💄 Diipa Khosla, Global Influencer and Founder of indē wild
The OG Indian influencer's conviction in the power of the Internet
Welcome to South Asian Trailblazers! 👋🏼 I’m Simi Shah, and here, I dive deep into the journeys of trailblazing South Asians. Listen to the podcast that inspires this newsletter on Apple, Spotify, or any major podcast platform. Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, & TikTok.
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💄 Diipa Büller-Khosla — Global Influencer, Founder of indē wild, Model
In a first for South Asian Trailblazers, we welcome a Global Influencer and Entrepreneur: Diipa Büller-Khosla. Diipa is not only one of the first Indian influencers to have gained international renown, but is also breaking barriers as a founder, model, public speaker, and activist.
At age 18, Diipa moved from India to Amsterdam and eventually London to study international human rights law. She interned at the United Nations’ International Criminal Court and IMA Influencer Agency, one of the biggest influencer agencies in Europe. The experience inspired her to take the leap into digital media celebrity.
Today, Diipa has been featured on seven international magazine covers including Vogue, walked at the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals, and been an ambassador for brands like Estée Lauder, Pandora, and Kérastase by L'Oréal. In 2018, Diipa was India's very first global influencer to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2023, she became a first among Cannes hosts via her new company, indē wild — a debut that broke the internet (hear all about it in this episode!).
A serial founder and passionate activist, Diipa previously founded the non-profit, Post for Change, to rally influencers to harness the power of social media by actively addressing social and global issues, like colorism. Her newest entrepreneurial endeavor is inspired by her mother’s work as an Ayurvedic doctor and her battle with skincare. She’s transforming the industry with her brand, indē wild, by combining Ayurvedic rituals with revolutionary science-backed chemistry into its products. In juggling her many hats, Diipa lives between Amsterdam and India with her husband, Oleg, and their daughter, Dua.
Read episode excerpts below (edited for clarity + brevity) 👇🏾
Simi: You moved from India to Europe at age 18 the young age with the intention of pursuing law long term. Then you interned at IMA, one of the largest influencer agencies in Europe. Can you talk to me about this experience and how it sparked your interest in pivoting careers?
Diipa: I have always been somebody who is quite goal-oriented. So this path came as a curveball, because I was very ready to be a lawyer. I had finished my Bachelor's, and was about to go to London to do my Master’s. I had a six-month break and my brother introduced me to somebody who had a fashion agency. I thought, ‘I've been so academic for so long. Let me do something in another one of my interest areas — the world of fashion and beauty.’
When I started the internship, I very soon realized it wasn’t a normal agency. It was actually an influencer agency. I had no idea what the term even meant. I literally thought: What is happening? What is Instagram? Why are these girls — and when I say girls, I mean OG creators like Chiara Ferragni and Aimee Song — getting paid so much money by brands?’
Then in my day three, I closed this really big deal with Mango, the fashion brand, for Chiara Ferragni. And I realized that the media landscape is about to change. The power is going to the people. It’s a democratization of media and beauty and fashion. And I could see it from a little bit of a futuristic ball. And at that moment, I reached a crossroads. And I thought, ‘Do I do this?’ I don't see any other South Asian doing it globally, in the fashion industry on Instagram. The impact that I could have in form of followers and reach and in just truly being able to talk to young minds could be massive. On the other side was human rights law. And ultimately, I would still strive for the same impact and the same thing, but maybe this path would take me a lot longer to get there. And let's also be honest, being a young 21-year-old, the way influencers showed their life and their trips, of course, also made a difference. So it was a combination of many things together.
But ultimately, I had a very difficult conversation with my mom, where I said, ‘Mom, I don't think I'm going to become a lawyer. I know, we've spent a lot of time and effort and money on it. But trust me on this, my gut says I need to go this way.’ As you can imagine, that was very hard for an Indian mom to accept, but she trusted me. She said, ‘I'll give you one year. If in one year, you can do this and prove it to me, then go for it. If not, you're going straight back to law.’ I said 'fair game. And that was the year I probably worked the hardest my entire life. I started from zero and built it all up.
Simi: You’re a serial founder, most recently having launched indē wild, an Ayurveda-inspired and science-backed beauty and skincare brand. While this was a significant white space the last decade, we’ve seen a number of dedicated brands emerge in the last number of years. What do you see as indē wild’s point differentiation? What compelled you to make the decision to launch?
Diipa: For me, it's pretty clear. Every South Asian in the world has a very clear friction point. And the friction point is on the one hand, we love our mothers, our grandmothers, our culture, our weddings, our food. We love where we come from. At the same time. We are not our mother and grandmother. We want to be financially independent. Yes, we believe in the moon and the stars. We also believe in science. We want to marry who we want to marry. We want to make our own choices. And that friction point is something we just live with on a daily basis. It's yes for this and yes for that, and you will find this in a woman in Toronto, Canada ,in New York City, in Mumbai, in Bangalore with those same friction points.
indē wild is an embodiment of that friction point in a bottle. On the one hand, it has turmeric and ashwagandha — everything your mom and grandmom said you have to use on your skin because it helps you. At the same time, it's clinically-backed. It has that vitamin C that the dermats tell you is fantastic for you. It is us in a bottle.
indē wild is a destiny brand. So many things came together for it happen. It was a combination of my mom being a dermatologist, combined with me struggling with acne, and then truly solving this problem through a combination of clean Ayurvedic ingredients with clinical chemistry ingredients. It’s also about my evolution as a content creator wanting to do something next. When I pregnant during the pandemic, I was thinking a lot about these questions: “What do I want your legacy to be? What do I want to leave back?” indē wild was the answer.
Dive in with me as I explore Diipa's conviction in her ability to scale herself into a multi-faceted, international brand and the wisdom she has gained through her journey — listen now on Apple, Spotify, and our website!