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If Jodhaa could cook dal bati, churma and ghevar for Akbar, why can’t my wife? Her answer was very simple: “You’re not an emperor and you don’t look like Hrithik Roshan!”

Besides, why work so hard in the kitchen when someone has already adopted the menu for a wedding after watching Jodhaa Akbar? At the same wedding last week, I came across a relative who confessed to having been inspired by Aishwarya to wear the sari she’d hated for years because of its colour — yellow!“Yellow is in,” she moaned and pointed out that the bride’s mother’s pendant is inspired by the centerpiece of Hrithik The Great’s cummerbund!

The fact is, most women went to see Jodhaa Akbar for the costumes and jewellery. My wife was one of them. Weeks before the film released, she confessed that while history wasn’t her favourite subject in school, she was willing to endure it for three-and-half hours in a movie hall, simply to gaze at all the Mughal and Rajput finery! But then she’s the same person who, as an eight-year old, fancied bride Rakhee’s big nose-ring with three beads in the title song of Kabhie Kabhie and nurtured a dream that she fulfilled during our wedding!

So Jodhaa Akbar is not the first film to influence Indian weddings, though I overheard a conversation between two women about how Kundan jewelry and gota patti embroidery are back in vogue after Gowariker’s opulent epic! Hum Aapke Hain Koun inspired a lot of people to not just copy Madhuri Dixit’s heavyweight ghaghra-choli but also started the trend of elaborate sangeets where family members sang and danced, which led to booming business for choreographers long before Nach Baliye. Later, Sridevi’s Rajasthani wedding in Lamhe inspired a Mewad décor at a high profile 1991 wedding in Mumbai! And not so long ago, Aishwarya Rai’s hairpieces in Devdas caused a buzz among women in my family!

Weddings have started resembling Bollywood musical extravaganzas with a series of functions like sangeet, cocktails, mehendi and reception aimed at displaying the bride and groom and their respective families in a variety of Indian and Western costume changes — and, of course, doing everything from dandiya and bhangra to disco and salsa!

And the next time you’re at the movies and spot a girl pointing out to the little gold ghungroos on Aishwarya’s odhni on the screen, you bet she’s instructing her designer in the next seat!