A look at the jury of the 20th ELLE India Beauty Awards, a distinguished lineup of industry experts, artists and creative visionaries helping us crown the year's most outstanding beauty innovations.
The ELLE India Beauty Awards return for their 20th edition this year, marking two decades of recognising the products, people and ideas shaping the beauty landscape. In that time, beauty has grown well beyond its traditional definition. Conversations around skincare science, hair health, personal expression, wellness and the relationship between beauty and identity have all become part of the picture.
At the heart of the awards is a jury whose collective expertise helps us look beyond the buzz. Bringing together specialists from dermatology, makeup, hairstyling, photography, fashion, entertainment and wellness, this year's panel reflects the many ways beauty is practised, understood and experienced today.
As we celebrate twenty editions of the ELLE India Beauty Awards, meet the 20 experts bringing their individual perspectives to the table.
Meet The Jury
Cory Walia
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Makeup artist Cory Walia is a familiar name across India's fashion and beauty industries, with a career spanning editorial shoots, fashion shows, bridal makeup and film. His experience working across skin tones, textures and different styles of makeup has made him a longstanding presence in the professional beauty circuit. His work encompasses everything from the precision of a camera-ready finish to the artistry of a more elaborate transformation.
Gabriel Georgiou
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With a career spanning Hollywood, Indian cinema and international fashion, Gabriel Georgiou has spent decades honing his craft as a hairstylist. Australian-born and of Greek heritage, he trained at London's Toni & Guy Academy before establishing himself on the international fashion and celebrity circuit. His work in India has since extended from editorial shoots to some of Hindi cinema's most recognisable productions.
Shrima Rai
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An investment advisor and content creator, Shrima Rai brings an eye for value, quality and considered choices to her work across beauty, fashion and lifestyle. Her approach extends the idea of investment beyond finance, looking at the pieces and products worth making room for in everyday life.
Dr Chytra V Anand
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A globally recognised cosmetic dermatologist, entrepreneur and founder of Kosmoderma Clinics and SkinQ, Dr Chytra V Anand has spent her career working at the intersection of dermatology and medical aesthetics. Her work focuses on bringing science-led skin, hair and body treatments to a wider audience, making her a key voice in conversations around the relationship between clinical expertise and contemporary beauty.
Mohit Rai
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Celebrity stylist and creative consultant Mohit Rai has built a career around the details that turn an outfit into a considered look. His work moves between dressing personalities and developing visual identities, with an eye for how clothes, accessories and grooming come together.
Ojas Rajani
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Few makeup artists have spent as long shaping the vocabulary of Bollywood glamour as Ojas Rajani. With more than three decades in the industry, she has worked with some of India's most recognisable actors. Dramatic eyes, distinctive hairstyling and a fondness for a high-glamour finish have become signatures of her work, which also spans bridal beauty and international celebrity assignments.
Shivam Bhardwaj
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Known online as theguyinaskirt, Shivam Bhardwaj is a fashion and beauty creator whose personal style challenges the boundaries traditionally placed around men's clothing. His work places self-expression at the centre of fashion, with a visual language that is as much about attitude as it is about the outfit.
Hrishikesh Naskar
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Hairstylist Hrishikesh Naskar has spent more than eight years working across Bollywood productions and celebrity grooming. His career spans the particular demands of film and fashion, where hair must work as part of a character, a look and a larger visual story.
Anisha Jain
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Celebrity stylist Anisha Jain began working in fashion in her late teens, with early stints alongside designers Manish Malhotra and Kunal Rawal before establishing herself independently. Jain's approach begins with the person wearing the clothes, rather than simply the clothes themselves, with a focus on finding a style that reflects an individual's personality while responding to the occasion.
Dr Anjali Chhabria
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Dr Anjali Chhabria founded Mindtemple, her mental health clinic in Mumbai, in 2005. A psychiatrist, psychotherapist and mental health advocate, she has spent more than two decades working across clinical care, public education and support initiatives. Her work includes workshops for schools and workplaces, writing for the media and support groups for people navigating bereavement and separation.
Tanisha Rao
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Tanisha Rao's work explores the ways desire, identity and intimacy are shaped by the world around us. An independent sexuality researcher and intimacy coach, Rao co-founded Sangya Project, a homegrown intimacy brand, and wrote You're Somebody's Kink, which examines desire, shame, fantasy and power, approaching sexuality as a subject with social and cultural histories as much as personal ones.
Nupur Sanon
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Nupur Sanon has built a career across fashion, beauty, entertainment and entrepreneurship. Alongside her work as an artist and actor, she has developed a strong presence in the beauty space through collaborations with brands across skincare, makeup and haircare. She is also the founder of Label NOBO, a fashion label that brings her personal style into a business of its own. Her career reflects a generation of personalities moving between creating content, building brands and developing their own creative identities.
Collin D'Cunha
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Director Collin D'Cunha made his streaming directorial debut with Prime Video's Call Me Bae, starring Ananya Panday. His work spans advertising, films, music videos and streaming, with a visual sensibility shaped by contemporary pop culture and character-led storytelling. In a landscape where fashion and beauty are often inseparable from a character's identity, his work on screen is attentive to the details that help establish a world.
Apeksha Maker
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Photographer and filmmaker Apeksha Maker co-founded The House of Pixels with Vaishnav Praveen in 2016. The Mumbai-based visual studio works across fashion photography, celebrity portraits, commercial campaigns and films, with Maker's practice extending into still-life and product imagery. Her work moves between the precision of a carefully composed frame and the spontaneity that makes an image feel alive.
Vaishnav Praveen
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Photographer Vaishnav Praveen co-founded The House of Pixels with Apeksha Maker, building a portfolio across celebrity, fashion and editorial photography. His work includes campaigns for leading brands and portraits of some of India's most recognisable actors. At the studio, his interest in fashion imagery and visual storytelling sits alongside Maker's work, allowing the two to approach projects from distinct creative angles.
Divyanka Bedi
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Divyanka Bedi is the co-founder of The Space, a boutique fitness studio in Mumbai's Juhu neighbourhood, which she runs with Apoorv Mathur. A certified personal trainer, she works in a fitness culture that looks beyond the number on the scale, emphasising movement, strength and sustainable habits. The Space's body-positive, inclusive approach reflects a belief that exercise should be something people can build into their lives, not a punishment for how they look.
Apoorv Mathur
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Apoorv Mathur co-founded The Space with Divyanka Bedi, creating a fitness studio that places community and long-term well-being alongside training. Based in Juhu, The Space offers strength and conditioning, group classes and personalised sessions in an environment designed to feel welcoming rather than intimidating. Mathur's approach centres on making fitness a sustainable part of everyday life, with an emphasis on progress that extends beyond aesthetics.
Karan Oberoi
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Karan Oberoi's career has taken him from modelling and music to acting, writing and production. A founding member of A Band of Boys, he was part of one of India's early boy bands, recording music and performing across the country and internationally. He has since worked in television and streaming, written books and screenplays, composed music and produced films and advertising projects. Few careers move as comfortably between these disciplines, and Oberoi continues to work across several of them.
Kannagi Desai
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As ELLE India's Beauty Editor, Kannagi Desai brings an editorial perspective shaped by years of following the industry's changing conversations. From emerging trends to skincare and haircare innovations, her work combines close product scrutiny with an understanding of how beauty habits evolve. Her experience helps connect the industry's newest developments with the questions that matter to readers.
Ainee Nizami Ahmedi
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Ainee Nizami Ahmedi, Editorial Director at ELLE and ELLE Gourmet India, brings a perspective that spans beauty, fashion, culture and wellness. Her editorial work considers how industry developments intersect with everyday life, helping place products and trends within a wider cultural context.
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