TThe younger lady stepping off a flight at Mumbai’s worldwide airport could possibly be mistaken for any vacationer: denims, outsized sun shades, a rolling suitcase. However her itinerary doesn’t embrace the Gateway of India or Goa’s seashores. She’s right here for a nostril. Extra exactly, a brand new nostril—delivered in a smooth working theatre only a few kilometres from Bollywood’s movie studios. She’s one in every of a rising wave of worldwide travellers selecting India not for yoga or Ayurveda, however for cosmetic surgery.
India now ranks on this planet’s prime ten for total beauty procedures, and among the many prime three for liposuction and rhinoplasty, in line with the Worldwide Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgical procedure (ISAPS). In sheer numbers, the expansion is explosive. The Indian Journal of Plastic Surgical procedure estimates Indian aesthetic surgical procedure market, valued at $4.2 billion in 2023, may almost triple by 2030.
“There’s a powerful case to say India is already a hotspot,” mentioned Dr Parag Sahasrabudhe, guide – plastic and beauty surgeon at Sahyadri Tremendous Speciality Hospital, Pune.
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Again to the start
The irony is that India isn’t a latecomer to this story—it’s returning to its roots. Greater than two millennia in the past, the surgeon Sushruta described –– in painstaking element –– how one can reconstruct a severed nostril, then a typical punishment for crime or infidelity. His methodology, utilizing cheek or brow pores and skin flaps, surprised European docs when “the Indian method” appeared in a British journal within the 18th century.
Greater than two thousand years in the past, the surgeon Sushruta described in painstaking element the reconstruction of a severed nostril (Supply: Wikimedia Commons)
Cosmetic surgery, in different phrases, was born right here lengthy earlier than the time period existed. “The Sushruta Samhita is the oldest treatise on cosmetic surgery out there globally,” mentioned Dr Shilpa Badani, plastic surgeon at SB Aesthetics, Gurgaon. “It’s outstanding that these concepts had been documented, preserved, after which rediscovered centuries later.”
From battlefield to magnificence clinic
Fashionable cosmetic surgery took form within the trenches of conflict––troopers returned with shattered jaws, burns, torn pores and skin, and surgeons restored them. The self-discipline’s ethical authority lay in restoration, not self-importance. That continues to be true in India’s public hospitals, the place reconstructive surgical procedure—trauma, burns, congenital anomalies—is important for survival and dignity.
In non-public hospitals, nonetheless, the story modifications. “Reconstructive work is commonly coated domestically via insurance coverage,” defined Dr Sahasrabudhe. “However aesthetics are self-pay, globally shopped. That’s why worldwide sufferers come: they need elective procedures, they usually examine high quality and price throughout borders.”
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Advances in anesthesia, lasers, and ultrasound have made beauty surgical procedure safer and outcomes extra predictable. On the identical time, a cultural revolution—social media, influencers, movie star tradition—has created a continuing, globalised splendid of magnificence. “Individuals see a picture each time they open their telephone,” mentioned Dr Subhash Sahu, senior guide in cosmetic surgery at Ramakrishna CARE Hospitals, Raipur. “They usually wish to align themselves with it.”
The economics of magnificence
Value is the apparent draw. A rhinoplasty in Mumbai might price 60–80 per cent lower than in New York or London, even after flights and resorts. However docs argue sufferers come for greater than reductions. “Experience is the primary query, not worth,” mentioned Dr Sahu. “India has a deep pool of surgeons skilled right here and overseas, working in internationally accredited hospitals. Affordability issues, however belief seals the choice.”
The geography of this new trade is predictable: Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad. These are India’s metropolitan hubs, the place hospitals gleam, English is the language of session, and surgical groups shuttle between reconstructive emergencies and thoroughly calibrated facelifts.
The faces we select
What do sufferers search? The checklist is acquainted: rhinoplasty, liposuction, breast augmentation, hair transplantation, eyelid surgical procedure, Botox, fillers. Inbound shoppers skew overwhelmingly towards aesthetics, not reconstruction.
The motivations are much less medical than aspirational. An outlined nostril, a contoured jawline, a physique sculpted by liposuction, these are a part of a worldwide aesthetic, pan-Asian but common, formed by Instagram filters as a lot as by movie stars.
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“That is the place tradition is as vital as medication,” Dr Sahasrabudhe mentioned, including, “Magnificence beliefs journey quicker than individuals. By the point a affected person walks in, they already know the look they need. Our job is to steadiness that want with what’s secure and pure.”
India’s medical tourism trade, valued at $21 billion in 2024, is anticipated to greater than triple by 2033 (Supply: Pexels)
A worldwide chief within the making
Worldwide, aesthetics now eclipse reconstruction. Non-surgical therapies—Botox, fillers, pores and skin rejuvenation—are the fastest-growing of all. India’s $21 billion (2024) medical tourism trade is anticipated to greater than triple by 2033, with beauty procedures projected to make up almost a 3rd of the circulate. Already, the nation treats round two million worldwide sufferers yearly; the federal government anticipates that determine will solely rise.
“We’re not simply catching up—we’re shaping the sphere,” mentioned Dr Sahu. “Sufferers don’t come solely as a result of it’s cheaper. They arrive as a result of India can match worldwide high quality, and generally exceed it. That blend—historical past, experience, affordability, and tradition—makes us distinctive.”
