Behind every “relatable” star is a well-oiled PR machine. And Sara Ali Khan’s girl-next-door charm is definitely no accident.
Ever since she stepped into Bollywood, Sara Ali Khan has captured more attention for her interviews, airport looks, and social media posts than her on-screen performances. There’s an image she carries of the girl next door. You know, the kind that feels relatable, and like someone you could be friends with, or even take home to your mom. However, have you ever wondered: Is this really Sara, or a carefully curated persona crafted by a sharp PR team? On her birthday, we take a closer look at the strategy behind the simplicity. Please keep in mind that I have no intention to question her authenticity; all I will do is to understand how Bollywood builds its most relatable stars.
There’s a particular image that has come to define Sara’s public persona: hands folded in greeting, smiling broadly, and eyes crinkling at the corners. This simple “namaste” (repeated often at airports, outside gyms, and at film screenings) has almost become her calling card. And it stands in gentle contrast to the more aloof waves or flashbulb-dodging sprints of other celebrities.
I won't say it's calculated, but it’s impactful. The namaste thing signals familiarity and cultural rootedness, while subtly differentiating her from peers who remain aloof or hyper-styled. Her sartorial choices convey the same impulse. While her colleagues lean into luxury streetwear and sculptural fashion, Sara’s off-duty wardrobe favors breathable cottons, bindis, and jhumkas among others that evoke the Indian middle-class aesthetic, not the Cannes red carpet. They remind you of your college batchmate who buys chai from the same tapri.
(Credit: saraalikhan95)
In a 2024 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, when asked about her image, she shrugged off the speculation: “I don’t think I’ve spent any energy curating an image of myself. That’s something I would do for the camera, where I curate characters.” Whether that’s candid honesty or tactical humility is beside the point, but the effect remains the same.
During an episode of The Kapil Sharma Show, Sara confessed to pocketing hotel shampoos and towels. Delivered with the practiced ease of someone who knows how to disarm an audience, the anecdote was cheeky and oddly effective. See, it didn’t matter to us whether it was true. What mattered was that, for a moment, she wasn’t a privileged heiress vacationing in Europe. Rather, she was that mildly naughty friend you went on a budget trip with, who stashed mini soaps in her bag.
And that moment, like many others, illustrates the core of her strategy or instinct. She converts privilege into punchlines. And her Hindi, often laced with shayari or folksy proverbs, gives her an additional edge. It’s not the clunky textbook Hindi of many urban-raised actors, but more fluid and expressive.
(Credit: Sony LIV)
Sara’s girl-next-door image isn’t restricted to talk shows and airport sightings. It trickles into the characters she plays. In Kedarnath, her debut role as Mukku was a small-town girl who falls in love across a religious divide. The film may have been flawed, but her performance, as critic Kunal Guha observed, conveyed “anger, hope, desperation” with striking clarity. From there, she has played characters that feel more like people than concepts: Simmba’s energetic Shagun, Atrangi Re’s tempestuous Rinku, and others carry the kinetic energy of real women with tangled hearts. There’s a conscious absence of sheen in her characters that feel lived-in, and recognizably flawed.
(Credit: Zee Music Company)
Now compare this with a contemporary like Janhvi Kapoor, whose choices (be it Dhadak, Gunjan Saxena, or Mili) tilt towards high-stakes drama and aesthetics. It’s less a competition than a case of divergent branding. Sara’s alignment of on-screen choices with off-screen persona has helped her maintain narrative coherence. You know what to expect from her, and that familiarity breeds fandom.
Sara’s social media presence is its own classroom in public image management. With over 45 million followers, her Instagram balances the aspirational with the domestic. There are photos of toned abs and tropical vacations, but also goofy throwbacks, videos with her mother, and most importantly, captions that revel in self-deprecation.
One day, she is quoting Hindi poetry, and the next, she is poking fun at her weight loss journey. There is a calculated effort here to show progression that feels oddly refreshing. In a 2025 interview with NDTV Yuva, she said, “I try to showcase what I am, be it humour, be it travelling. But that is not all that I am. Instagram is a partial reality.” It’s a telling phrase, you know. She knows the game, and she plays it well.
(Credit: zoomtv)
Sara’s persona crystallizes most clearly in long-form interviews and talk shows. On Koffee With Karan, she manages to poke fun at herself and her privilege in equal measure. One moment, she is narrating tales from her Ivy League days at Columbia, and the next, she is joking about bargaining with rickshaw drivers in Juhu.
Her now-signature shayari also plays a part in her identity, as it allows her to be silly without seeming shallow. In a 2023 Vogue India piece, she remarked, “I don’t make an effort to come across as down-to-earth. It’s just how I am.” It’s a line that could be rehearsed or real, but what matters is its consistency. Sara, on screen and off, rarely deviates from her chosen register.
There’s a growing consensus among industry observers that Sara’s relatability is not accidental. As a 2019 India Forums piece pointed out, her PR team made a deliberate decision early on to present her not as aristocracy, but as “just another girl from Juhu.”
And why not? The industry is grappling with the backlash against nepotism and elite entitlement, and the public has little patience for stars who behave like royalty. Today, relatability is reputation. Stars are expected to look good, but above all feel relatable. And Sara fits this mold almost too perfectly.
See, Sara has leaned into being likeable. And she has done so with enough skill and consistency that we can no longer tell where the PR ends and the person begins. And perhaps that’s the point.
Happy Birthday!
