Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal wants Indian youth to wear kurta: ‘Unko kurte me aana chahiye’

Bhavish Aggarwal, the Chairman and Managing Director of Ola, recently sat down for a podcast episode for news agency ANI. While his interview with journalist Smita Prakash focused on sharing his vision for India’s tech future, critiquing Western tech dominance, and advocating for greater autonomy and data sovereignty in AI efforts, some of his comments went beyond the realm of technology. Aggarwal also expressed his views on cultural matters, including his preference for wearing a kurta. Not only that, he encouraged young people in the tech sector to embrace kurtas as well.

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“We can be more comfortable in our skin in a [kurta], quite literally, right? And our skin is our clothing kind of fashion sense that is too from India. And kurta is a very elegant dress in my view. So, I feel all Indians, especially the younger tech ones, unko kurte me aana chahiye (should come dressed in kurta),” Aggarwal told Prakash.

Watch the video here:

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The video was shared on July 8. It has since accumulated over 1.2 lakh views and the numbers are still increasing. Many even took to the comments section of the video to share their thoughts.

Check out a few comments here:

“Kurta: because our hearts beat in desi rhythm!” said an individual.

Vishal Sharma, a startup CEO, commented, “All Indian entrepreneurs. Together, Let’s start the kurta movement.”

“It is, was and will be cool,” expressed a third.

A fourth shared, “15 days ago, I bought two kurtas for my College with the same thought.”

“Over the years, especially in the Bay Area, they have made the attire statement. And it started, I think, with Steve Jobs. He has his turtleneck. And then now you have Jensen Huang, who’s the new iconic hero on the block. He wears a leather jacket, if you’ve noticed. The NVIDIA. Yes, the NVIDIA guy. He wears a leather jacket at every event,” he added.

Aggarwal further explains, “Same leather jacket, black jeans, black shirt, and black leather jacket. So, a lot of you, in India, in our startup ecosystem, we end up looking up too much to the West. And so, sometimes people try to do the same thing. So, I said, let’s try our Indian sartorial things. So, we used to wear a kurta, and a kurta is so cool. It’s a good cloth for summer. And I think it looks cool too.”