Who is Orry?
Oddly Obsessed with Orry: A Lesson in Unconventional Celebrity-hood
In short, he’s often quipped to be “Bollywood’s BFF”. But who is Orry and why has he become such a phenomenon?
- Rupsha Bhadra
- Editorial
- Updated - 2023-12-04, 16:04 IST
Why is he invited to every high-profile Bollywood party?
How is he best friends with Ananya Panday and Sara Ali Khan?
What does he even do?
Orry is the latest Instagram phenomenon netizens can’t get enough of. He’s spotted with top Bollywood actors and the Ambani family at events. He’s flamboyant, yet funny, as he takes on trolls attacking him. He recently entered the Bigg Boss house. He has even been talked about on the popular chat show Koffee with Karan! In short, he’s often quipped to be “Bollywood’s BFF”.
But who is Orry and why has he become such a phenomenon?
This is our series Oddly Obsessed, where we try to decode whacky Internet trends, sensations, and pop culture phenomena that the world can’t seem to get enough of.
Orry, or Orhan Awatramani, is a socialite, based out of South Bombay. We decode how he’s become such a star, without having any of the usual celebrity tropes we’re familiar with.
Orry is Famous Despite Not Being an Actor or Model
Celebrities today are of two kinds. The ones who rose to fame through movies, modelling gigs or shows. The others created some niche content as ‘influencers’, and then became household names. But someone becoming famous just for making famous friends? We’ve rarely heard of such a thing in Bollywood.
Orry is neither a model nor actor and nor does he belong to a family of celebrities. His parents aren’t movie actors and he seems to have only suddenly shot to the limelight.
View this post on Instagram
Despite not being a “celebrity”, he sure is famous.
He has a following of over 5 lakh, creates headlines, and is regularly followed around by the paparazzi. He attended superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday bash, and later posted pictures with actors Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt and Kareena Kapoor. He has been roped in by Netflix for promotional activities. He attended the prestigious Met Gala 2023 alongside Isha Ambani. He has even been to socialite and entrepreneur Kylie Jenner’s house, and claims that “put me on the map”!
View this post on Instagram
His dialogue "I live, so I'm a liver" on a podcast became viral enough for several memes, reels and even merchandise to be made around it. Coupled with his presence at popular Bollywood parties and gala nights, he indeed is quite the celebrity without any of the usual celebrity tropes.
But, who is Orry?
Who is Orry?
The biggest question everyone’s asking is ‘Who is Orry? And why is he famous?’.
In his own words, Orry said in an interview that he goes “to the gym and do a lot of self-reflection. Sometimes I do yoga, get a massage. You know, I’m working, but on myself.”
In his ever-so-vague manner of talking, he spoke about how he landed his first job interview when asked about what he does.
“I’ll tell you exactly what I said in my first job interview to my boss as of today, “You know, ma’am, growing up I wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. But what am I today? I’m a singer, a songwriter, a fashion designer, a creative director, a stylist, an executive assistant, a shopper, and sometimes a football player, I don’t know. I feel like life is about having dreams. Inflate your dreams, give them wings to fly, and seize every opportunity,” he said. 
Sara Ali Khan while answering this elusive question said, “He is a man of many things. He is a really funny person.”
Arya Kothari, a content creator who’d gone viral for dancing at his convocation, begun a reel series where he tries to find Orry, to ask him what he does. In this quest, he claims to even have visited Orry’s home, and met his mother.
"It was a national question: What does he do?," said Arya, while explaining why he picked such a topic to make content around.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Orhan Awatramani is a Special Project Manager at RIL (Reliance Industries Limited) Chairpersons Office.
Orhan belongs to the wealthy Awatramani family, which has businesses ranging from liquor, and hotels to real estate industries. Orry has also claimed that he earns Rs. 20-30 lakh per night for clicking and posting pictures with celebrities.
Old photos suggest he’s been close friends with Radhika Merchant, who is now engaged to Mukesh Ambani’s youngest son. This Twitter thread highlights old photos snapped with kids of several other rich and powerful families.
6. He is a very good friend of Radhika Merchant since 2015. Radhika is now the bride of the Ambani family. pic.twitter.com/HV0zVAT9gV
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) November 7, 2023
Actor Kiara Advani once said in an interview that Orry was a junior of hers in school. Rumours have done the rounds that he studied with several star kids, and that is how he’s so close to them.
Candid Photos, Poses and Captions
Orry attends parties with every celebrity but uploads photos from them like normal people having a fun night out. Except, nothing about these is ‘normal’.
Orry attended veteran producer Boney Kapoor’s birthday, and the next day, posted over 10 photos posing exclusively with different celebrities with captions of how strong their friendship is. “A good friend offers you advice, but a best friend offers you tequila time” reads the photo with actor Khushi Kapoor, and “Best friends = A promise, not a label” reads the one with Janhvi Kapoor. 
It isn’t every day that one can spot a celebrity spamming with multiple photos from a party, with flash lighting and candid posing. Orry’s photos aren’t clicked against orchestrated backdrops with professional lighting and DSLR cameras which are in vogue right now. His are candid, cute and less planned.
Personal Style and Gen-Z-Coded Fashion
For many, his fashion seems to be quite the standout feature of his photos. In a shift from mainstream celebrities whose looks seem to be solely decided by their stylists, Orry owns his style.
“Whatever he wears, even if it’s eccentric, even if it’s out of the box, it is his personal style,” said Meghna Bhadra, a final year student at National Institute of Fashion Technology. “It’s just him expressing his creativity through his clothes, being confident and having fun with fashion.”
One standout from his outfits is his unique phone cases, which range from being a banana, and a crab in a frying pan to a kitchen knife!
View this post on Instagram
Meghna explains that experimentation and a unique personal style aren’t common among Bollywood stars. “Even when we appreciated Ranveer Singh in a skirt, it was really not his personal style, it was just a piece of clothing he was put in by a stylist. It’s the same with Babil Khan, who is hailed for his experimental clothing. But you can tell that he’s just modelling the clothes, like the clothes are a separate entity, but Orry stands out for being fresh. There’s a picture of him in a sparkly red suit, in a rustic unkempt room in the background, and it’s so new and GenZ! The others are only posing in studios, it’s so normcore.”
View this post on Instagram
Being a Gen-Z herself, she also highlights how most Gen-Z Bolly stars don’t dress their age, or follow global trends. But Orry does.
“Loewe has become such a thing internationally, and their SS23 collection was full of pixel clothing. Orry recently posted photos wearing a pixelated hoodie from them, which is quite cool,” said Meghna. “He posted his Halloween outfit with a Mean Girls background!”
He’s pop culture-oriented, and keeps up with what’s trending. This is evident through the clothes he wears, as well as the reels he makes.
Remember the viral reel song with the mashup of Olivia Rodrigo’s Bad Idea Right x Where’s The Party Tonight? It flooded Instagram, with influencers and regular folk making reels to it. Orry jumped on the bandwagon too, but his featured stars like Suhana Khan and Sara Ali Khan.
Safe to say, Orry’s fashion coupled with his social media presence is unlike his B-town friends. His presence thus, is something people sat up and took note of.
Honesty Around Hair Transplants
Beauty standards and ideals affect not just women. Men with balding or receding hairlines are often subjected to a similar kind of ridicule as are women who don’t meet the ‘ideal’ beauty standards. In Bollywood, botox, surgeries, and other treatments are common, but it’s all heard about in hushed tones and rumours. Remember the murmurs on the infamous KWK episode featuring Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone?
Very few actors have openly admitted to getting procedures or treatments done, despite speculations being widely popular.
Orry, on the other hand, has openly shared his journey with hair transplant, saying he was “understandably conscious” before going in for surgery. He opened up about his hair transplant first in a Vogue interview.
Thereafter, he made a long elaborate reel with pictures from before, during and after the surgery. It was reportedly an 11-hour-long surgery. Post the procedure, Orry regained thick hair that enabled him to sport multiple different hairstyles ranging from long locks to braids.
View this post on Instagram
A B-town celeb being so transparent about beauty procedures is practically unheard of.
Orry Doesn’t Take Himself Too Seriously
Almost everyone in the public eye is subjected to trolling and criticism. The most common celebrity response to trolling is just to let the phase pass. Actor Alia Bhatt also pointed that out in the latest episode of Koffee With Karan. But Orry engages, replies and takes humorous digs at trolls or anyone making content around him.
He reposts photos taking a dig at him with funny captions. He’s told trolls to “chill out” and reshared a photoshopped image of his with football legend David Bekham, saying “this is why I love the internet.” He’s even interacted with the paparazzi on many occasions, telling them how he’s feeling shy and that his cheeks hurt from all the smiling. He engages with small content creators who review his look, or even try to follow him around!
At the heart of it, this is a guy unabashedly living his life, and having a good laugh while at it.
Aura of Mystery: The Making of a Celebrity
Orry, as demonstrated through various examples, is quite an unconventional celebrity. He wears his fame lightly and is in a weird way, fun and quirky.
Yet, the question that is still the most asked, is “Who is Orry?”. Despite relentlessly being in the public eye, and countless articles about him doing the rounds, there exists an air of mystery about who he truly is.
Celebrities thrive on surrounding themselves with an aura of secrecy. They keep their relationships and weddings closely guarded. We know about their lives from talk shows like Koffee With Karan. Rumours, leaked images and gossip tabloids still make guesses about possible tiffs, hookups and more. There’s always a sense of them being out of reach, and in a different world altogether.
Orry however, does a mix of both mysterious elusiveness and bold transparency. We see uncountable images of him every day, yet we don’t know much about what he does for a living. We know he’s best friends with Bollywood, but we’re still guessing how. We know so much, yet we still don’t have a clear idea.
It’s in this zone of knowing as much as he wants us to, even as he spams our feeds, lies the unconventional celebrityhood of Orry.
Disclaimer