Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone reunite for Mijwan

Every year, the Mijwan Welfare Society (MWS) comes on board to support their annual fashion show. While 2017 had Anushka Sharma and Shah Rukh Khan walking the ramp, this year will see Ranbir Kapoor returning to the runway. Ranbir, who’s also the goodwill ambassador of Mijwan Welfare Society with Shabana Azmi and Namrata Goyal at its helm, will be the showstopper for the 9th Annual Fashion show. Deepika Padukone will also join him on the ramp.

Titled The Walk of Mijwan, the show is designed by Manish Malhotra and will be held on April 9 at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai. While the details of their outfits are kept under wraps, we hear they will be from Manish’s Summer couture 2018 collection and will have embroidery and chikankari work done by the Mijwan girls. It’s nine years since Manish and MWS joined hands, which has resulted in a better livelihood for women involved in chikankari.

Ranbir says, “We need to turn our attention towards rural India and focus on empowering the girl child. My sister Riddhima (Kapoor-Sahni) and I were raised as equals and I want every girl and boy to be treated equally. To my young friends, I say ‘Be the Change you wish to see in the world. You can do it and your time starts now’.” The actor had previously turned showstopper for the fashion show held in 2014, when it was in its fifth year.

Late Kaifi Azmi founded MWS with the goal of making Mijwan a replicable model of development with a focus on the girl child and women. Shabana says, “In the nine years since the first Mijwan fashion show, I’ve received unstinted support from the film fraternity. Everyone from Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan to Ranveer Singh and Sidharth Malhotra, from Priyanka Chopra to Shraddha Kapoor have walked for us.”

Thanks to the NGO’s efforts,  the infrastructural development in Mijwan matches up to that of bigger cities. The place has also been declared open defecation free. The actress adds, “My work with the slums in Mumbai intersects with that in Mijwan. We have been able to demonstrate in a small way that if we can provide a decent quality of life and livelihood opportunities in the village, people will not need to migrate to the cities and live in slums.”