Dolly Jain: The Sari Whisperer to the Stars”
In the lead-up to Bollywood stars Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s 2018 wedding in Lake Como, Kolkata-based drape artist Dolly Jain embarked on a secret mission to the dreamy Italian city. Just three days before her departure, she revealed her latest assignment to her family, and her daughters were ecstatic. “I told my kids that they can’t tell anyone. You know how kids are. They’ll say, ‘I only told my best friend, Mama,’ and then the whole world will come to know the next day,” she chuckles. Media coverage of the very private wedding had already reached a fever pitch, with some details revealed, but Dolly remained tight-lipped. “It wasn’t until we reached Lake Como that I even told my team that we were there for Deepika Padukone’s wedding,” she reveals.
Dolly has draped saris on several A-list celebrities from various industries, including Gigi Hadid, Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, and even the Ambanis. She has assisted Indian celebrities in wearing saris at prestigious international events like the Met Gala and Cannes Film Festival, and has worked on stars during weddings, films, and promotions – her most recent project being the promotion for Karan Johar’s “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.”
From Bengaluru to Bollywood
Dolly’s personal journey with saris didn’t begin perfectly. Long before she became the go-to sari draper for high-profile clients, she started by draping a sari on her doll. “When I was 10 or 12 years old, my mother came back from a party and left her sari on the bed. I had to drape my doll in a piece of fabric, and since I didn’t have one, I immediately took the scissors and cut a small piece of fabric from her sari. The next time she wore it, she realized that the ‘palla’ was short and asked, ‘Did you cut my sari for a doll?'” she recalls with a laugh.
Dolly herself rarely wore saris while growing up in Bengaluru; she stuck to her comfortable jeans and T-shirts. Circumstances forced her to end her education after Grade 7, a decision that initially made her unhappy. “At that time, I felt very unhappy because I felt like I would not be able to do anything else in my life,” she confides.
She first wore a sari at 21 when her husband met her as a prospective groom, and they married soon after. “I got married into an orthodox family and I thought, ‘Okay, I just have to be a good daughter-in-law and wife, raise my children, get them married, and then raise their children.’ That was it,” she reflects. Despite the predictability of the next 50 years of her life, she knew she possessed an undiscovered talent. “In my heart, I knew that I was blessed with a talent – although I didn’t even know what that talent was yet.”
Wearing a Sari Every Day
Her mother-in-law insisted that she wear a sari every day. “So, I used to wake up at 4:30 am to drape a sari because it took me 45 minutes to an hour to do so. I hated wasting one hour of my time draping my saris,” Dolly recalls.
However, residents of her housing complex soon noticed the young woman who effortlessly carried herself in elegant saris. One day, the mother of a soon-to-be bride called her, asking if she could teach her daughters how to wear a sari. Dolly agreed, not having much else to do at the time. It was only after she started teaching them that she realized she knew many different styles of sari draping. “It all just came out, and soon, I fell in love with the sari,” she says. Later, one of the girls she taught asked her to conduct a workshop at a finishing school. “A lady, whose son was getting married at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, was also there, and she later asked me if I could drape saris for the girls in their family. It was a big-scale, high-profile wedding. From there, I got another wedding, and it just started.” Besides draping saris, Dolly also takes pride in fixing the bride’s jewelry herself, sometimes using glue and thread. “I prefer the jewelry sitting on the body rather than on the fabric. If you are wearing many chains, I sometimes stitch the whole chain to your sari so that it doesn’t move around, and you get that picture-perfect look,” explains Dolly, who charges Rs200,000 per event.
One day, fashion designer Sandeep Khosla noticed her work at a wedding where she helped the bride carry a long and heavy dupatta by pinning it on her head. “I just divided the weight of the dupatta,” Dolly explains. “Sandeep Khosla saw me doing it, and we exchanged numbers.” That encounter opened doors to Bollywood.
A Journey into Bollywood
The first celebrity she draped a sari for was the late actress Sridevi. “My uncle was a film producer, and Sridevi was at his place for a party. Something spilled on her sari, and she went inside to fix it. Being an ardent fan, I followed her and offered to help her with her sari. Initially, she said she could do it herself, but I insisted. After I helped her, she told me that she had been draping saris for years but had never seen anyone drape it like me. She asked, ‘Why don’t you take it up as a profession?’ and that one line changed everything because until then, I was not so serious about it.”
Her first celebrity wedding was actress Sonam Kapoor’s. Last year, when Bollywood stars Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor got married, the groom’s mother and yesteryear actress Neetu Kapoor uploaded a video online, decked up in wedding finery, thanking Dolly for making her feel like a “princess.” Dolly herself is cautious about sharing too many anecdotes but says that celebrity brides are just like any other bride. “The only difference is that in a celebrity wedding, the whole world wants to know what she is wearing. But for me, it doesn’t make any difference as I do the same work.”
Cannes and the Met Gala
Earlier this year, Dolly helped actress Sara Ali Khan get ready for the Cannes film festival red carpet. And last year, she draped a sari on Indian businesswoman Natasha Poonawalla for the Met Gala. “People didn’t even know it was a sari,” says Dolly, explaining that she wants to show how saris can be a modern garment at such international platforms. “Why are we all just wearing gowns? We should be showing the world how versatile the sari is. I’m not telling you to just drape it in one way; I’m telling you, I have 325 different styles to wear it and can show you how magical this fabric is,” says Dolly, who holds a world record for being the fastest sari draper.
To the layperson, she is probably better known for her online tutorials, where thousands of followers on YouTube and Instagram keep up with her as she teaches the many ways of draping a sari. Wearing a blouse and a petticoat, Dolly deftly pleats and folds the sari in seconds, like a puppet master, before enveloping herself in the gorgeous fabric. While most comments on her videos are overwhelmingly positive, they have also attracted trolls. “I get comments like ‘Aunty aapka face mota hai’ (Aunty, your face is fat), or ‘We can see your stretch marks.’ The best part is, I don’t have to fight with anybody as my followers give them the perfect reply. But it’s all part and parcel of it. You can’t have 1,000 comments where everyone appreciates you,” she smiles.
