Jodhaa Akbar: Aishwarya Rai wore nearly 200 kgs of real gold jewelry, it was guarded by 50 men on set

Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan starrer Jodhaa Akbar turns 14 today. The movie remains one of the most popular period dramas in Bollywood and also one of the grandest. Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker left no stone unturned to achieve perfection with the project and it certain showed.

One of the biggest talking points of the film became Aishwarya Rai’s jewelry which she adorned in the film while playing Jodhaa Bai and also set a big fashion trend. But did you know that all her heavy jewelry and that of Hrithik Roshan and their other co-stars was a hundred percent real?

Aishwarya wore several jewelry sets during the length of the nearly four hour long film and each piece was carefully crafted based on extensive research of the Mughal era paintings and lifestyle. The jewelry was made of pure gold and real gem stones, and Aiswarya alone wore close to 200 kgs of gold playing Jodhaa Bai.

It took nearly two for all the jewelry for the film to be made after extensive research and nearly 200 craftsmen worked on the designs. The wedding jewelry worn by Aishwarya in the movie reportedly weighed over three and a half kilos and the actress had once admitted in an interview that wearing such heavy jewelry while shooting wasn’t easy at all.

During the shoot of Jodhaa Akbar it is said that a force of nearly fifty people guarded the room where all the jewels were kept in digital safes.

Not just jewelry, the attention to details was such that real gold was also used in the pagdi adorned by Hrithik Roshan who played Emperor Akbar.

The costumes for the film were done up by designer Neeta Lulla who worked closely with Aushtosh Gowariker and the cast to ensure authenticity while the popular brand Tanshiq was assigned the task for designing the jewelry.