Only Five Pairs! The Secret Behind Pawan’s Balu Pants

The story behind Pawan's Balu pants

Pawan Kalyan’s style in Balu was not something that happened by accident. Behind that effortlessly cool look was a lot of planning, international shopping and even fabric dating back to World War II!

Renu Desai, who styled Pawan during his early film career, has now shared some fascinating memories from those days in a podcast. She revealed that she would travel to London to shop for Pawan’s clothes. Interestingly, she would often run into filmmaker Karan Johar at the same store, where he would be shopping for Shah Rukh Khan.

But her biggest revelation was about the famous pants Pawan wore in Balu. Renu recalled finding the rare material at a store in Milan. Made using original World War II-era fabric, only five pairs were reportedly produced worldwide. One of them belonged to football star David Beckham, while she managed to secure another for Pawan.

The process was not easy. Renu said she paid an advance and had to wait nearly three months before collecting the outfit. The price? A whopping ₹75,000 at the time.

She also revealed that producer Ashwini Dutt was willing to bear the expense, but Pawan did not want the production to carry the additional cost. Renu further explained that she convinced the team that spending extra on the outfit would give the film something memorable to talk about.

And she was right. Even after more than two decades, Pawan’s Balu look remains a talking point among fans. What seemed like just another stylish costume on screen had an extraordinary story behind it.