Vimla Patil was associated with Femina, India’s number one women’s magazine, published by the Times of India Group for 29 years. Femina is Vimla Patil's personal success story. Today, FEMINA is one of the strongest international brands with a vast readership in India and abroad. She initiated the Miss India contest in the mid-sixties for the journal and brought it to its present international stature. Vimla Patil promoted Indian textiles and fashion garments – especially handlooms – for decades by presenting over 4000 fashion shows in India and most countries of the world.
After finishing her long stint with Femina, she built a brand new career for herself as a freelance multi-mediaperson with writing, events, public relations, shows and many more activities in her portfolio!

Vimla Patil will be delighted to answer readers' questions. Please click on the comments page link at the bottom of the article to post your questions for her or to comment on her article.

Time was when priceless diamond jewellery was seen only in royal portraits or beautifully designed books and catalogues. Today, diamond sales have taken a dramatic turnaround with branded jewellery becoming available to millions of upper middle class women. This year, the diamond jewellery business roped in several top film stars and models to tempt women of all classes to buy diamonds during the festive season.

Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Gauri Khan, Akshay Kumar, Suneil Shetty, Sushmita Sen, Neelam, Mandira Bedi and many others showed off dazzling diamonds in ads and shows this season to promote the sale of this treasured stone of romance and power!

In recent months, many Bollywood stars and top models have been used as the icons of several brands of diamond jewellery. The story of branding diamond jewellery began when De Beers roped in Aishwarya Rai to feature in a series of beautifully designed television and print media commercials for Nakshatra branded diamond jewellery – with its statements: ‘A Diamond Is Forever’ or ‘A Diamond Symbolises Eternal Love’. These ads reflected the mystery, romance and magic of a diamond, with Aishwarya cavorting in a star-lit desert landscape or dancing sensually in lonely splendour under a bewitching dark sky! These early ads had a tremendous impact on the diamond market.

Amitabh Bachchan – evergreen superstar of the millennium, modeled for Solitaire brand of diamonds.

Suddenly, diamond dealers discovered the ‘star value’ of ads selling branded jewellery. D’amas followed with ads featuring Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty, Suneil Shetty and others posing with their solitaires to sell fusion jewellery. Solitaire followed by enlisting the charisma of superstar Amitabh Bachchan to sell their hi-end large diamonds. During the festive months this year, Sushmita Sen appeared in the campaign for Kiah diamonds. Neelam Kothari – herself a major jewellery designer after she quit her successful film career – modelled her own jewellery in ads for Neelam Jewels. Miss India for Miss World Saayli Bhagat was hired to model diamond jewellery for the TBZ In Vogue range of jewellery.

Dark and sultry Bipasha Basu – and before her, the radiant Raveena Tandon – walked the catwalk wearing ‘lapel’ Signature diamond designs created by top designer Poonam Soni. Many ‘pretty young starlets’ of Bollywood modelled Orra jewellery. Asmi diamonds presented two-or-three-in-one detachable jewellery items with actor-model Mandira Bedi posing smilingly to showcase it.

Grand Fashion Shows Held To Showcase Diamond Jewellery

This year, huge diamond jewellery shows have been mounted by international diamond companies like De Beers, Asmi and D’Amas with India’s top models and stars appearing on stage, wearing dazzling necklaces, bracelets, rings and dangling earrings. Private shows, small exhibitions and exclusive previews have mushroomed in metro city showrooms and boutiques. At every such happening, diamonds have been promoted as the stone of mystery and romance. At these shows, society women ogle at the stars and buy new, fusion style diamond jewellery over wine and cheese or canapés and juices. Ordinary women are flocking to department stores, traditional jewellery shops and hi street fashion boutiques to buy their share of diamonds. Add to this the huge cache of festive ads on television and street hoardings, which suggest diamonds as gifts for brides (Vivaha jewellery) and for every auspicious occasion including Diwali. Newspapers too, feature interviews with celebrity women who endorse the trend of buying diamonds for Diwali! All in all, diamond sales are zooming up and touching the skies this year!

Saayli Bhagat, India’s candidate for the Miss World contest, presently being held in China, models diamond jewellery for the famous house of TBZ (Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri

For over a millennium, colonial powers, conquerors and traders were attracted to India to loot, to buy or just see the fabulous jewels owned by the rich maharajas, nawabs, zamindars and even ordinary people. In the early part of the millennium, the Golconda mines were the world's most important storehouse of large diamonds. In fact, the famous French traveller and diamond dealer, Jean Paul Tavernier, writes in his memoirs how he acquired priceless diamonds like the Hope and the Orlov in India to sell to the European royalty. Russia's Czars, Britain's royals and nobles of all countries in Europe became renowned collectors of Indian jewellery and gemstones. Even today, the Louvre in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Czar's treasury in Moscow, and the Smithsonian Institute in the USA have huge departments devoted only to superb displays of Indian jewellery. The Koh-I-Noor, set in the crown of the late Queen Mother of Britain, is of course the most famous diamond in the world. But there is also a vast treasure of jewels either 'presented' to the British kings and queens by Indian princes or taken by the East India Company when it emptied the Lahore treasury of Maharaja Duleep Singh. The treasure of jewellery which India traditionally possessed, has been looted by every colonial ruler or conquering invader!

But the story of India's diamond craziness does not end with such celebrity treasures and solitaires of awesome proportions. As a people, Indians have valued diamonds as the most powerful gem representing the planet Venus. Though hardly any tales of great romance and love are attached to diamonds in Indian folklore or history, there are wonderful descriptions of temple treasures of diamonds and precious jewellery. Most Gods and Goddesses are associated with jewellery, with Vishnu being the owner of the magical Kaustubha and Krishna, the possessor of the Syamantaka diamonds. Iranian researchers in recent times have tried to prove that the Syamantaka is indeed the Koh-I-Noor, which was taken by the British from India! The Koh-I-Noor was first counted in the collection of Babar and was called Babar’s Diamond for a while. The history of the Koh-I-Noor has been a subject of research for many scholars even today.

Actress Neelam Kothari, herself a very successful actress earlier and now a jewellery designer for her family firm, models highly priced diamond jewellery for the festive season.

Today, the Indian diamond industry – second largest in the world – has turned over a new leaf. Almost 400 families of Indian diamond dealers have settled in Antwerp and become the elite of European society with dazzling fashion events and memorable Indian weddings which display a mind-blowing collection of jewellery and regal celebrations. On the other hand, the industry has heavily promoted diamonds as every woman’s best friend, an eternal treasure, a symbol of power and love! In the last decade, particularly with the speedy growth of the affluent Indian middle class, now numbering over 450 million people, the diamond trade has found a huge clientele – especially among working women who have their own money to pamper themselves. Worldwide publicity by international corporations like De Beers – which manages the Central Sales Organisation of diamonds in London – has made diamonds a desirable possession for everybody. These strategies have enabled the industry in India to market seven out of every ten diamonds sold in the world, totalling to an annual export value of $ 5000 billion.

Meticulously designed by professionals, branded diamond rings, tops, pendants and bracelets are now marketed by several companies, which create seasonal collections for buyers of all ages. No more has the buying of diamond jewellery an aura of forbidding secrecy. Most department stores and high street boutiques sell small, affordable diamond jewellery to average women, who wish to add a touch of luxury to their lives! This year, diamond designers and sellers have reached a new acme of marketing. Suddenly, the market is full of branded diamond jewellery available for as little as Rs.5000 with extra gifts and bonuses for the buyer. With iconic stars and models appearing in ads, TV commercials and street hoardings, the sale of diamonds has jumped to an unprecedented crescendo! To coin a new phrase, a diamond has truly become every woman's best friend, though it may no longer symbolise anything 'forever'!

A typical ad with a top model showing off fusion designs in diamond jewellery.