come a long way. As he celebrates 10 years of the brand he runs with his wife Malvika Balana, the designer looks back at five memorable looks that have defined his journey.
Mira Kapoor’s gurudwara wedding outfit, 2015
“Early in 2015, a client walked into the store and placed a custom order for our gota-work kurta-churidar set in a colour of her choice. Turns out, it was Mira Kapoor, and this was the outfit she wore for her gurudwara wedding to actor Shahid Kapoor in July 2015. The world—and I—did not know who she was back then. But that moment really put us on the map. We were showcasing at Bridal Asia soon after their wedding, and we got a huge number of orders for that piece. It was a raging success.”
The kedia set, 2016
“I’ve always been deeply inspired by folk culture and music, and the banjara tribes. That’s how the kedia set—a peplum kurta with gharara pants and a dupatta—was born. The inspiration was the short kurta worn by Gujarati men during garba celebrations. Our kurta has a 20-metre ghera at the waist—as much (or more) flare as a bias-cut lehenga—but is still very flattering without overwhelming the body. When I introduced it at my Lakmé Fashion Week booth that year, it was greatly appreciated for its construction. Since then, it has been part of all our collections. To date, it’s cut by the same masterji who made our very first kedia set.”
The ghagri skirt set, 2018
“I turned to rural India for inspiration once again. The idea came from how women in the villages chop their lehengas to a calf length for practical purposes. I took their ghagri skirt and gave it a cooler, younger spin during our very first Lakmé Fashion Week runway show, which was all about Bagru prints. We often pair this skirt with our handkerchief backless blouse. In 2023, we took this combination and turned it into a sexy maxi dress with cut-outs. The name has really stuck—I was in my Delhi store recently and had two clients walk in asking for our ‘ghagri dresses’ on the same day!”
The Alia choga, 2022
“I remember stylist Ami Patel called me and said that Alia Bhatt was keen to wear something from us for an event. But she was pregnant back then and did not want the outfit to emphasise her baby bump. The market was flooded with bias-cut kurtas at that point, and I wanted to create something different. So, we did this choga kurta, which is loose without being dowdy. It’s now part of all our collections, and we’ve named it after Alia since she popularised it for us.”
The ‘Amer’ anniversary collection, 2025
“This collection is a culmination of all our hits and signatures from the last 10 years, an ode to our journey and Rajasthan. Showing it at the iconic Rambagh Palace in Jaipur was a dream come true. The most standout piece is the rani-pink lehenga worn by our showstopper, Ananya Panday. It takes inspiration from the tikri work on the walls of Amer Fort and Sheesh Mahal. But since we pride ourselves on fuss-free Indian wear, a lot of R&D went into making the skirt lightweight. We definitely did not want to use glass. Ultimately, we worked with silver foil pasted on the fabric, accented with old-school zardozi work. I’ve named this chandi tilla work—it’s unique to us and I’m in the process of patenting it too.”
