Bhanu Athaiya (née Rajopadhye; 28 April 1929 – 15 October 2020) was an Indian costume designer and painter. She was the first Indian to win an Academy Award. Alongside being Bollywood's most iconic costume designer, she had a historically crucial early career as an artist with contemporaries like M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza and Vasudeo S. Gaitonde. She was the only woman member of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group. Two of Bhanu Rajopadhye's artworks were included in the 1953 Progressive Artists' Group show in Bombay.

 After her switch from art to cinema, Bhanu became one of the leading creators of the aesthetic of young India through her work on costumes for Bollywood films. She worked on over 100 films, with Indian filmmakers such as Guru Dutt, Yash Chopra, B.R. Chopra, Raj Kapoor, Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla, and Ashutosh Gowariker, notably in films like C.I.D. (1956), Pyaasa (1957), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Guide (1965), Amrapali (1966), Teesri Manzil (1966), Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1979), Razia Sultan (1983), Chandni (1989), Lekin... (1990), 1942: A Love Story (1993), Lagaan (2001),[7] and Swades (2004). She also worked on international projects with directors such as Conrad Rooks in Siddhartha (1972) and Richard Attenborough in Gandhi (1982).