Going through Diipa Büller-Khosla’s Instagram feed is like sitting in the front row of a glitzy couture show. There is Büller-Khosla in a red Rahul Mishra ruffled number at the Lakme Fashion Week; posing with a Burberry shield bag; modelling for Valentino at its first Mumbai store; wearing designer Hamda Al Fahim at a Cartier exhibition in Abu Dhabi; clad in ski gear at Cervinia, Italy. And going by the comments and likes of her 2.1 million followers, it is not just us who is blinded by all the dazzle.
And yet, despite seeming to live within the pages of a Harper’s Bazaar issue, Büller-Khosla is not perfect, and this combination of verve and vulnerability is what is so appealing about her. In one post, for example, she details the non-glamorous aspects of her life. Her biggest insecurity, she says, is the post-partum stretch-marks on her belly. No matter what she achieves in her life, she thinks it is never enough. She struggles with balance. “If I am working, I feel guilty for not spending time with my family, and if I’m enjoying life I feel like I’m not working hard enough,” she says.
Büller-Khosla was one of the first to get into the social media game, long before the words ‘influencer’, ‘digital native’ and ‘content creator’ had entered the public imagination. Although she earned her bachelor’s degree in international human rights law and interned at the UN, it was while doing another internship at one of the first influencer agencies in Europe that she really came into her own. What is admirable is not that she became one of the first influencers in the world at a time when Instagram was just starting, but that she stayed as one. The early bird might catch the worm, but can it keep it?
What followed for Büller-Khosla was an illustrious list of ‘firsts’, when she dared to wade into uncharted waters. In 2018, she became the first global influencer to walk the Cannes red carpet. In 2020, she became the first Indian to address the British House of Commons. In 2022, she became the first Indian female influencer to speak at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos. She also became the first Indian influencer to speak at Harvard Business School (She was invited to speak on ‘diversity in the beauty industry’). In 2023, her beauty label, ind¯e wild (which she founded in 2022), became the first to host a red carpet at Cannes, where she teamed up with singer Raja Kumari and influencer/actor Dolly Singh to celebrate South Asian women at the forefront of change.
Within nine months of founding inde wild, which is based on the concept of Ayurvedistry (combining Ayurveda and chemistry), it had launched in four countries―the US, the UK, Canada and India. Some of their innovative products include the AM vitamin C serum and a lip balm in which they have used biotechnology to mimic ghee and make it vegan. The company has grown 200 per cent to 300 per cent since its founding. It will soon become the first Indian brand to be available in Sephora―the French personal care retailer―in the US and the UK. “I believe it was destiny that pushed me to create the brand,” says Büller-Khosla. “My mother is a doctor and is interested in Ayurveda. When I had really bad acne for about 10 years of my life, it was a combination of Ayurveda and chemistry that solved it. In the beauty market, I did not see any brands combining both. So, that is what I did with ind¯e wild. Since then, things have been crazy, and products are getting sold out.”
She credits her mother―who invested €300 for her wardrobe when she first started out as an influencer―with her success. “My mom is my mentor, confidante, and best friend,” she says. “Being able to do business with my mom is so special because, when I was working as an influencer, I was not able to see her much. Maybe once a year, and this made me sad. But now, working together―bringing her hair oil to the world, and sharing her recipes―has been special. I think our community views it that way, too. The brand feels homely―it is by a mother-daughter team.”
And when the online space gave her so much, she wanted to give something back, and that’s how she started the NGO, Post for Change, with her husband Oleg, a former Dutch diplomat, in 2019. Post for Change mainly addresses gender issues by harnessing the power of social media. It has partnered with celebs like Manish Malhotra, Diana Penty and Manushi Chhillar for the Red Dot campaign, to dispel period myths. It has also worked with UNICEF to create awareness on menstrual hygiene. “I have, from a young age, observed how girls were treated differently from boys, be it at home or school,” she says. “When I became a content creator and started gaining traction, I quickly realised that there was so much power in what I was doing. So why was I not using it to do some good? Also, my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, was working as a UN diplomat. We thought about bringing our worlds together. And we started Post for Change, which is social media for change, where we work with NGOs, talk to influencers, and spread awareness online.”
When she is not jet-setting around the world, Büller-Khosla stays in Amsterdam with her husband, three-year-old daughter Dua, and pet pooches Kubii and Bimbo. Days are spent cycling, rowing, or visiting friends. Or simply sitting by the window and watching the kaleidoscopic life by the canal outside their home. For now, Diipa Büller-Khosla is offline.