When he started out about a decade ago, many snubbed Manish Malhotra, saying he makes clothes for Bollywood airheads and their mothers and aunts.

Today Malhotra is Bollywood's fashion prince. The best actresses refuse to wear anything not passed by his svelte, manicured fingers on- or off-screen.

He styles blockbuster films and is the man who transformed a kitschy Bollywood in the late 1980s and early 90s to the fashion power that it is today.

"For years it was like 'Oh, he is here because he gives free clothes to the heroine's aunt'," Malhotra, his arching shoulders in street-chic prints dipping a little, tells in an interview.

"That has stopped, which is a relief."

Leaning against the whitewashed walls of New Delhi's Olive bar and eatery, Malhotra is ideal Bollywood - part suave, part hyper-tense.

He speaks in lilting inflections, curves his palms, weighing arguments as he rapidly propounds them. His hair is cut in sharp wedges and the top two buttons of his self-designed shirt open to show tiny hair growing back on perhaps a recently clean-shaven chest.

In a sense, Malhotra is seriously designer-like.

But it wasn't always so hip. When he designed clothes for the then mega actress Juhi Chawla's clothes in "Swarg" 13 years ago, Malhotra was seen as just a neighbourhood tailor striking lucky.

These were Bollywood's seriously uncool days - thick, unplucked eyebrows, ill-fitting salwar kameezes, sometimes denim and leather jackets over kurtas - serious eyesores.

With his styling in films like "Rangeela", "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge", "Dil To Pagal Hai", "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" and "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham", Malhotra changed all that.

"There is an innate sense of beauty in the movies, that's what I believe," said Malhotra. "And I believe that movie stars should look beautiful - they must charm you, they must make you fall in love with them - that's the magic of the movies."

His Midas touch was that he brought youthful dressing to the world's biggest film industry at a time when a new generation of Indians were rediscovering Hindi movies - most of them between the ages of 18 and 35.

So Shah Rukh Khan's denims and loose jacket found instant takers, as did Kajol's chiffons and kurta-salwars.

Then came "Rangeela" - in one sequence actress Urmila Matondkar was shown running down the beaches of Mumbai in just a long white vest - and transformed movie fashion forever.

From the sarong to the hipster, from lycra to tulle, from cat suits to gym wear, from the front open, untucked shirt to the bikini top - Malhotra is the man who brought it all to Bollywood.

"I was the first Bollywood designer to ask to read scripts. It was unheard of, but I stood my ground," said Malhotra who won a Filmfare Award, India's Oscars, for "Rangeela".

"If I didn't know the story, the characters, how would I create a look for them?" This persistence has brought him loyal fans in star actresses like Karisma and Kareena Kapoor, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherjee.

And prizes like the Indira Priyadarshini Memorial Award for his contribution to fashion and the Elle Style Award in 1999.

Even as his prêt line is cheered by top socialites like Tina Ambani, Tanya Godrej, Sheela Mafatlal, Parmeshwar Godrej, Avanti Birla and Rhea Pillai, Malhotra is looking forward to his directorial debut.

"It's going to be all about dance and love - a growing up story even as I grow in my career."