When Festive Fashion Becomes a Cultural Debate: The Kriti Sanon–GIVA Controversy

Kriti Sanon in GIVA's Raksha Bandhan campaign, which was withdrawn following social-media backlash over its portrayal and styling.

Who decides what Indian women should wear during a festival?

Fashion advertisements are supposed to sell a product.

But sometimes, they end up starting a much bigger conversation.

Kriti Sanon GIVA Controversy: What Sparked the Debate?

A recent Raksha Bandhan campaign by jewellery brand GIVA featuring actor Kriti Sanon became the centre of a social-media controversy after viewers criticised her contemporary Indo-Western outfit and questioned whether the campaign represented the traditional festival appropriately.

GIVA's Raksha Bandhan campaign brought contemporary fashion into a traditional festive setting.

The backlash eventually led GIVA to withdraw the advertisement.

What made the controversy interesting, however, was that the conversation quickly moved beyond one outfit.

Critics argued that the campaign's styling and portrayal of Raksha Bandhan did not fit their idea of the festival.

Sanon, meanwhile, defended the idea that culture cannot be reduced to clothing, pushing back against the focus on her neckline and outfit. 

The debate highlights a familiar tension in Indian fashion: how do you modernise traditional occasions without being accused of abandoning tradition?

Can Indian Fashion Be Modern and Traditional at the Same Time?

Modern Indian fashion often combines traditional silhouettes with contemporary styling.

Indian fashion has never remained completely static.

Sarees are paired with sneakers, lehengas are given crop-top silhouettes, traditional jewellery is styled with Western outfits and younger designers constantly reinterpret Indian textiles.

Why Did a Festive Outfit Become a Cultural Debate?

So why does the conversation become particularly intense when the setting is a festival?

Part of the answer lies in advertising.

A brand isn't simply showing an outfit—it is creating an image of how a festival, family relationship or cultural tradition should look. That makes representation more complicated than ordinary fashion styling.

The GIVA controversy also reveals how quickly a celebrity's clothing can become a discussion about women's bodies and morality.

Instead of asking whether the advertisement successfully communicated its message, much of the online conversation centred on whether Sanon's clothes were “appropriate”.

That raises an uncomfortable question:

Are women still expected to prove their respect for culture through what they wear?

Beyond Kriti Sanon: What the Controversy Says About Women and Culture

The controversy hasn't stayed limited to Sanon either. Kangana Ranaut criticised the campaign, while other public figures have entered the discussion from different perspectives.

The debate expanded beyond one advertisement, raising questions about women's clothing, cultural expectations and representation.

More recently, Sanon responded to the continuing debate with a playful reference to a “Rakhi fashion committee”, signalling that the conversation was still going strong. 

Meanwhile, GIVA's decision to remove the campaign shows the power of public reaction in today's advertising landscape.

For fashion brands, the lesson may not be that traditional festivals must always be represented traditionally.

It may be that context matters.

Modern fashion can coexist with Indian culture. But when brands attempt to reinterpret something deeply familiar, they also have to understand the cultural emotions attached to it.

Perhaps the real question isn't whether Kriti Sanon's outfit was traditional enough.

It's whether Indian fashion can make space for both tradition and change without treating one as a threat to the other.

And if a single Rakhi advertisement can trigger that much debate, maybe the outfit was never just an outfit.