Being Urvashi Rautela

There is a dress code on the red carpet at Cannes this year. There is to be no nudity and no 'voluminous outfits', the sort of dresses with large flowing trails that can look gorgeous, but block the way for others behind, and which are said to be a nightmare when sitting inside.

Urvashi Rautela appeared, the first Indian to be seen on the red carpet this time, with a dress that just about fulfilled the second directive. (It had a bit of a long trail too, but nobody really seemed to be checking, and she got in anyway.) And it was – true to her image building nous – appropriately questionable in terms of taste to ensure that no Indian actress who turned up over the next few days was going to steal the limelight.

Her gown, a multi-coloured outfit said to be by the designer Michael Cinco, was combined with loud and garish makeup and a flashing tiara. A crystal peacock lay in one hand, which educated social media users pointed out was actually a clutch (by Judith Leiber, which, if true, would be worth $5,495 or approximately ₹4.68 lakh). It may come as a surprise that someone was keeping track, but the choice of the peacock is said to be in keeping with her accessory choices at earlier Cannes appearances. She wore an alligator necklace in 2023, and a fish necklace in 2024. (Having done reptiles, fishes and birds, perhaps a mammal is in the offing next.)

Her look overall at this Cannes was what one social media user described as 'Moulin Rouge meets Mayur Vihar' and what another popular Instagrammer (Diet Sabya) described as camp. Rautela had done a Met Gala at Cannes, and she immediately went viral.

It is to Rautela's credit that she understands the nature of the celebrity game in India. For decades now, Indian actresses have been showing up at Cannes like it were a crucial board exam, and crumbling under the pressure. Aishwarya Rai, India's most common face at Cannes, has shown up year after year in dresses that appear overthought and overdone, and instead become a subject of viral memes.

Rautela understands this. She understands the brief and knows she will become a meme regardless. So, she goes the other way. Expected to be stunning, she delivers camp.

It is in keeping with her career. From Singh Saab the Great to Hate Story 4, from Sanam Re to Bhaag Johnny or Ghuspaithiya, these are movies nobody has ever heard of or watched, or films that have a vague recall but not her appearance in them. Yet, she has outlasted them, becoming a sum larger than her parts. Her backstories are equally interesting. There are claims of being a former IIT student, of beauty pageants contested in and won, temples constructed in her name, and roles offered but turned down. The fact that these are fabrications isn't interesting. Both she and the audience are complicit in the knowledge that these are lies. We come for the spectacle, and stay for the spectacle, and will return for it again too.

Becoming famous in Bollywood is notoriously difficult. The arrival of reality TV some two decades ago offered an opportunity for outsiders such as Rakhi Sawant who said and did outrageous things to grasp at that fame. Social media has brought even more opportunities for the outrageously dressed and spoken, and the likes of Urfi Javed and Rautela have run with it.

We may laugh at Rautela, and her gaudy pursuit of celebrity at Cannes, but she isn't way off what was happening with the Indian contingent at Cannes before too. Mainstream Indian actresses often walked the festival's red carpet, but hardly ever with any film for screening and rarer still with one in competition. They were really there for their own celebrity and myth-making.

The likes of Rautela are catching up to it only now.