Lucknow kids reimagine Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s bridal collection; earn cheers from B’wood

A group of 35 slum children aged between 14-17, learning stitching, designing and various other creative art at Innovation of Change are the talk of the town

From Dia Mirza to Aditi Rao Hydari, several Bollywood stars have become cheerleaders for a group of young designers and models who have reimagined this year’s bridal collection by designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. “It is like a dream for us,” says Ranjana Kumari, the teenager who worked on the viral campaign alongside 35 other kids from a Lucknow-based non-profit organisation.

Underprivileged kids from Lucknow reimagine Sabyasachi’s bridal designs

“It’s unbelievable that the celebrities we love have made us feel like celebrities now,” Kumari adds, reflecting on the overwhelming response. “We had no clue it would become this big. We were just doing what we plan to pursue in the future— whether it’s fashion, makeup, or education,” she says.

Mohit Verma, the 15-year-old behind the camera, shares, “One of the founding members’ cameras were accessible for our extracurricular activities, so I used it to shoot these videos.”

Rakhi Verma, 14, the youngest of the group, says, “We hope that we will forward from here because, it’s not just a video for us — it’s our way to a better tomorrow.”

The children’s creative journey is nothing new. As Harshit Singh, the founder of the NGO Innovation for Change, explains, “Our children here have been re-creating designs of Madhuri Dixit with limited resources including what we get as donations, katran (waste bits of fabric) and then shooting videos as well as posting them. A few girls used to watch the show Band Baja Bride by Sabyascahi Mukherjee on YouTube that not only inspired them but follow the celebrated designer and his designs.”

“The youngsters have posted over 1,300 videos in the last few years, but the tables turned two days ago when Mukherjee himself noticed their video. It was a humble recreation of designs from his latest bridal campaign. Sabyasachi posted, ‘Who is the winner?’ followed by, ‘These kids are the winners,’” shares Singh.