Fortune India

THE LUXURY ISSUE: In our Luxury Issue, we take a look at several aspects of the Indian luxe landscape—from the products and experiences on offer to the emerging trends in the market for luxury goods. As global luxury giants ramp up their India strategy, they are also increasingly opting for Indian faces as brand ambassadors. As Vinod Nair writes in the cover story, several Indian superstars and sporting icons are now faces of many of these global brands—from our cover person Alia Bhatt  to megastars like Deepika Padukone (Cartier), Ranveer Singh , Priyanka Chopra  and sporting icon Neeraj Chopra , among others. “The fact that luxury brands are… bringing in Indian talent shows how much India’s influence is growing, not just in terms of market demand, but in shaping global culture.” For shoppers, massive luxury retail spaces are coming up across India—the sprawling Jio World Plaza from Reliance in Mumbai will soon be joined by Galeries Lafayette, which opens in the city in October and is brought to India by the Aditya Birla Group. In other cities too, luxury malls are expanding and new ones are coming up to ensure the big brands making a beeline for India have enough space to show-case their products. As Armando Branchini of Italian luxury brands collective Fondazione Altagamma says in our opening essay, a striking feature of the Indian luxury market is its youthful consumer base, which is digitally native, brand conscious, and motivated by experiences.