The Most Sparkly Looks From the All That Glitters Diwali Ball

Avantika, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Jessel Taank 2024 All that Glitters Diwali Ball — Photo: Tarishi Gupta

On October 12, guests arrived at the famous Pierre Hotel in New York City in their best South Asian black tie attire to celebrate Diwali at the All That Glitters Ball. Each year, the event is put on by Anjula Acharia, entrepreneur, investor, and manager to Priyanka Chopra, to celebrate the Hindu festival of lights. And the stars showed up shining bright.

The guests packed into the hotel’s grandiose rotunda for cocktail hour, where they enjoyed festive libations and InStyle‘s portrait studio, before filing into the main ballroom for dinner, performances, and dancing. The picturesque venue was filled with opulent South Asian fashion including embroidered sarees and intricately beaded lehenga choli, as well as kurta pajama and sherwani for the men.

This year’s ball was hosted by Acharia, as well as actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Real Housewives of New York City star Jessel Taank, Mean Girls star Avantika, dancer and actress Nora Fatehi, musician Jay Sean, and more.

When speaking with InStyle, Acharia explained that she created the party as a “culmination” of all of the things she loves about the Hindu holiday.

“I grew up loving Diwali as a child but hiding it because everyone made fun of me for it. It wasn’t a festival or culture that really, where I grew up, people knew about at all. So I would hide it, but secretly love it,” she said. “As I got older and grew into myself and became more confident, I was like I love this holiday! What I love about this holiday is it’s so much more for me: It’s an expression of our culture, of our food, of our music. So, for me it’s just a culmination of all those things, and it’s so inclusive of all South Asians.”

Scroll on for the best, most glittering looks from Saturday’s star-studded affair.

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Anjula Acharia and Furhan Ahmad

The hostess with the mostess wore an eye-catching Falguni Shane Peacock couture look with all-over sequins and beading, a sparkly teal bra, and a skirt with a mermaid silhouette. “It’s really different from what I would normally wear,” she admitted. “I would normally wear a very big skirt but this year I decided to go with this kind of fishtail thing. I wanted it to feel more gown-esque this year, so that’s what inspired this.”

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Ubah Hassan

The Real Housewives of New York City star wore a black saree with elegant gold embroidery. After a delayed flight, her friend and co-star, Jessel, saved the day by styling her in the stunning piece. “This is all inspired by Jessel,” she gushed. “I don’t know how I’m going to take this off tonight!”

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Jessel Taank and Pavit Randhawa

Jessel Taank, Pavit Randhawa. Tarishi Gupta/InStyle

The Bravo star and host of tonight’s event channeled Old Hollywood and Bollywood with her stunning teal beaded gown, designed by fellow hosts Falguni and Shane Peacock. “I worked with Falguni to create something that was really different, and we opted to go for a gown, so not traditional but all the cool Indians are rocking it,” she told InStyle. “I cut my hair short and [wanted] to do this old world Hollywood-Bollywood fusion, so that’s what we’re doing here today. I hope it’s giving!”

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Sai De Silva

Sai De Silva joined her Real Housewives co-stars, Taank and Hassan, for the lavish party in a Lehenga that included a bedazzled sheer bra top and peach-colored maxiskirt.

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Bela Bajaria

The Chief Content Officer of Netflix looked striking in a navy blue off-the-shoulder peplum dress with intricate gold embroidery and a chiffon skirt-pant hybrid. She spoke to InStyle about one Diwali memory that stands out to her in particular.

“My favorite Diwali memory is at my house, seven years ago—so my kids were younger—we had lots of friends over doing sparklers, like firework sparklers, [which] are a big part of Diwali,” she recalled. “I bought so many sparklers, and I have all of these memories of all the kids by the pool at night, and everybody was lighting sparklers. Their friends, who weren’t Indian, came over. It was so fun! And we have all these pictures in the dark with these little kids holding these sparklers. It’s still always my favorite memory.”

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Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Maitreyi tapped Indian designer Anita Dongre to create her Champagne-colored Lehenga, which she said was inspired by the new Anita Dongre Diwali Barbie doll. “From the necklace, the jewelry, the earrings, the lehenga, it’s all Anita Dongre,” she told InStyle “I’m an Anita girl!”

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Avantika Vandanapu

Wearing another Falguni Shane Peacock creation, the Mean Girls actress looked stunning in an intricately beaded skirt with a matching sheer scarf. “I’ve just admired her work for so long, it feels really serendipitous to be in attendance with so many incredible women, and an incredible woman having designed my dress,” she said.

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Rohan Oza and Shaheen Patel

Rohan Oza, Shaheen Patel. Tarishi Gupta/InStyle

The businessman re-wore a navy blue look from day three of his wedding to Shaheen Patel earlier this year. “When you spend this much money on it, I feel very bad that I only wear it once. I’ve got to repeat this somewhere,” he explained. “Indian weddings are a multi-day event, so this was day three for this sangeet, and my wife has the matching version.

“There’s only about a 20 percent overlap [in guests] tonight, so I’m okay with it,” he added jokingly.

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