Wedding Tamasha

There is something about winters and weddings that draws us like bees to honey. And there is nothing more exciting than a big fat Indian wedding. No, 90 per cent of us, ordinary mortals are not a part of this coveted guest list. Which is why our voyeuristic tendencies are so strong, and our antenna is on high alert. The recent Mantena wedding attracted us like magnets to a fridge. We all got into the ostentatious shaadi vibe. And there was no escaping from it. It chased us hard wherever we went. Open your social media, there were reels galore. Insta came alive with carefully curated images of NRI bride, Nethra Mantena and her beau Vamsi Gadiraju. It was a spectacular showcase of the country’s finest designers, stylists, and a smattering of celebrities who were the perfect props to garner attention.

Quickly, everyone logged onto their laptops, used AI mode to track and source every bit of info and images that emerged from the so-called private confines of Rajasthan, where the wedding was celebrated like a 70 mm Bollywood blockbuster.

In contrast, industrialists Navin and Shalu Jindal’s daughter, Yashaswini wed Shasvat Somani in an equally high profile but more closed-door affair in Delhi. And yet it went viral only because dancing at the ‘rani ki aayegi baraat’ were two lady members of parliament, who shed their inhibitions and their woke images to steal the show from right under an Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut’s pahadi nose. Mahua Moitra and Supriya Sule danced with gay abandon to the song Om Shanti Om. But the piece de resistance though was when the Jindal brothers literally brought the house down with their desi moves in co-ordinated outfits. Prithviraj Sajjan and Ratan Jindal joined the father of the bride Navin and grooved to Daler Mahendi’s Na Na Na Na re, instantly going viral on social media. The image of four middle aged men replacing their stoic business personas and letting their hair down was enough for a fresh round of memes that replaced the Mantena wedding.

Most wealthy families have this Bollywood fixation and aspire to replicate that glamour in their own lives. So, they promptly hire the A listers in the business. The queen bee of styling, Anahita Adajania often leads this coveted list. She puts together a team inspired by Karan Johar’s mega movies. Top designers who bow down to the whims and fancies of movie stars are now placed on a pedestal and approached to create couture looks for the family. The most sought after names like Tarun Tahiliani, Gaurav Gupta, Abu Sandeep and Sabyasachi, charge a bomb (customised lehengas cost Rs 10 lakhs upwards). Unfortunately, couture looks good during catwalk and ordinary mortals don’t necessarily have the body type or personalities to carry off these designed to impress attires.

Often the bridal couple and their family members with simple personas end up looking like they were having an out of body experience with their designer transformations. In many cases, the bridal couples looked disgruntled by the end of the mega wedding with virtually three changes per event. Even Bollywood actors don’t undergo so many changes for their song sequences today. They are then made to post in ridiculous postures that seem out of character. The designers want their moments to be immortalised and highlighted on their social media accounts. The wedding planners, the photographers, the hair and makeup team, the caterers, you name it, everyone wants to benefit from these big fat weddings and not just monetarily.

Are the bridal couples even having fun? They become outsiders in their own wedding ceremonies with the focus being on building the family brand and highlighting the power status of the parents. It is alleged that the Mantenas spent close to a Rs 100 crores on the wedding which has now become the inspiration for future Indian weddings. If you just have an Arjit Singh performance, though it is rumoured he charges around Rs 10 crore, the comment is, “Sirf Arjit ko bulaya. Mantene shaadi mein J Lo bhi aya!