Celebrities have always been known to associate themselves with social causes. Lending it a new avenue to generate capital every now and then we see an item of clothing belonging to a well-known celebrity being auctioned. Well in an auction conducted by the film magazine Movie back in May 1993 at Crossword, we discovered that Pooja Bedi’s bikini from the film Lootere and Madhuri Dixit’s iconic ‘Dhak Dhak’ outfit were up for grabs. However, unlike their western counterparts, Bollywood celebrity clothing items surprisingly fetched rather low sums back then.
In fact, reports state that while Bedi’s bikini sold for a mere Rs. 1,600, Madhuri’s outfit from the memorable track that literally made her a household name fetched only Rs. 2,500. But that wasn’t all, as also on sale were items like Sridevi’s costume for the film Gumraah that sold for Rs. 2,700, Jackie Shroff’s suede boots went for Rs. 2,400, veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan’s coat from Toofan was sold for Rs. 2,200, Govinda’s costume from the film Hum netted Rs. 1,800 and Shammi Kapoor’s chess set drew in Rs. 1,700. The prices at which the items were auctioned did not really manage to compare with artifacts and film memorabilia sold in the West even in those days, as the Hollywood merchandise would gross nearly ten times these prices. But this auction was certainly conducted for a noble one. As for the auction itself, titled, ‘Forever Yours’, it was the first of its kind auction cum jumble sale of Bollywood memorabilia.
Apart from the items mentioned above, the said auction by Movie magazine also featured vintage items from RK Films, Rajshri Productions, and Manmohan Desai’s MKD Films. Interestingly, Jackie Shroff’s wife Ayesha Shroff was the chief guest for the evening, who ended up purchasing Sanjay Dutt’s jeans that were up for auction.
