It has been 10 years since Shabana Azmi began the Mijwan Couture Fashion Show, thus putting the spotlight on the village’s women artisans. This year is all the more special as the fashion show will be an on-ground event after the Coronavirus pandemic compelled them to take a three-year break. So, does Azmi hope to return with a bang? Absolutely. “This promises to be our grandest event to date. It’s a white-only collection,” beams the veteran actor.

Bollywood’s power couple Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone will turn showstoppers for the evening. The July 29 do will see the industry’s glitterati — from Karan Johar to Vidya Balan, from Farhan Akhtar and Shibani Dandekar to Dia Mirza and Nandita Das — rally behind Azmi for the cause.

While Ranbir Kapoor and Padukone had sashayed down the ramp in the last edition, the senior actor is glad that Singh has taken the baton. She believes that, in many ways, Singh and Mijwan have had a similar journey. “When I requested him to be our showstopper, he said yes in an instant. He had walked for our third fashion show at the start of his career, and today, he is a big star. Ranveer epitomises the fledgling steps we took when we first started, only to become a brand that is recognised internationally. Deepika is sensitive to the cause of empowering women and the girl child. Individually and together, they represent glamour, power and courage.”

When putting together the first show in 2012, Azmi had hardly imagined that it would become an annual affair. “Namrata Goyal [secretary, Mijwan Welfare Society] and Manish Malhotra worked on making it an annual feature. We started with 40 women, and today, we have 400 artisans,” she says.