3 min readChennaiUpdated: Mar 9, 2026 02:38 PM IST
Filmmaker Mansoor Khan’s 1992 coming-of-age sports drama Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar featured several iconic moments. However, one scene that stood out was Pooja Bedi recreating late Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe’s iconic ‘flying skirt’ moment. In a recent interaction, celebrity stylist Ashley Rebello, who served as the costume designer for the Aamir Khan-starrer, shared how the team had to get creative and try multiple methods to recreate the iconic moment.
Speaking to Beyond the Frame with Avinash Tripathi, Ashley shared that Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was his first project in Bollywood and that before entering the film industry he used to sell hand-painted T-shirts. One day, when he went to Mansoor Khan’s office to deliver a T-shirt, the filmmaker was so impressed by his work that he asked him to design the costumes for the film.
Recalling the moment, he said, “One day, I went to Mansoor Khan‘s office to deliver some T-shirts and his secretary asked me to go inside and meet him. I thought I have never met him, Why does he want to meet me? I went inside. He thought that I am there for auditions for Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. But I told him that I am there to deliver the T-shirts. He then asked if I myself made those T-shirts, and I said yes. He really liked my T-shirts and my sense of style. He asked me to make costumes for the film. This was a very accidental beginning in the industry for me.”
Sharing how the makers experimented with different techniques to recreate the Marilyn Monroe moment, he shared, “Mansoor wanted to recreate the Marilyn Monroe skirt flying scene. We tried blowing the skirt with the blower, but the skirt was not flying. I remade the dress with a lighter cloth, but it still wasn’t flying. Then we got a big fan that is used to create dust storms on set but that blew so strongly. I told them to quickly capture the shot so that the later part when the wind blows very strongly can be cut. It was shot so quickly and when the film released, it instantly became iconic.” He added, “Pooja Bedi is bindas and even at that time her thinking was very forward and she was just focused on work.”
