About Lekha & I

My story
I didn't start here. I started in financial services, spreadsheets, strategy, boardrooms. Then I walked into a makeup chair and never really left. What I carried from that first life was something more useful than technique: the habit of asking why something works, not just whether it does.
That question has followed me through every film set, every bridal morning, every backstage moment before someone steps into the light. I've learned that confidence isn't applied. It's built — slowly, through the right knowledge and the right tools, in the right hands.
I've also seen what's missing. The clutter. The noise. Too many products promising too much. Too few spaces where a YOU — whether YOU lives in Mumbai or Muzaffarpur — can learn what actually works for their skin, their craft, their life.
Lekha & I is not a brand. It's a commitment — to give back what this journey has taught me, in forms that are genuinely useful.
Lekha Gupta, FounderThe journey
2007
Stepped into a corporate career — spreadsheets, strategy, boardrooms.
2008
Relocated from Kolkata with the ICICI Group.
2009
A first encounter with professional makeup, under Maestro Cory Wallia.
2010
A fork in the road — the stability of a job, or the pull of a makeup profession.
2011
Committed to the craft, and trained formally in Singapore.
2012
The first bride, and the beginning of a body of work.
2013
Miss India 2013, and the short film Nayantara's Necklace with Konkona Sen Sharma.
2014
The Bengali film Knockout, and ad films with director Pradeep Sarkar.
2015
Kingfisher Calendar, India Resorts Fashion Week, and Lakme Fashion Week.
2016
A first Bollywood project with Daisy Shah, and a journey that began with Karisma Kapoor.
2017
A long collaboration begins.
2018
Bucket List, with Madhuri Dixit.
2019
Makeup for Kareena Kapoor.
2020
Began teaching, alongside work on Jug Jug Jeeyo.
2021
Makeup for Shershaah.
2022
Continued work on Jug Jug Jeeyo.
2023
Makeup for Satyaprem Ki Katha.
2024
An award recognition at Cannes, and the film Crew.
2025
Makeup for War 2.
2026
A milestone 25th film, marking twenty-five years since it all began.
What we believe
Knowledge
Every offering starts with the same question: what does this YOU actually need — not what's trending, not what photographs well.
Practice
A skill etched for life. Skin that's calm in its own skin. A piece that carries your values. Nothing here is disposable.
Structure
Whether reading a face, formulating for skin, or choosing a material, the same precision, the same refusal to accept less than what works.
Inclusion
The capitalized "YOU" is deliberate, this house is for anyone who shows up for it, regardless of where they begin.
The house
Skills fade. Craft doesn't.
Every piece crosses a line.
Balance, not transformation.