Bollywood actress Disha Patani has rekindled Bollywood’s romance with the yellow sari through the “Slow motion” song from Salman Khan’s “Bharat”. But it has left many asking “Where’s the sari? In the video of the peppy number by Vishal and Shekhar featuring Nakash Aziz and Shreya Ghoshal, Disha is seen matching her dance moves along with Salman.

“Well, everyone one has a choice to reinvent, but that doesn’t mean you do away with fundamental essence that made sari a beautiful attire for generations. It is a celebration of our cultural legacy and heritage. A sari is a sari. You must drape it in a manner that retains its magnificent character.

“There is a very thin line between a beautiful innovation and a tragic disaster when it comes to designers reinventing a sari. A poor rendition not only looks distasteful, but also kills the very essence of feminism in a sari, and I guess that forms the majority chunk of such reinventions,” she added.

“A sari is an unstitched garment and it is worn in different ways in different parts of the country. A sari can come in nine yards to three yards. There is no standardisation of a sari and there never has been,” said Kumar, adding that there is no “traditional way or a hard and fast rule to wear a sari”.

“Saris have been reinvented for years now. However, while trends come and go, the traditional drapes will remain forever. And even there, each state has its own drape. Think of Gujarat’s seedha pallu sari, Maharashtra’s Nauvari drape, Bengal’s Athpourey style, Andhra Pradesh’s Kappulu drape, and so on.

For many, Disha’s avatar turned out to be a nostalgic trip to Raveena Tandon’s iconic look from 1990’s song “Tip tip barsa paani” or Madhuri Dixit’s “Dhak dhak” look. And for some, it became a joke with memes about the look going viral.