Wealthy Indian women have two noticeable obsessions - Bollywood films and gold jewellery. As world gold prices soared to $425 a troy ounce, threatening demand for the precious metal in India, jewellery makers began to worry.

Their response was to launch exclusive lines of dazzling ornaments for the heroines of Bollywood films. The aim was to smother the pain of soaring gold prices by linking period jewellery pieces with Bollywood, a cultural icon of extraordinary pulling power.