Biography
Dolly made her debut in the film Mudda -The Issue in 2003. She was also acting in the television serial Amma and Family in 1995.
Ahluwalia designed for notable directors like Vishal Bhardwaj for the film The Blue Umbrella in 2005, Blood Brothers in 2007, Kaminey in 2009, Haider in 2024, and worked for Deepa Mehta for the film Water in 2005, Midnight’s Children in 2012. Her mainstream cinema contribution to costume designing continued with the films like Love Aaj Kal in 2009, Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana in 2012. In 2013, she designed the costumes for Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
She won the National Film Award under the Best Costume Design category for Bandit Queen in 1995. A few more awards that Dolly had won were the Sangeet Natak Academy Award for Costume Design in 2001 and, Filmfare Award for Best Costume Design for the film Omkara in 2007.
Dolly also won the Best Supporting Actress in the film Vicky Donor( for a Hindi film ).
Ahluwalia also won the Times of India Film Award and the Screen Award in 2013 and the Guild Awards in the same year for Best Costume Designer.
Best Costume Designer award for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag by Filmfare Awards and IIFA Awards in 2014.
Dolly Ahluwalia has designed several costumes for television and film industry productions. Some of her television productions were for ‘Zameen’, Tanhaiyan and Titli.
She also regularly conducted numerous theatre workshops across India and worked in Punjabi films like Saadi Love Story in 2013.
Her most recent outing in Hindi cinema is with Aamir Khan for his new film Sitaare Zameen Par, in which she plays the role of Preeto, a very Punjabi mother to Gulshan’s mother, essayed by Aamir, wanting a life of her own. She is shown as a typical typecast Delhi mum!
