Talking about future plans, Parida said: "We are looking to do films, but only those where jewellery is integral to the film. We are also opening two stores in the US in the next six to eight months." We have launched the prêt collection which is inspired from the Jodhaa Akbar line but as of now, we don't intend to sell it."Ĭurrently, Tanshiq has 102 stores across the country. Second, it's not wearable because the jewellery is heavy.
Tanishq has no plan to sell these jewels. So we had to find craftsman who could recreate it," Parida said. Now, setting a mirror in that mould is a special skill and it doesn't exist today. "Women used to wear large thumb rings with mirrors so that they could see their faces in the mirror. So, each jewel takes a long time to craft. One made the mould, another set the stone, one inlaid the pearls and others made the colourful 'meenakari' work. "The interesting thing about most kundan and meenakari is as many as five craftsman worked on one single piece. The designs are mostly kundan and meenakari- inlay work common to Rajasthan. The older generation was not even making jewellery anymore, but we found him in Rajasthan and got him to work for us." In one particular case, we hired three generations of craftsmen to work on the jewellery. In India, there is a tradition of passing the skills from one generation to other. "Starting with the borla (hair pins) to anklets and we have made sure that we follow the same definition of an ensemble." In the 16th century, Rajput women use to wear 12 pieces of jewellery. We got references from Rajput designs of that time, used motifs that were prevalent at that time, architecture, miniature paintings and through existing pieces from that time." "For Akbar, we had a lot more literal references, but for Jodha there were very few. It was a tedious job for the team working on the jewellery to find details about Jodhabai's jewels. Ornaments were created keeping in mind its relevance to the two rich Indian traditions. In Akbarnama there are actually blue prints of emerald mines, which Akbar had started and wherever you see him, he wears emeralds, which is the symbol of power." At that time - Mughals used a lot more pearls than the Rajputs did." We also did a lot of research in museums and archives, private collection of various royalties and at the Chitrakala Parishad," Parida said.Īsk her about the basic difference between Mughal and Rajput jewellery, Parida said: "The basic difference was that Mughal jewellery was much finer in craftsmanship and Rajput jewellery was more rustic. It was a research from the combination of miniature paintings, Akbarnama and old royal families. " Jodhaa Akbar became a design and research challenge because it had to be the specific Rajput and Mughal traditions of the 16th century and there was very little available from that time. "We had done jewellery for Paheli, which was at a much smaller scale because it was Rajasthani jewellery and there wasn't any other definition." Earlier, they collaborated with Shah Rukh Khan for his home production Paheli.
We have used gold and gems like emeralds, pearls, ruby, tourmaline, jade," added Parida. We have made 13 ensembles for Aishwarya and eight for Hrithik. "I think if everything is put together then the total weight will be about 300 kg and it's a huge investment on the part of the company. "But that was how women lived those days and it is authentic," Alpana Parida, head marketing & merchandising at Tanishq, said at the unveiling of Jodhaa Akbar jewellery in the capital.Ī blend of Mughal and Rajasthani designs, the handcrafted jewels on display are breathtakingly beautiful and give an insight to India's glorious past. In fact, in the interviews she said the hardest part was to wear the jewellery.
"The wedding set, which Aishwarya wears in the film, is very heavy. The exquisite pieces include sarpech (feather pin), archer's ring, arsi (mirror ring), bhor (head jewel like in Indian tikka) and hansali (choker). Tanishq, the leading jewellery brand, unveiled the jewellery worn by Aishwarya Rai, who plays the Rajput princess Jodhabai and Hrithik Roshan, who features as Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Akbar, in the movie. Two hundred craftsmen worked for 600 days, moulded 400 kg of gold and precious and semi-precious stones to recreate jewelleries of Mughal era in Ashutosh Gowariker's historical romance Jodhaa Akbar releasing Feb 15.