Famous for being famous, Liz 038; Nayar let paparazzi down

The lead-up to the wedding, after all, threw up names such as Bill Gates, Elton John, Victoria and David Beckham and Lakshmi Mittal as likely guests. Not to mention Hugh Grant, who from not-coming-because-Jemima-can8217;t-stand-Liz, was rumoured to have done a U-turn post his break-up with Jay-Go, with some reports even suggesting he had agreed to play the role of usher at Umaid Bhawan.

As far as this lot of media is concerned, Liz Hurley8217;s marriage to Arun Nayar 8212; the Lizayar affair, if you wish to bow to current paparazzi fashions 8212; turned out be much like the Bedazzled British star8217;s career: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Or, if you wish to borrow from a title from her ex-beau Hugh Grant8217;s film: it is the story of four weddings 8212; carried out across continents, straddling a castle in the UK and a palace in Rajasthan and another false wedding date to confuse things further 8212; and a celeb conspiracy.

So convincing is the media magnification that has termed this 8220;the wedding of the year8221; that even seasoned reporters chasing 8220;the story8221; appear to have been fooled by their own game. With Hello! magazine having said to have paid the couple 2 million pounds for exclusive rights to the pictures, the rest of the uninvited media has still cheerfully descended upon Umaid Bhawan 8212; and, if they had their way, over it as well.

They had planned to charter helicopters so that they could shoot 8220;unauthorized pictures8221; as they managed to do at the Posh Spice-David Beckham wedding, but Jodhpur is a no-fly zone for security reasons. One reporter from a UK tabloid, taking in a pouting Rohit Bal, Elton John8217;s partner David Furnish minus Elton John and Tom Ford of ex-Gucci fame as the only representatives of the so-called 8220;star-studded8221; wedding guests, noted in a disappointed tone: 8220;This is not an A-list wedding. It8217;s a high-society wedding.8221;

Befuddling stuff, unless you8217;re familiar with the particular brand of paparazzi jargon where words such as 8220;mega affair8221;, 8220;baron8221;, 8220;star-studded event8221; and 8220;playboy8221; are dropped with the dizzy enthusiasm of a debutante socialite doling out the dosh in a Louis Vuitton store.

So while 8212; depending on which version you read 8212; Arun Nayar is described as an 8220;Indian textile tycoon8221; or a 8220;St Tropez playboy8221; or a multi-millionaire who has devoted himself to spending his millions on his new trophy wife, Hurley herself, at 41 not so much of a trophy and more of a global version of Rakhi Sawant, an item girl who8217;s famous without anybody knowing exactly why 8212; the reality may be a watered-down version.

8220;He8217;s wealthy, but he8217;s not that rich,8221; says an associate who has known Arun since his pre-Hurley-burley days. After his mother Gunnar Nayar8217;s business 8212; she set up her own textile company in Bombay in the 1970s after she divorced Arun8217;s father, Vinod Nayar 8212; began to do do well, she was able to live well in Bombay and Arun went to study at Oxford. The brothers Nikky and Arun were certainly stylish, but very much 8220;frayed at the edges8221; as a long time acquaintance puts it.

Once a member of the 8220;Breach Candy Club,8221; he grew up with the racing set, the old-money south Bombay lot. Nayar himself set up a company in the dotcom boom days and while he is said to have homes in Germany, France and London, he is not as loaded as a casual gifting of a pound;8500 diamond chocker to Hurley as a wedding gift and tabloid captions may suggest.

In fact, there is talk of how the whole lavish wedding has been underwritten by Hello! magazine and all guests and the bride and groom are hostage to the magazine8217;s wish to have first publicity rights, with guests even being requested to delete pictures taken on personal mobile phones. Says society watcher Suhel Seth: 8220;They are being smart about it. They have taken advantage of the interest in their famous-for-being-famous celebritydom to sponsor their wedding8230;it8217;s different strokes for different folks 8212; Liz Hurley doesn8217;t need the stature, she needs the money. Somebody else has money, he wants stature.8221;

The celebrity pie 8212; a curious mix of stature, money and publicity 8212; is one that everyone wants to have a hand in. No wonder then that Friends of Nayar in Mumbai society circles are now divided into Pre-Hurley and Post-Hurley days. While Parmeshwar Godrej, who threw a party for the couple where Shilpa Shetty mwah-mwahed Liz Hurley so prettily that you couldn8217;t tell that she8217;s not old friends with either Mr or Mrs Hurley belongs to Arun8217;s Pre-Hurley days, having known him for over three decades, many others from the Mumbai jet-set are mere new acquaintances.

In fact, the wedding at the Umaid Bhawan has seen only a select group of old friends from Nayar8217;s Bombay days, including Monish Shewakramani, a real estate developer and hotelier, food magnate Riyad Ommerboy who also had a pre-wedding party for him, Aarti and Kailash Surendernathan and Arvind and Tania Dubash, besides Ness Wadia, Gautam Singhania and Parmeshwar Godrej. Says a guest who watched Liz dance to a Hindi song along with 10 girls at the sangeet: 8220;They are not trying to make it into a power show. If they wanted to call celebrities simply to show off, they would have invited passing acquaintances. They8217;ve simply invited people they are close to.8221;

Except that, of course, nobody is paying you and me pound;2 million to invite our close friends to our wedding.