Indian bridal extravaganza Bollywood-style
This being the season of spectacular weddings – Spain’s Prince Felipe, Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik and Jordan’s Crown Prince Hamzah have all tied the knot in the last month – REENA GURBAKSH is prompted to take a look at an Indian bridal extravaganza that has rivalled the royal nuptials with its Bollywood-style pagentry.
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The father of the bride – Lakshmi Mittal, arrives at the ‘sangeet’ ceremony |
All the romance of Paris was perfectly melded with Bollywood-style fanfare in a fairytale wedding for which steel magnate Mittal, the richest Indian in the world and the fifth richest man in Britain where he resides, is reported to have spent an obscene £30mil (RM207mil). He and his wife, Usha, reportedly promised his only daughter a “spectacular wedding’’ and Vanisha was certainly given away to her new family – as is the Indian belief – in a manner befitting that of a princess.
If anything, the 20-page thick silver-cased invitation cards sent out to just over 1,000 lucky guests were perhaps as good an indication as any of the fabulous extravagance that was to follow. Interspersed with poems of love, one verse read: “From the chateau steeped in history, We enter a world of maharajahs and mystery, A gilded palace from Bikaner brings, A lavish feast fit for a king.”
And what a fantastical feast it was: According to The Telegraph, Vanisha’s wedding saw a week of pomp and pageantry in the finest style culminating in the final ceremony at Paris’ Vaux le Viconte on Tuesday, acknowledged as “the finest chateau and garden in France’’. The 17th-century chateau, an hour’s drive from Paris, had a wedding dais erected over a pool covered with pink flowers. The Hindu service took place at 8pm after guests from the bride’s side and the baarath (groom’s party) arrived at 4pm and 5.30pm respectively.
“The setting looks lovely,” the paper quoted a journalist who sneaked in before the ground was sealed off to tourists at 1pm. “Workers brought from India have been working to prepare the arrangements for the last 15 days.”
For India’s mega rich, 10,000 guests are the norm for a family wedding but Mittal wanted Vanisha’s to be tasteful, exclusive and different (Incidentally, the largest wedding banquet in the Guinness Book of World Records was given by Jayalalitha Jayaram, former Tamil Nadu chief minister and movie star, who hosted a luncheon for over 150,000 guests at her foster son’s wedding in 1995.)
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The resplendant bride arrives at the Vaux le Vicomte on June 22 with her brother, Aditya. |
Celebrations began on June 19 with a play about the lovebirds. The sangeet (song and dance session) at the Jardin des Tuileries on the banks of the Seine humoured guests with a production by Indian scriptwriter Javed Akhtar, choreographed by Indian Farah Khan, about the couple and how they met.
According to Sify News, Vanisha’s proud father and mother played themselves in the hour-long production while the roles of Amit and Vanisha were taken by Mittal’s son and daughter-in-law, Aditya and Megha.
The Mittals and Bhatias have been friends for several years but the bride, a post-graduate from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, met the dashing Delhi-born banker from Cornell University, New York, while both were working at Credit Suisse at Canary Wharf in London.
The next day, a formal “exchange of rings’’ ceremony took place at the Palace of Versailles, once the home of Louis XIV and guests were entertained by a performance of Moulin Rouge kicking can-can girls.
Keen to show that he is an Indian with exacting taste, the Opera House in Versailles also heard the music of three of Mittal’s favourite composers –Verdi, Leo Delibes and Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Dinner was served in the Galerie des Batailles and one of the top chefs from the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, where Mittal was born, was flown to Paris to prepare Indian vegetarian food for the guests.
On June 21 at the henna party in a Paris hotel, Indian henna artist Ash Kumar – whose celebrity fans include Julia Roberts, Sophie Dahl and has been featured in Bollywood blockbusters like Devdas and Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Ghum – designed an exclusive henna pattern to match the embroidery on the bride’s outfit.
“A design that’s not been seen before and which has taken the longest in my career to construct,” he reportedly told the Times News Network. “I’m set to give the best to the Mittal family who requested for nothing but the best for their daughter’s wedding.”
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The Battle Gallery at Versailles all set for a lavish dinner after the exchange of rings ceremony. |
Still, the tycoon is not known to do things by halves: The Telegraph tells that the tycoon recently paid £70mil (RM483mil) for a 12-bedroom mansion in Kensington, west London. Also, the marriage of Mittal’s son, Aditya, in Calcutta four years ago was a similarly ostentatious affair with scores of servants and bejewelled elephants. Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan was paid £300,000 (RM2mil) to dance at the reception.
This time round, he simply brought Bollywood to Paris. Pre-wedding, Mittal’s daughter-in-law had rhetorically asked “Will it be Shah Rukh (Khan), Preity (Zinta) or Hrithik Roshan?” who would star at the nuptials and guests had begun to wonder if even Mittal’s wallet could accommodate all these stars’ astronomical demands.
To their surprise, heartthrob Shah Rukh and screen siren Rani Mukherjee as well as Aussie nymphet Kylie Minogue gyrated to loud music at a party before the big day as more than 1,000 guests sipped cocktails at the aptly-titled “Bollywood Star Night” and looked down on Paris from the hilly Parc St Cloud.
Weeks of speculation as to whether Bollywood goddess Aishwarya Rai would make an appearance was also finally put to rest – the beauty, together with actor Akshay Kumar, rounded off the nuptials with a bang when they performed at the wedding ceremony on Tuesday night.
This mother of all wedding parties certainly left an indelible impression on the guests: Geeta Passi told The Times of India, “One had to be there to experience the grandeur. Each function was a treat.’’
Businessman and Indian MP Vijay Mallya possibly summed up the hoity-toity atmosphere of the celebrations with his remark: “I flew down in my private jet, expecting an extraordinary wedding ... and I wasn’t disappointed! I was touched by the personal attention Lakshmi (Mittal) gave to each guest. I wore my usual Armani suit, enjoyed the food. It was the showbiz shaadi (wedding) of the decade, quite an extraordinary event, be it the choice of venue, or the outstanding arrangements. I’ll hold the memory of the Mittal wedding for quite some time. It made us all say: ‘Wow’!’’
Despite the Mittals’ all-out effort to create a memorable event and their exceptional hospitality – guests were hosted at Hotel le Grand Intercontinental; coaches ferried guests to wherever they wanted to go; three TV channels were booked for guests in their rooms showing the wedding functions, Hindi movies and news; the first floor of the hotel was converted into a beauty parlour with makeup artistes, hairstylists and sari-draping experts – the Times News Network reports that not everyone was happy.
The Telegraph concurred, saying that the Indian glitterati across the world was divided into those who were invited and the distraught thousands who weren’t. Even some of those attended were disgruntled – apparently, some guests were invited for six days while some were given free accommodation for only two.
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The 17th century chateau was lavishly decorated for the main ceremony. |
The Bombay Times also wonders, considering the Mittals’ financial status and elaborate fanfare, whether there’s been awkwardness between the families. The Bhatia family have largely remained inconspicious, except for a quote in expressindia from the groom’s father, Arun Bhatia, who said: ‘‘Lakshmi (Mittal) is a cool guy. The girl’s family is so nice, one didn’t feel daunted at the thought of saying yes. They visited us last year, saying ‘our daughter and your son seem to be getting serious, and what do you think?’ They weren’t in the least bit hoity-toity.’’
And the new groom had described his father-in-law: ‘‘He’s very warm and welcoming. You’d be amazed at how humble he is.’’
As for the spectacle of his big day, Amit level-headedly said: ‘‘Because of my father-in-law’s standing in the business world, the interest in my wedding is natural. I’m not paying much attention to it though. I’m taking my lead from Vanisha. She’s not read a single article that’s been written about the wedding. All this is obviously quite new to me.’’
Mittal has reportedly sought, in the style of Hollywood moguls, to control the images that are being released through a news agency. The press were excluded, but photographs have been released to the media anyway.
After such a show-stopping fairy-tale start to their new life together, one can only wish for a fairy-tale ending for the newlyweds too: And Vanisha and Amit lived happily ever after?.
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