Loved Kareena Kapoor’s dresses in 3 Idiots? Want to look chic and cool like Priyanka Chopra did in Dostana? Well, you don’t have to go to a darzee and spend hours explaining a design to him, only to end up disappointed when he gets it wrong. With almost every other film joining hands with a retail brand to launch a movie collection, donning the clothes that your favourite stars wear is no longer a problem.

Following in the footsteps of Hollywood, the Hindi film industry is also taking to movie merchandising in a big way. Take 3 Idiots. The film has not only set the box office on fire but is also raking in the moolah on account of a successful tie-up with retail giant Pantaloons. The 3 Idiots merchandise includes replicas of tee shirts worn by Aamir Khan, Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the film, as well as clothing and jewellery inspired by those worn by Kareena Kapoor. The highlight of the collection is a special range of “doodle” tee shirts hand-drawn by none other than Aamir Khan.

Shoppers Stop, another high-profile retail chain, has also tied up with films such as Om Shanti Om, Love Aaj Kal and Chance Pe Dance to bring out ready-to-wear collections inspired by them. And Pepe Jeans joined hands with Yash Raj Films to launch the Dhoom 2 apparel line in 2006.

In most cases, the tie-ups are a happy quid pro quo. If the makers of the film gain from the buzz generated by the merchandising, the manufacturer too does some hefty business selling the merchandise and cashing in on the craze around the movie. Says Zahid Shaikh, head, marketing, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, “The 3 Idiots collection has got a very good response. Soon after the movie released, the collection was selling around 800 pieces a day.” In the past, Pantaloons has created merchandise for films like Krrish, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Tashan, Bachna Ae Haseeno and Dostana.

Jehel Thakkar, media and entertainment head at consultancy firm KPMG, feels that a merchandising tie-up with a retailer is a win-win situation for a film’s producer or distributor. “There is no risk to the producer or distributor. Even if the movie flops and the products do not sell, it is the manufacturer who incurs the loss. On the other hand, the merchandising helps in promoting the movie as it creates a hype around it.”

In the United States, movie merchandising has been popular for years. Films like E.T., Star Wars, and the Harry Potter series have raked in millions from promotional deals with various brands. In India too Crossword and Pantaloons came out with toys, games, designer kidswear and stationery based on the Harry Potter movies.

Thakkar, however, feels that movie merchandising works best when it’s created not just around the movie but also around the characters. “In Hollywood property merchandising has been successful in cases like Star Wars or M*A*S*H and serials like Friends. But character merchandising, say around Spiderman or Hannah Montana or Harry Potter, has met with much greater success,” he says.

Movie merchandising has a huge potential in India as Bollywood’s influence on fashion trends is unquestionable. Salman Khan’s leather jackets and the “Friend” cap in Maine Pyar Kiya led to a host of imitations flooding the market in the 1980s — and selling like hot cakes. Preity Zinta made glasses popular in the movie Kal Ho Naa Ho. And outfits worn by Madhuri Dixit in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun were all the rage at weddings in the 1990s.

Says Vinay Bhatia, customer care associate and vice-president, marketing and loyalty, Shoppers’ Stop, “This kind of merchandise usually has a short shelf life. However, we still have customers coming back to us, looking for the famous Chor bazari kurta worn by Deepika Padukone in Love Aaj Kal.”

Shoppers Stop’s popular youth brand LIFE recently unveiled the Chance Pe Dance apparel line. On purchases worth Rs 5,000 or more, customers stood a chance of winning a tee shirt autographed by the stars of the movie. The retail chain had tied up with UTV Motion Pictures for this collection.

Explaining the rationale behind the tie-up, Shikha Kapoor, vice-president, marketing, UTV Motion Pictures, says, “Chance Pe Dance is a film for the young. Shahid Kapur and Genelia D’ Souza have a lot of youth following. So it made sense to tie up with a merchandising brand which could recreate the costumes in the film so that youngsters could get a chance to sample them. This kind of merchandising is also a great marketing tool as it creates a buzz around the film.”

Most retail brands admit that movie merchandising is usually an extremely lucrative proposition. Says Neha Shah, assistant manager, Pepe Jeans Clothing (India) Ltd, “The Dhoom 2 collection, which included replicas of shirts worn by Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan, jackets donned by Bipasha and the short denim skirt worn by Aishwarya, was a big hit. We did business worth about Rs 4 crore.”

But it’s not just clothes. Movie merchandising extends to jewellery too. When the Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan starrer Jodha Akbar was released in 2008, Tanishq, the jewellery brand, launched a pret line of jewellery inspired by the period film. The line featured precious and semi-precious jewellery in traditional kundan and meenakari work. In other words, if you wanted to flash some rich Mughal adornments a la Aishwarya Rai in the movie, Tanishq was ready to offer them to you. Says Sandeep Kulhalli, vice-president (retail and marketing), Tanishq, “The Jodhaa Akbar collection was probably the most successful association across categories. It was extremely well received and sales were way beyond our expectations.”

The brand had earlier brought out a jewellery collection in association with the Shah Rukh Khan-Rani Mukherji starrer Paheli.

Of course, movie merchandising may not always pay off as handsomely for the manufacturer. As Thakkar points out, “The success of movie merchandising is directly proportional to the box office success of the movie. Naturally, a tie up with a film like 3 Idiots will be a hit because it is one of Bollywood’s biggest grossers of all time. But merchandising will not work as well in case of an average or a flop movie.”

That said, movie merchandising has certainly come of age in India. So what Bollywood wears today, the high street will, most definitely, wear tomorrow.