The Princess Diaries

Gauravi Kumari in conversation with Kannagi Desai on legacy, poise, & why she chooses presence over performance

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It was raining in Jaipur. The kind of rain that doesn't disrupt but creates a lush, scenic backdrop, cooling the pink stone just enough to soften the sunburn of July. We were deep inside a palace that didn't need an introduction.

When Princess Gauravi Kumari of Jaipur arrives, she doesn't announce herself. There is no rustle of entitlement. No choreography of handlers. Her entrance, just like her gaze, conveys quiet assurance. And yet, you can't miss her. She moves like she's been here before, not just in the building, but in the pause before the shutter clicks. Her demeanour has a kind of stillness that carries authorship. It becomes clear, almost immediately, that she's not trying to be captured. She is, simply, being present.

"Fashion is my way of expressing myself, no matter the environment," she tells me later, in the room where we speak after the last frame has been shot. “It's never accidental; when I wear a saree internationally, or a traditional poshak at an event, I am not just dressing up. I am making a statement about who I am and the culture I represent."

She speaks carefully, not out of caution, but out of consideration. This isn't someone filling space with anecdotes. Every sentence betrays a measured maturity.

She is, after all, the inheritor of a legacy where presence has always been more powerful than performance. Gauravi is the daughter of Princess Diya Kumari, and the granddaughter of Maharani Padmini Devi - each a figure who shaped public imagination in their own quiet way. Her brother, the young Maharaja of Jaipur, may hold the ceremonial title, but Gauravi holds the emotional memory of the palace. It's not just lineage — it's lived history. The weight of it doesn’t define her, but you sense she carries it with intention, like someone who knows what it means to be looked at, and chooses how to be seen.

ROOT TO RISE