It is, as they say in Bollywood, a “family entertainer”. The elements are all there: A stunning location (the Suryagarh Palace in Jaisalmer), gorgeous clothes (by Manish Malhotra who has reportedly made a whopping 150 outfits for the happy couple, just for the occasion) and, of course, the boy-meets-girl-meets-parivar story. No doubt Karan Johar, who arrived at the venue a couple of days ago (we are told) has choreographed the elaborate sangeet, as he usually does, and the internet will be flooded with carefully directed “candid” photos of the newly-weds — so beautiful and obviously in love that they might as well be the poster of a movie called Sid Kiara Di Wedding.
Over the last couple of years, the Hindi film industry has struggled to keep up with its once-devoted audience’s evolving tastes and get the box office ringing like it used to. A hit like Pathaan, which gets audiences dancing in the aisles and whistling at the paisa vasool lines, has become an all-too-rare occurrence and the thing that has kept Bollywood relevant these last few years is the Big Fat Bollywood Wedding.
Where social media was once flooded with photos of “success parties”, it now seems to be filled with photos and videos from celebrity shaadis, complete with polki-cut diamond haars, sparkly kalire and duck-faced selfies (with the mandatory aviators). And where viewers once eagerly awaited the release of their favourite stars’ new films, they now seem entirely happy to follow their off-screen romantic lives culminating, just like in a movie, in a “fairytale” wedding. (The long, colourful romantic history of Bollywood, featuring all manner of non-fairytale elements, becomes all too easy to ignore).
It doesn’t matter that for a long time, Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra themselves never officially commented on their coupledom (Malhotra, when asked about the wedding a few weeks ago, reportedly said he hadn’t been “invited”). The refusal to openly acknowledge what all their fans and sundry viewers are taking as read, adds just a touch of mystique to the event. The will-they-won’t-they drama is replaced by coy hints about “being more than close friends” — almost always on Johar’s Koffee with Karan these days, and certainly not to reporters in interviews — and the odd photo shared on Instagram, which is a masterclass in how to accidentally-on-purpose confirm rumours. Indeed, there’s a wink-and-nudge acknowledgement of the badly kept-romantic secret seen in, for example, Advani’s recent ad for an Indian clothing brand, in which she is dressed as a bride. It’s “fan service”, as they say in showbiz, of the kind that other actors, such as Alia Bhatt and Anushka Sharma (along with Virat Kohli) have done — never mind that both women wore Sabyasachi at their actual weddings, while Advani was reportedly wearing Manish Malhotra.
But brand endorsements and their implications are mere details. For Hindi film fans, the appeal of the Big Fat Bollywood Wedding is in fantasy — conveyed so well in the soft, dreamy aesthetics of the couple’s photos, released once the hectic activity of the actual event has wound down. There he is, sweetly kissing her forehead, and there she is, looking far off into the happily-ever-after that is sure to follow. There is romance and escapism in this story of a real-life, made-for-each-other couple that movies now seem incapable of offering, making viewers determined to find that relief in nuptials of a Malhotra and Advani or even an Athiya Shetty and K L Rahul. And everyone — from the bride and groom, to the photographers and reporters dogging them, to the band-baaja and mehendi artists earning their daily bread at the shaadi — knows this.
That the A-list guests have been asked to cover their phone cameras with a special case, the mandap is baby pink and Advani is wearing a bejewelled headband — these tidbits of information and “exclusive” images emerging from the Malhotra-Advani wedding, breathlessly relayed to us by dutiful paparazzi and Instagram accounts dedicated to celebrity gossip, are meant to turn consumers of content into a rapt audience, watching a wedding film in real-time.
pooja.pillai@expressindia.com
