Since when have you wanted to be a designer?

Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to be a designer. So I did two years of college, quit. Joined SNDT and did a degree in designing. After that I worked at Midas Touch for six months, quit to work with Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla for two years quit and opened my own studio in my garage. This place next to Palm Grove that I have I opened three years ago. So as you can see it's be a gradual but steady climb.

In your store, how often do you come up with a new range of outfits?

Two times a year I revamp my entire collection. But, of course, through out the year I introduce new outfits.

Do you have any outside labels in your store?

No. I design and create everything in the store.

You've also been having your own exhibitions around the globe?

Yes, I remember I did my first exhibition in Dubai many years ago, and just less then a month back I had an exhibition in New York.

Who organizes these exhibitions for you?

Well, when I did my first exhibition in Dubai, a family friend who lives there organized it for me really. She invited me to bring my collection and she took care of the rest like hiring a place and sending out invites. Like that, my customers who come from abroad invite me to bring my collection to their countries and they look after the rest.

Is the passion for designing still alive in you?

Very much so, I love what I do, I wouldn't be here if I didn't. It's fun and lots of hard work. In fact, one can't really make a success out of anything if the passion weren't alive, if the motivation to work hard through one's passion didn't exist.

So what's hot for this season?

Well in our country we don't have too many climatic changes so we don't really go by the climatic seasons so to say, we go more by the festival season and occasion season. For instance, right now is the Diwali season and round the corner is the wedding season so we design for those occasions. And I try not set my standards according to the existing trends, I try to design outfit that survive the winds of change. I mean, each of my outfits costs any where between Rs.4000 onwards and that's not cheap, so I hate to think of my outfits being ignored and pushed to one corner of the cupboard because it's not in fashion any more. It just seems like such a waste. I actually prefer it when a customer comes and tells me that my outfits have been a treasure to them, one they have been repeatedly wearing for years. So I design for all seasons and for all times irrespective to current fads and fashions.

Then who sets the trend?

Since we don't have a fashion body I think it's films

And you don't design for films?

Not for films as such but film personalities yes, the ones who walk into my store. There's Juhi Chawla, Ria Pillai-Dutt, Gauri Khan, Neelam, Zeenat Aman.

You yourself are Jeetender's niece?

Yes, he's my mom's brother, but I am my own identity apart from his.

How have women changed over the past decade or so?

The average of woman who have become conscious of her appearance has definitely risen. More women are taking more care of what they wear and how they look these days then they did before. In the not so recent past it was only the woman of glamour or the socialite who was particular, but these days even the woman who is not in the public eye wants to look nice, as it should be. A woman's place is changing in society and so are her needs.

And at the end of the day?

I'm extremely satisfied. Like I said earlier, I love what I do, and most of all this profession has given me such an opportunity to interact with so many people, so many of my clients have become such good friends, I've had a chance to travel the world, I've had so many experiences and memorable moments. As a person, through the interaction with all sorts of different people I'm changing and growing as a person. Who could ask for more!