Film makers have taken note of the Indian obsession to look like movie stars and are using it as another way to promote their films — by launching signature apparel collections from the film. Clothing brands are not complaining either since most of the collections end up with a sold out tag soon after they hit the racks. The signature Love Aaj Kal collection at Shoppers Stop was sold out within a week of its launch and customers have now started to pre-book their favourite styles. “It’s great to see retail majors joining hands with Bollywood to make accessible the fashion in films for our millions of fans,” says Khan.

In a country where popular imagination is so strongly dominated by the film industry, it’s hardly surprising that even when it comes to fashion, it’s movies that set the trend. Last year, Van Heusen had tied up with Ghajini to create a collection of formal suits similar to star Aamir Khan’s look in the movie — the collection soon sold out. Shoppers Stop still receives enquiries about its Om Shanti Om collection and Provogue’s collaborations with Rang De Basanti and Race were successful too. “A lot depends on how successful the movie is and how long it runs in theatres. Rang De Basanti was such a hit that our stocks got over almost immediately. Race took a little while to pick up but it did end up doing pretty well at the box-office and so the collection soon found many takers,” says Aarti Poddar, head of marketing at Provogue.

Fashion designer Neeta Lulla, who has designed clothes for numerous films thinks, this is a positive move by clothing brands since people have been coming to her for years asking for replicas of the clothes that she designs in movies. “I used to get so many requests to replicate Juhi Chawla’s blouse from Darr or the Nimbooda outfit from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, even Amrita Singh’s gold outfit from Aaina. So it’s nice that film-inspired clothes are becoming more accessible and cheaper now,” she says.