ABSTRACT
In a non-resident Bengali Durga Puja celebration in North America, the proprietor of the Kolkata-based jewellery house, Anjali Jewellers, Ananya Chowdhury exhibited the entire collection of jewellery worn by Binodini (Aishwarya Rai) and Ashalata (Raima Sen) in Chokher Bali (A Passion Play), Rituparno Ghosh’s 2003 film. Later, the Chokher Bali brand of jewel-lery, as it came to be known, created much fervour among Indian women not only in India, but also abroad. The designs became popular and a trend-setter, facilitating Anjali Jewellers to bag other film assignments from Bollywood, such as Parineeta (2005), Eklavya (2007) and others. If one looks back into the history of the Bengali film industry, such an event is unprecedented; a Bengali film’s jewellery becoming a trend worldwide is indeed a rare phenomenon, given that the industry had been and was still suffering from a tremendous setback, both economic and aesthetic, since the 1980s. 1
