As for his own assignments for the year, it seems like a full house. “I left Sheetal Design Studio and progressed with my own label hoping to make a movie somewhere in the middle but there’s so much work that for now the movie is on a back-burner,” tells Manish who has designed an all-new “sexy” look for Amrita Rao in her film ‘Shortcut’. Then he’s working with SRK and Kajol for ‘I am Khan’, Rani Mukherjee for ‘Hrippa’ and with Aishwariya and Rajnikant for ‘Robot’. But it’s his recent ‘Dostana’ that’s got him rave reviews for Priyanka’s very resort wear wardrobe. “The shooting location was Miami, so I gave her a minimalist look. Accessories were missing. But since the character was working for a fashion magazine, her clothes were chic too,” tells Malhotra who found it hard to convince Chopra to go for bolder colours. “It’s presumed that a dusky complexion can’t carry off colour. That’s not true anymore,” the fashion guru advices.

Speaking of colours, Malhotra has been off late stocking up on art. “While I might not understand the sensibilities of it all, I often go in for the colours. I am very fond of vibrant ones,” chuckles Manish who is also slipping into his own Sherwanis for dos. “Indian designs are so contemporary now. In fact our bandhgalas work well as dinner jackets,” he smiles to say. We’ll credit him with that as well!