Film

Fashion

Name: Fashion
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2008
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kangana Ranaut, Mugdha Godse, Arjan Bajwa, Samir Soni

Drama

Fashion is a sweeping Bollywood drama about ambition, glamour, and the human cost of chasing stardom. Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut anchor a story that refuses to look away from how success can corrupt and corrode. It's visually lush, emotionally raw, and interested in asking uncomfortable questions about desire and sacrifice. For anyone who loves character-driven cinema about power and consequence.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a glossy, behind-the-scenes look at ambition in an industry that chews people up, and you don't mind a melodrama that takes its heartbreak seriously.

Skip it if you want a lean, fast-moving story, because at nearly three hours this one lingers, and its glamour-versus-conscience arc is laid out in broad, familiar strokes.

What it asks of you: Settle in for close to three hours of sumptuous set pieces and slow-building emotional scenes, with little rush and a tone that stays earnest rather than ironic.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Chandni Bar2001

A similarly unflinching Bollywood drama about a woman climbing out of poverty through the entertainment industry, with comparable moral complexity and willingness to show degradation alongside ambition.

But Darker and more explicitly brutal than Fashion; some viewers find its depiction of exploitation genuinely difficult to sit through.

Jism2003

A Bollywood thriller that similarly examines desire, morality, and how success creates moral compromise, with strong lead performances that ground the melodrama.

But The plot turns baroque and occasionally collapses under its own twists; the second half loses some of the tension the first establishes.

Heroine2012

Another Bollywood drama about a woman in the entertainment industry confronting addiction, ageism, and the cruelty of the machine that made her. Kareena Kapoor's performance is scorching.

But Relies on a fairly conventional redemption arc that doesn't quite earn the gravity it's reaching for by the end.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Fashion

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Memoirs of a Geisha2005

Both follow a woman's calculated ascent through an industry that commodifies her body, with similar structural moves: the exploitation hidden beneath glamour, the moral compromises that seem small until they're not, the question of agency within systems designed to deny it.

A Western film about a woman sold into an industry and her calculated rise through it. Like Fashion, it's visually ornate and deeply interested in the psychological cost of survival through beauty and performance. Same fundamental architecture, different culture.

But The film has been criticized for its orientalism and for softening the exploitation inherent in its source material. Some feel it romanticizes what should remain uncomfortable.

Begum Jaan2017

A period drama that examines power, desire, and survival through women in a brothel during Partition. Like Fashion, it's interested in how women navigate systems that exploit them.

But The political and historical elements occasionally overshadow character development; pacing stumbles in the final act.

Cocktail2012

A Bollywood romantic drama that deconstructs the glamour of a certain kind of city life and asks serious questions about class, morality, and what we're willing to compromise.

But Deeper in theme than in execution; some viewers find the tonal shifts between romance and darkness awkwardly managed.

No One Killed Jessica2011

A crime drama based on a real case that shares Fashion's interest in how systems fail women and how power operates without conscience. Strong performances, clear-eyed perspective.

But Procedural in places, which can feel less cinematically engaging than the emotional intensity of Fashion.

The Dirty Picture2011

Another Bollywood film about a woman in cinema who becomes famous through unconventional means, explores exploitation, and doesn't apologize for its protagonist's choices. Vidya Balan is brilliant.

But Lighter in tone than Fashion, which may feel like a step down if you're looking for that particular kind of moral gravity.

Kahaani2012

A thriller with a woman at its center navigating a corrupt, indifferent system while pregnant, using her wits and determination. Viday Balan again, in a completely different register.

But The genre mechanics eventually overtake character work; if you want human drama over plot, this pivots away from what you might value in Fashion.

Mulholland Drive2001

Both are films about women and the entertainment industry that refuse to separate the personal from the systemic. But Fashion builds its case through character and consequence; Mulholland Drive does it through form and refusal. Completely different temperament, same fundamental unease.

Lynch's film is about Hollywood and failed ambition, but told as a dreamlike, fragmentary mystery rather than a straightforward drama. It captures the same sense of glamour concealing rot, but through disorientation and formal innovation instead of narrative clarity.

But Deliberately confusing and frustrating. If you want catharsis or narrative coherence, this actively withholds both. Some find it pretentious; others find it revelatory.

Nights in Rodanthe2008

Both films trust their actors and their audiences to sit with complicated feelings about love and ambition. Both suggest that wanting something badly and being broken by getting it are not opposites but often the same story. Fashion globalizes this; Rodanthe localizes it, but the shape is recognizable.

An American romantic drama from the same year as Fashion, but from a completely different tradition. Two people with damage find connection during a hurricane. What makes it work is its quiet insistence that grown-up desire is complicated and often involves accepting loss alongside love—the same emotional register as Fashion.

But It's gentle where Fashion is intense. If you're looking for the scale and stakes of a Bollywood epic, this will feel small and muted. Some find that intimacy beautiful; others find it underpowered.