Mumbai is the home of the Hindi film industry and of India's largest fashion and advertising trades. For more than a century its films have carried face fashions to the whole of South Asia and its diaspora: the bindi and kajal of film heroines, bridal naths, and the moustaches and beards of film heroes. Its makeup artists train generations for screen and wedding work.

Faces on screen

India's first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra, was made in Bombay by Dadasaheb Phalke and released in 1913. Because women were not yet acting, men played the female roles in full makeup. As the industry grew, film looks became national fashions: the winged kajal and large bindis of 1960s heroines, the thin moustaches of earlier heroes, and later the clean-shaven and then bearded looks of the 2000s and 2010s.

Bridal and everyday

Mumbai's markets, from Zaveri Bazaar for jewellery to street stalls for stick-on bindis, supply adornment for everyday wear and weddings. Maharashtrian brides traditionally wear the nath, a curved nose ornament of pearls, with green glass bangles and a crescent-shaped chandrakor bindi. Bridal makeup artists in the city now serve weddings of every community, mixing regional traditions with film-inspired looks.