Identity Without Apology: When AJIO Redefined How India Celebrates

September 2025. As India's festive season approached—that magical period when Durga Pujo, Dussehra, Navratri, and Diwali blend into one continuous celebration—most fashion brands prepared their usual playbook: traditional ethnic wear campaigns, celebrity endorsements showcasing perfect families in perfect outfits, and messaging about honoring tradition. AJIO, Reliance Retail's fashion e-commerce platform, chose a radically different path. They launched "This Is How We Festival," a campaign that would challenge every assumption about what festive fashion should look like, who gets to wear it, and what celebrations mean in modern India.

The Star-Studded Journey Across India's Festivals

The campaign film featured AJIO brand ambassadors Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor, who take audiences on a vibrant journey across the country's festive celebrations. But this wasn't your typical celebrity-fronted advertisement where stars simply pose in designer wear. Alongside Varun and Shraddha, the film brought together an extraordinary ensemble of cultural icons: Zeenat Aman (the legendary Bollywood actress who redefined glamour in the 1970s), Uorfi Javed (social media sensation known for her bold fashion choices and unapologetic self-expression), Abir Chatterjee (celebrated Bengali actor), Malavika Mohanan (South Indian cinema star), and a host of Indians representing various communities.

This casting wasn't random—it was strategic storytelling. Each personality represented different facets of Indian identity: generational diversity (Zeenat Aman to Uorfi Javed), regional representation (Pan-India appeal), style spectrum (from traditional to experimental), and cultural conversations (from Bollywood royalty to digital-age influencers).

Fashion That Breaks The Rules

The film showcased how fashion is deeply personal during India's festivals. The visuals celebrated unconventional combinations: pairing sneakers with a dhoti, going bold with a nine-yard saree and a blazer, twinning with your pet at a Garba night. These weren't styling accidents or fashion faux pas—they were deliberate statements about identity and expression.

Each visual choice challenged the unspoken rules that have governed festive dressing for generations. Dhotis were for traditional occasions, paired with traditional footwear—not sneakers. Sarees were complete unto themselves—not layered with blazers. And pets were... well, pets weren't part of festive fashion equations at all.

But AJIO's campaign asked: Says who? Who decided these rules? And why should personal style bow to conformity during the very celebrations meant to express joy and identity?

The Philosophy: Identity Without Apology

The campaign was rooted in AJIO's brand philosophy of "Identity Without Apology"—a positioning that puts individuality, diversity, and self-expression at the center of India's festive celebrations. This wasn't just tagline; it was manifesto.

Arpan Biswas, CMO of AJIO, articulated the brand's vision: "At AJIO, fashion has never been just about clothes, it's about identity, expression, and the freedom to be yourself. With 'This Is How We Festival', we wanted to capture the incredible diversity of how India celebrates and how personal style plays such a central role in those celebrations. This campaign is our way of saying: celebrate without hesitation, express without apology."

The message was clear: festivals belong to everyone, and everyone gets to define what celebration looks like for them. Not your grandmother's rules. Not social media's judgment. Not tradition's tyranny. Your festival, your style, your identity—without apology.

Addressing The Elephants In The Festive Room

What made the campaign particularly bold was its willingness to address uncomfortable topics that most festive advertising studiously avoids. The campaign boldly addressed themes of ageism, trolling, compassion, inclusivity, and LGBTQ+ representation—issues that touch festive celebrations but are rarely acknowledged in commercial messaging.

Ageism: Featuring Zeenat Aman wasn't just nostalgia marketing—it challenged the notion that fashion and festive celebration belong primarily to youth. The legendary actress in contemporary festive wear sent a message: age doesn't disqualify you from bold self-expression.

Trolling: Including Uorfi Javed, one of India's most trolled personalities for her unconventional fashion choices, was deliberate confrontation. The campaign essentially said: those who express boldly deserve celebration, not condemnation.

Inclusivity and LGBTQ+ Representation: By weaving diverse identities into the festive narrative, AJIO acknowledged that India's celebrations include people of all orientations and identities—whether traditional advertising represents them or not.

Compassion: The underlying message throughout was empathy—allowing people to celebrate in ways that feel authentic to them rather than policing their choices.

The Creative Vision Behind The Bold

The campaign was conceptualized by Wondrlab, India's first platform-first martech network, which partnered with AJIO to bring this vision to life. Hemant Shringy, CCO & Managing Partner at Wondrlab, captured the creative philosophy perfectly: "This is how we festival' is the perfect coming together of a brand's point of differentiation and the brand's point of view. It celebrates identity without apology. It's a thought that rings so true with the Indian festive season. The film is as diverse, as maximalist, as individualistic as our celebrations. We all bring a little bit (or a lot) of our personality to every occasion. And Ajio with its elaborate and eclectic collection is the perfect destination for our festive season!"

The phrase "maximalist" and "individualistic" were key. Indian festivals are, by nature, maximalist affairs—sensory overload of colors, sounds, tastes, traditions. The campaign matched that maximalism visually and conceptually, refusing to minimize or sanitize the glorious chaos of how Indians actually celebrate.

The Strategic Positioning: Owning Festive Fashion

An AJIO spokesperson articulated the strategic insight behind the campaign: "Festive fashion has often been boxed into conformity, limiting the choices to a set template of traditional ethnic wear which has been continuing for ages. The new Bharat loves to experiment with its style, adding unique flavours of individual identities, and streaks of modernisation. We believe festivals are as unique as the people who celebrate them and this campaign reflects AJIO's role as the destination where every Indian can find fashion that mirrors their identity, their mood, and their moment without apology."

This positioning directly challenged category conventions. For decades, festive fashion advertising had reinforced narrow definitions: specific silhouettes, certain color palettes, particular styling rules. These conventions created profitable predictability but also stifling uniformity.

AJIO saw opportunity in the gap between how brands marketed festive fashion and how young, urban Indians actually wanted to celebrate. The "new Bharat" wasn't rejecting tradition—it was remixing tradition with contemporary identity, creating hybrid expressions that felt both rooted and radically personal.

With this campaign, AJIO aimed to own the festive fashion conversation in India, moving beyond trends to become the platform where every festival, every style, and every identity finds its stage. This was ambitious positioning—claiming not just market share but cultural leadership in defining what festive celebration could mean.

The Distribution and Amplification Strategy

The campaign launched across AJIO's digital and social platforms and was being amplified through a wide range of influencer collaborations. This distribution strategy acknowledged how festive fashion decisions actually happen in 2025 India: through social media inspiration, influencer recommendations, and peer validation as much as through traditional advertising.

By partnering with diverse influencers, AJIO ensured the "Identity Without Apology" message reached audiences through voices they already trusted. This wasn't brand broadcasting at audiences—it was seeding conversations within communities.

The Larger Cultural Ambition

According to Wondrlab and AJIO, the campaign aimed to spark a larger cultural conversation, one that redefines festive fashion as a celebration of identity, expression, and belonging during India's grand festive season. This ambition extended beyond commercial success to cultural impact—changing not just what people buy, but how they think about festive self-expression.

The campaign intended to help redefine festive fashion as a celebration of identity and belonging, encouraging bold expression during the festive period. In a country where conformity often feels like safety and standing out invites judgment, encouraging bold expression was genuinely radical.

Five Lessons From This Is How We Festival

1. Challenge Category Conventions To Create Differentiation

AJIO identified that festive fashion had been "boxed into conformity" and positioned themselves as the liberator. By challenging the very rules that governed their category, they created distinctive positioning competitors couldn't easily copy. The lesson: don't just compete within established category boundaries—question whether those boundaries serve customers or just make competition easier for incumbents. The boldest differentiation comes from redefining the category itself.

2. Diverse Casting Creates Comprehensive Representation

Featuring everyone from Zeenat Aman to Uorfi Javed wasn't tokenism—it was strategic inclusivity demonstrating that AJIO's philosophy applied across age, style, fame, controversy, and identity. The lesson: when claiming to champion diversity, demonstrate it through casting that spans dimensions audiences actually care about. Surface-level diversity (everyone looks different but thinks identically) fails; deep diversity (fundamentally different perspectives and experiences) resonates.

3. Address Uncomfortable Topics When They're Genuine To Your Message

Most festive advertising avoids mentioning ageism, trolling, or LGBTQ+ representation. AJIO mentioned them because they're central to their "Identity Without Apology" positioning. The lesson: if your brand stands for something meaningful, don't sanitize that stance to avoid discomfort. Brands that politely avoid all controversy also avoid all conviction. Stake real positions on issues that matter to your positioning—just ensure they're genuine, not performative.

4. Make Product Benefit The Logical Outcome Of Brand Philosophy

AJIO's "elaborate and eclectic collection" wasn't just inventory—it was the tangible manifestation of "Identity Without Apology." Product variety enabled identity expression. The lesson: brand philosophy should lead naturally to product benefit. When your values and your offerings align perfectly, marketing feels inevitable rather than forced. The best brand positioning makes your product the obvious solution to needs you've helped articulate.

5. Own Conversations, Not Just Transactions

AJIO aimed to "own the festive fashion conversation in India"—not just win festive sales season. This long-term thinking prioritizes cultural influence over quarterly revenue. The lesson: transactional marketing drives sales; conversational marketing drives culture. When you shape how people think about your category, you don't have to fight for attention—people come to you because you've become central to the conversation they're already having.

The Risk and The Reward

Not every brand could launch this campaign. AJIO took genuine risks: featuring polarizing personalities like Uorfi Javed, addressing LGBTQ+ representation during festive season, challenging traditional dress codes that many Indians hold sacred, positioning themselves as cultural progressives in politically complex environment.

Conservative audiences might reject the campaign as too Western, too liberal, too disrespectful of tradition. Traditional festive shoppers might feel alienated by messaging that seems to mock rather than honor heritage. And every bold casting choice invited controversy—especially Uorfi Javed, whose inclusion guaranteed negative reactions alongside positive ones.

But AJIO calculated that the risk was strategic. Their target audience—urban, young, digitally native, value-conscious but style-forward—was already remixing tradition. The campaign didn't create these desires; it validated them. And validation, particularly permission to express identity during culturally loaded moments like festivals, creates powerful brand loyalty.

Conclusion: The Festival Is Yours

"This Is How We Festival" succeeded by articulating something young India felt but festive marketing had ignored: that celebration and conformity don't have to be synonyms. That you can honor tradition while expressing individuality. That festivals belong to everyone, and everyone gets to define what belonging looks like for them.

The campaign's power lay in its refusal to prescribe. It didn't say "this is the right way to celebrate" or "this is what modern festivals should look like." It simply showed diverse ways people already celebrate, then said: all of this is valid, all of this is festival, all of this deserves fashion that matches its spirit.

For AJIO, this positioning created clear brand territory: if you want festive fashion that fits your identity rather than forcing you into someone else's template, we're your destination. Not your parents' festive wardrobe. Not Bollywood's perfect family fantasies. Not tradition's narrow prescriptions. Your festival. Your rules. Your identity. Without apology.

And for audiences exhausted by festive advertising that shows them who they should be rather than celebrating who they are, that message landed with the force of permission they'd been waiting for: dress how you want, celebrate how you want, be who you are—especially during the festivals meant to celebrate joy, abundance, and belonging.

Because ultimately, the most subversive thing a brand can tell modern India during festive season isn't that tradition is outdated. It's that tradition is yours to interpret, celebration is yours to define, and identity is yours to express—with or without permission, but definitely without apology.