Top 10 Movie Makeovers

Grease (1978): Olivia Newton-John is the good girl gone bad in classic musical Grease. As preppy, ponytailed Sandy she catches the fancy of John Travolta's bad boy greaser, Danny Zuko, but peer pressure proves a gulf too wide for them to bridge. In the end, Sandy swaps her twinsets and knee length skirts for leather pants, stiletto heels, permed hair and a cigarette – a look appropriate for a greaser's girlfriend. Sandy's extreme makeover was the reason Marie Osmond, the first choice for the role, turned the film down, disliking the fact that Sandy had to turn bad to get her guy.

My Fair Lady (1964): Audrey Hepburn's memorable transformation from Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into society lady involved not just a change of clothes, but an overhaul of speech, manners and personality. Bullied into swapping her street drawl for crystal clear enunciation by Professor Higgins, played by Rex Harrison, Eliza becomes the toast of London and is even pronounced to have royal blood. Most famously, she wears a white lace dress edged with black ribbon to watch the races at Ascot, a costume that Hepburn made iconic and unforgettable. Hepburn was famously passed over for an Oscar nomination on the grounds that she hadn't sung her own songs in the movie. Equally famously, the Oscar that year went to the then little known Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins, who had played the role of Eliza on stage and was not cast in the movie adaptation because she wasn't a big name.

Miss Congeniality (2000): Something's rotten at the Miss United States beauty pageant and Sandra Bullock, as special agent Gracie Hart, must go undercover as a contestant. Trouble is, make up and high heels are alien concepts to the tomboyish Gracie. Enter a pageant coach in the form of Michael Caine who's superhuman task it is to teach her to dress, walk and talk like a beauty queen. Gracie finds the pageant and the other contestants outdated and anti-feminist but eventually her new image does help her solve the mystery, start a relationship and even take the runner-up crown in the pageant.

Cinderella (1950): Walt Disney brought to life the beloved fairytale of orphaned Cinderella, put to work at home by her cruel stepmother and stepsisters. Nearby, at the Palace, the King wants to see his only son married and organizes a ball for him to meet the eligible girls in his kingdom. For Cinderella, help is just a swish of a magic wand away. Her Fairy Godmother turns up to transform her from ragged kitchen maid to stunning sophisticate, and one glass slipper later the Prince has eyes for no other girl.

Khoon Bhari Maang (1988): Revenge is the driving force that prompts ugly ducking Aarti (Rekha) to turn herself in to the most bewitching of swans. Widowed with two children, wealthy but plain Aarti marries the scheming Sanjay (Kabir Bedi) who wastes no time in throwing her off a boat into a crocodile infested river. Aarti is badly disfigured but survives the croc attack, unbeknownst to her murderous husband. Plastic surgery repairs her mutilated face and, now a stunning and glamorous woman, she returns to avenge herself on Sanjay.

Clueless (1995): Based on Jane Austen's Emma, Alicia Silverstone is the rich and beautiful Cher in this comedy of manners. Queen of the social scene, Cher has a taste for fashion and for matchmaking. She takes new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy) under her wing. Tai is frumpy, socially awkward and “tragically unhip.” Cher gives Tai a makeover and tips on how to be popular with the boys. So successful is this that Tai quickly becomes more popular than Cher herself and even makes a play for Cher's own romantic interest.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006): Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) lands a job as personal assistant to high powered fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) – a job that many girls would kill to get but leaves the earnest and intellectual Andy mostly underwhelmed. She has trouble dealing with Miranda's bizarre, often humiliating, behaviour and finds it difficult to fit in with her colleagues. After being told by Miranda that she, of all her assistants, was the most disappointing, Andy decides to change herself, starting with the way she looks. She starts to dress more stylishly, soon becoming indistinguishable from the other fashionista girls at the office. But though her makeover changes people's attitudes towards her, it also changes her as a person and Andy finds herself trading her personal life and the values she believes in for acceptance and approval from her boss.

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998): In her fourth hit movie with Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol is Anjali, a tomboyish college student who is secretly in love with her best friend Rahul. Disaster arrives in the shapely form of Tina (Rani Mukherji) who is feminine and sophisticated, everything that Anjali is not. Rahul quickly falls for Tina. To repair matters, Anjali attempts a makeover and tries to make herself more girly – it backfires and all she gets is laughter and derision from everyone, even Rahul. She exits Rahul's life, leaving Rahul and Tina free to marry. Fast forward a few years, Rahul is now a widower with an eight year old daughter that he and Tina named – Anjali. In a letter left behind by the dead Tina, little Anjali is instructed to find the other Anjali and bring her together with Rahul. Anjali is found, and the makeover she attempted so many years earlier is now a reality – beautiful and polished, she's swapped her short hair for long, silken locks and her sweatpants for sarees.

Biwi No. 1 (1999): As Pooja, Karisma Kapur is a devoted and traditional wife, happily married – or so she thinks – to Prem (Salman Khan), with two children. On Karwa Chauth, Pooja's world comes crashing down when she discovers Prem is having a roaring affair with glamorous fashion model Rupali (Sushmita Sen). Prem moves in with Rupali and Pooja, with the help of family friend Lakhan (Anil Kapoor), has an extreme makeover and becomes a model herself. Now as modern and sophisticated as Rupali, Pooja gets the plum assignments forcing Prem to look at her with new eyes. Happily for feminists everywhere, it's not her newfound glamour that brings Prem back to Pooja but the realization that Rupali's relationship with him was entirely materialistic and the sum of what he could give her, while Pooja's feeling for him went much deeper.

Aaina (1993): Sisters Reema (Juhi Chawla) and Roma (Amrita Singh) are polar opposites of each other. The homely, good natured Reema always gives way to the ambitious, competitive Roma – inevitabley, they fall in love with the same man, Ravi (Jackie Shroff), and he falls in love with the glamorous Roma. A heartbroken Reema puts a brave face on, especially when Ravi and Roma decide to get married. On their wedding day, Roma gets a film offer and leaves Ravi literally at the altar – with the baaraat at the wedding mandap, Ravi marries Reema. A complicated and uncomfortable relationship between the two ensues, but as Reema blossoms into an attractive and confident woman, Ravi falls in love with her, eventually rejecting a furious Roma who returns to cast herself in the role of a woman betrayed.