Bachchans, Sinhas, Kapoors catwalk for a cause

It was a picture perfect moment when megastar Amitabh Bachchan's family, Shatrughan Sinha and daughter Sonakshi, Anil Kapoor and daughter Sonam, Javed Akhtar and son Farhan walked the ramp for veteran actress Shabana Azmi's annual Mijwan fashion extravaganza.

On completion of four years in the journey of Shabana's NGO Mijwan Welfare Society (MWS), a fashion show 'Mijwan-The Legacy' was presented by ace Indian designer Manish Malhotra.

Amitabh Bachchan, his wife Jaya, daughter Shweta and son Abhishek took to the ramp looking colour co-ordinated in black, white and red.

Some other celebrities who marked their presence at the event included Aditi Rao Hydari, Sophie Chowdry, Freddy Daruwala, Tanvi Azmi, Sahukat Azmi, Adhuna Akhtar and Richa Chadda.

Shabana, looking bright and beautiful in a yellow sari, said the annual initiative has empowered women of the town in Uttar Pradesh and has made them "unfettered and unafraid."

"One cannot even begin to imagine how empowering it is for the women of Mijwan to be pulled out of oblivion by Manish Malhotra and be brought to the steps of the film world. They now dare to dream and live their dreams, unfettered and unafraid," Shabana, who is president of the NGO started by her late father Kaifi Azmi, said in a statement.

Malhotra adopted the Kaifi Azmi Sewing and Embroidery Centre in Mijwan to help generate employment opportunities for women there. Chikankari by MWS is a dream project that Malhotra has nurtured under his guidance, giving a platform to the Mijwan women to showcase their work.

These women are trained in design and textile techniques, and today the number of these centres across Uttar Pradesh has increased ten-fold.

Focusing on both tradition and change, Malhotra interpreted Chikankari with a modern twist by incorporating floral patterns and applique on modern silhouettes including crop tops, skirts, jackets and saris for women and structured sherwanis, bandikurtas, bandhgalas for men.

He played with a fresh and vibrant colour palette in shades of powder blues, pinks, yellows and fiery reds for this collection.

"Through this initiative, the Mijwan women got an opportunity to become independent, and I got to showcase to the world the best that our country has to offer. After four years of working together these talented women are to me now like family, even as our association has further deepened by weaving threads of change for future generations," Malhotra said.

The Mijwan collection 2015 will be available at the his stores in Mumbai and New Delhi.