For the fair-skinned Westerner, the hand-woven cotton sheet with chequered designs, is a fascinating piece of attire but for the South Asian, more so the Indian, that soft open-ended garb is called the lungi. Yes, it’s that free-flowing cloth that Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone wore in their blockbuster Chennai Express and grooved to in the Lungi Dance.

Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone brought the lungi back in focus with their now-famous Lungi Dance in Chennai Express

The lungi has been one of the oldest traditional items of clothing that have been worn by both men and women across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Traditionally, it was worn by people living in regions that had hot to extremely hot climate. The soft cotton fabric -- that is used to weave the lungi -- ensures that the wearer remains cool. Even fishermen prefer the lungi as it’s easier to fold and dries up pretty quickly.

According to historians, the lungi has been around for a few hundred years. Wardrobes across India had a variety of colours and styles marked for specific occasions like white for weddings, blue for casual gatherings and chequered patterns for home wear. The cloth was woven by hand, and artisans passed on the art from generations to generations. Factories, workshops and cottage industries prospered for centuries -- that is before the power looms took over.