Mittal to Sahara: How corporate India splurges on weddings

The end of the year usually sees an avalanche of Indian weddings taking over most social calendars. Indians are known the world over for going all out to celebrate nuptials and corporate India is leading the charge when it comes to making the marriages an affair to remember.

[caption id=“attachment_1288927” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shristi Mittal. Getty Images[/caption]

Here are some of India Inc’s most extravagant celebrations:

1) Shristi Mittal, daughter of Pramod Mittal

Steel tycoon L.N Mittal’s niece is the latest entrant to the mega weddings list. Shristi recently got married to Gulraj Behl in Barcelona, Spain. According to reports, the bride’s father, Pramod Mittal, spent over Rs 500 crore for ceremonies spanning three days. The wait staff was flown in from India and Thailand and the catering was taken care of by Michelin star chefSergi Arola who created a six-tier, 60 kg wedding cake for the couple. There was also a light show that featured water jets. To limit the possibility of images from the events getting out, guests were asked to sign confidentiality agreements.

2) Vanisha Mittal, daughter of Lakshmi Mittal

Though the recent Mittal bash hosted by Pramod Mittal might shatter the economic sensibilities of most Indians, his brother Lakshmi Mittal was the first of the industrial family to go all out on the wedding front, spending Rs 240 crore at the time. For his daughter Vanisha’s 2004 wedding, the elder Mittal flew approximately 1000 guests for five days of celebration in France, according to news outlets. The engagement ceremony was conduted at the famously luxurious Palace de Versailles. Celebrity performers included Shah Rukh Khan and Kylie Minogue (who were each paid 300,000 for their appearance). Javed Akhtar also wrote a play about how the couple met which was performed by members of the Mittal family.

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3) Vikram Chatwal, son of Sant Chatwal

The Chatwals have always been lovers of extravagance. So it comes as no surprise that for son Vikram’s wedding to model Priya Sachdev, Chatwal Sr., a global hotel magnate, would pull out all stops. The _New York Times_ reported that the wedding celebrations lasted 10 days, with 600 guests being hosted in Mumbai, Udaipur and New Delhi at a cost of approximatly Rs 100 crore.

4) Seemanto and Sushanto Roy, sons of Subrata Roy

The Sahara parivar’sdouble-whammy nuptials were held in Lucknow, in Sahara City for four days. All attempts were made to keep the proceedings as exclusive as possible, with invites being embedded with chips to facilitate easy identification of guests. The BBC statedthat 10,500 guests were invited, including the who’s who of Bollywood, prominent national politicians and many Indian cricketeres including Sachin Tendulkar. A wave of genorosity also caused Roy to promise to pay for the weddings of 101 couples and feed over 1,40,ooo people across India.

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5) Mallika Reddy, granddaughter of GVK Reddy

GVK Reddy is the head of GVK, a Hyderabad-based conglomerate with interests in energy, transportation, hospitality and life science among other things. With a thriving, multi-crore family business it is no surprise that GVK would host one of the most lavish weddings the south has seen in a while. The reportedly Rs 100 crore affair had guests, including Mukesh Ambani, Chanda Kochhar, Praful Patel and Chandrababu Naidu, being flown to Hyderabad on chartered flightsand put up in five star hotels across the city, like the three Taj-CVK properties -Taj Krishna, Taj Banjara and Taj Deccan.

Certain wedding invites were accompnied by “a solitaire ring or a Satya Paul or Sabyasachi saree with the invite - an exquisitely carved image of Lord Venkateswara with sweets in a specially designed box,“according to sources. The decor of the wedding was done by Bollywood designer duo Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla.

6) Vineeta Agarwal, daughter of Pramod Agarwal

Industrial tycoons seem to enjoy big weddings. Following in the footsteps of the Mittals, iron king Pramod Agarwal celebrated his daughter Vineeta’s wedding in style amid the gondolas of Venice in 2011. The 3 day celebration, worth about Rs 6.4 crore, was held on a private island, with close to 1200 guests attending. Highlights of the ceremonies included a performance by Colombian pop star Shakira, cuisines curated by Michelin-star chefs and flowers brought in from Paris, according to news outlets.