She is just 26, daughter of former cricketer Karsan Ghavri, who played in the era of Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. She is creating a buzz with her sartorial style choices which are making Bollywood stars sit up and take note of her potential.
Mumbai-based stylist Tanya Ghavri started as apprentice to Pernia Qureshi. After a year of studying fashion at Parsons School of Design, New York, she came back to India and joined the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) University in Mumbai. Then she worked towards building a career in fashion by interning at Vogue. "I just wanted to work, do the best that I can, I never refused to do anything - I assisted Pernia in two films - Aisha and Thank You. By then Sonam Kapoor had become my friend and she was gracious enough to tell me, 'Tanya, do something of your own, I will support you'," she smiles. And there was no looking back - Ghavri is today styling Madhuri Dixit, Kareena and Karishma Kapoor and even the young boys - Arjun Kapoor, Siddharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. "Why should girls have all the fun?" she giggles.
Interestingly, what Ghavri has managed to do with ease is help Dixit move away from heavy gotta ghagra-cholis to smart blazers with pants, hair pulled back in a pony and smouldering red lips. "Madhuri is an amazing human being. She is extremely professional, and non-interfering; she lets you take decisions, without making it difficult. I don't just like to put a dress on someone and say, 'Go, now you are ready'. I focus on hair and make-up, the whole nine yards. So we added red digits and lips, statement necklace to Madhuri's look and it worked. She has a tiny waist, thin arms and legs, so we highlighted these assets. She has kept herself quite well over the years," says Ghavri.
But it wasn't easy. Before signing up with Dixit, Ghavri had a few apprehensions - "Will I be able to do justice? What if I fail? I had only worked with young stars!" She met Dixit last year and they immediately clicked. "I was floored by her sincerity and the conviction with which she trusts you. For Jhalak Dikhla Ja, I really worked hard, balancing soft looks, with Indian ones." The challenge for her, she says, was to break the notion that Dixit can only look great in a sari. "She is not a difficult body to dress at all. So I have given her gowns from Gauri and Nainika to knick knacks from Zara, a Sabyasachi Mukherjee sari and delicate embroidered skirts from Shehla Khan," she says. She also thinks Rekha is the nattiest dresser in Hindi cinema, who manages to look stunning in her Kanjeevarams and plain gold jewellery.
With Katrina Kaif and Ileana D'Cruz also on her styling list, Ghavri hopes to make a mark in styling and wants people to remember her as a girl "who made a difference in their lives with noticeable work". "I don't plan for the future, I can't say where I will be in ten years' time. I am a Gujju, so I live in the moment (smiles). But yes, I do know that I want to start a label of my own, soon," she concludes.
