August 01, 2026

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THE LANGUAGE OF STONES HANUT SINGH

At the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Beyoncé was seen wearing a pair of blue chalcedony earrings. Despite the numerous outfit changes she had over the day, this pair remained the one constant -- and eventually cemented Hanut Singh's position in the global jewellery domain.Since then, everyone from Meryl Streep, Madonna, Cher, Christian Louboutin, and Rihanna in the West to Isha Ambani Piramal, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt, Dimple Kapadia, and Shweta Bachchan back home have been seen wearing his distinctive designs -- architectural in nature, eclectic in embellishments, talismanic in motifs."In 2006, to suddenly see someone of Beyoncé's calibre and presence wearing my pieces was surreal," he recalls. "What made it even more meaningful was that there was no publicist, no paid placement, no commercial arrangement. She simply saw the pieces, connected with them, and chose to wear them. That was my first real `pinch me' moment." AN AUTODIDACTIC ARTISTE The hallmarks of Hanut Singh jewellery are my riad: s culp tu ra l s y mm etr y, serpentine forms, the all-seeing eye, and totemic shapes meant to protect or ground the wearer, all embellished with a multifarious mix of precious and semiprecious materials like rock quartz interwoven with gold, pearls with abalone shells, and often hard-carved layering of stones within a stone. Movement is another signature aspect of his creations, such as earrings and other tassel-backed pieces that sway softly with the body.His ideas employ the pietra dura inlay techniques from Mughal and Rajput

SUNSETS & SOUL-SEARCHING SARA ALI KHAN

She walks along Kandalama Lake in a pristine white dress, unhurried and with the quiet confidence of someone at ease in her own skin, with no pretence. It is the kind of comfort that cannot be performed -- it is learned and earned over time.For Sara Ali Khan, nature isn't merely a backdrop. It's a language she instinctively understands. And in its silence, she finds a little more of herself. We realised this was true to form as soon as the actor arrived at Heritance Kandalama. Sara slipped into the idyllic infinity pool at the property -- an iconic luxury design hotel in Dambulla, Sri Lanka -- for an hour-long swim, soaking in the tranquility around her while elephants casually meandered in the verdant landscape beyond.The 31-year-old may be known for her candour, unabashed laughter, and honest performances. But here, at Geoffrey Bawa's architectural wonder, with the calm waters stretching endlessly before her and the hills quietly rising beyond, she appears entirely unguarded, revealing her deeper, quieter, and calmer side.Sara pauses to admire the structural ingenuity of the place, her unmistakable laughter filling the evening air intermittently. Spread across 211 acres of protected forests in Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle, Heritance Kandalama is a masterclass in marrying modernist design with its natural surroundings. Built into a cliff face and enveloped by verdant foliage, the five-star hotel beautifully camouflages into the environment, looking much like an extension of the terrain, disappearing into the contours of the land, enveloped by vines, moss, and other greenery. It also offers a panoramic view of the world-famous Sigiriya, an ancient rock fortress and a UNESCO World Heritage Site."This is a sustainable resort, so let's do this shoot barefeet!" she suggests, visibly excited about exploring Sri Lanka for the first time. "I love the outdoors, and I love shooting. The two things I adore have come together! The property is beautiful, and the lake is stunning. There couldn't have been a better way to enjoy the sunset!" Sara is mesmerised by the dramatic, cavelike passageway built over a natural rock formation at the entrance of Heritance Kandalama. A through-and-through ode to nature, the hotel was built on a raised platform that rests on columns to allow rain to flow freely from the mountainside into Kandalama Lake. True to the Geoffrey Bawa signature style, the property captures the essence of tropical modernism, the open spaces welcoming natural light and air, as well as creating an enduring assimilation of the manmade and natural worlds.`I'M AN AMALGAM OF THEIR PERSONALITIES' She loves the camera, and the camera loves her. Although, even amid the frenzy of the cover shoot, Sara finds time to read between takes -- a habit that comes naturally to the history and political science graduate from Columbia University, New York. "I love Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's work. I'm currently re-reading The Last Queen. I also love Elif Shafak's The Forty Rules of Love." For someone born into one of Hindi cinema's most celebrated families, Sara is remarkably -- almost startlingly -- grounded and honest. The daughter of Amrita Singh and Saif Ali Khan, and the granddaughter of the legendary Sharmila Tagore, she has inherited a formidable cinematic lineage. Yet, Sara is surprisingly dismissive of the very idea of legacy. "I don't know if `legacy' is the right word. It's more about upbringing for me. I always say, `Virasat mein mujhe apni personality mili hai,' which means I inherited my own personality more than anything else. But what I have taken from them in an organic and irreverent way is my dadi's grace, elegance, and beauty; my mother's love and bindaas [carefree] nature, and my father's curiosity and balance. That's what I am proud of." She credits her father with helping her balance the headiness of the film industry with other things in life. "My father is not just a great actor. He has also led by example. He's still friends with his peers from Winchester College. He likes to talk about politics and current affairs, and overall, maintains a good balance between his personal and professional life. If you start looking at your job as just your job and not your whole life, it makes the journey a bit easier, and that's what I learn from him." `WE CAN DO SUCH DIVERSE WORK' From legacy, our conversation veers towards her work, her excitement for her upcoming film -- Udta Teer, a "funny and different" spy comedy, co-starring Ayushmann Khurana -- noticeable."I've had the good fortune of acting with Ayushmann in two back-to-back films, portraying different characters. That's what I like about working in films; you meet an actor, you enjoy working with them, and yet, you can do such diverse work with the same person in the same year!" Speaking of diverse, it's how one could describe Sara's filmography of 13 movies. She arrived on celluloid as Mukku in Kedarnath (2018), a nuanced, intense role that won both hearts and `Best Debut' awards. All of 23 at the time, her mature performance took the audience back to the catastrophic Kedarnath floods of 2013 in the backdrop of an interfaith love story.Her uncanny resemblance to her mother, both in appearance and nature, seemingly spills over to their acting debuts, as well. Back in 1983, Amrita had also entered Bollywood with a blockbuster -- Betaab, also starring Sunny Deol."I've said this before, and I'll say it again: If I can be 1/100th of a human being, actor, and mother -- God willing -- that she is, I'll consider myself super lucky," Sara says, her face lighting up.Besides Kedarnath, Atrangi Re (2021) holds a special place in her heart for both her performance and her viral `Chaka Chak' song. At a time when she was trying to find a footing in the industry, her character , Rinku Suryavanshi, arrived as a breath of fresh air. Playing a volatile Bihari woman -- complex yet cogent, vulnerable yet confident -- Sara delivered her most critically acclaimed and emotionally charged performance in the movie."I'll forever cherish the memories I made while shooting Atrangi Re and Kedarnath." `I ACT FOR THE AUDIENCE' Since her debut, Sara has resisted being neatly boxed into any one genre. She has gone from the exuberant action-comedy of Simmba to the fractured psyche of Atrangi Re, from the psychological mystery of Gaslight to the domestic chaos of Zara Hatke Zara