Akhil Akkineni-Shriya Bhupal’s wedding called off: Were compatibility issues to blame?

When reports emerged on Wednesday, 22 February, that the wedding of actor Akhil Akkineni and designer Shriya Bhupal had been called off, it became quite the talking point in the Telugu film industry. [caption id=“attachment_3298750” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Akhil Akkineni with Shriya Bhupal at their engagement. Image courtesy Twitter[/caption] Akhil and Shriya got engaged on 9 December 2016, and their wedding was set to be one of the biggest events of 2017 in Tollywood, with the who’s who from the elite circle of industrialists, politicians and film industry set to grace the ceremony in May. The wedding was supposed to take place in Rome and nearly 700 guests were invited. The Reddy and Akkineni families had even made all the venue and hotel bookings; however, everything changed few days ago when they informed the invitees to cancel their tickets for Rome. The couple had been dating for two years before they decided to get married. Much to everyone’s surprise, Akhil (22) got engaged to Shriya (26) even before Akhil’s elder brother Naga Chaitanya decided to settle down (Chaitanya got engaged to his Ye Maaya Chesave co-star Samantha Ruth Prabhu in January this year). The Akhil-Shriya engagement was a lavish affair with some of the most powerful and richest people in Hyderabad blessing the couple at the ceremony. Akhil is the younger son of popular actor Nagarjuna Akkineni, whereas Shriya Bhupal is the granddaughter of industrialist GVK Reddy. Ever since the news about the young couple’s split came to light, several rumours began circulating about what could have possibly gone wrong. Even close friends of the couple expressed their shock, while talking to the media anonymously, saying, “Everything was fine until last week. God knows what went wrong.” While the exact cause behind the wedding being called off is yet to be established, two versions have emerged from various sources in the know. One of the main reasons is said to be ‘compatibility issues’ between the two, although it’s not yet clear what was the bone of contention. Some rumours even suggested that since Akhil is quite young, he might have got cold feet as their wedding date approached. The couple were spotted at an event last week and they seemed very much in love according to their friends. Incidentally, Times Of India quoted a friend of the couple saying that Akhil and Shriya Bhupal had a tiff at the Hyderabad airport recently and it snowballed into something bigger, which led to this sudden development. For now, neither Akhil nor Shriya have gone on record about calling off their wedding. Even their respective families haven’t issued a statement officially. Akhil is now focusing on his next film, a collaboration with director Vikram Kumar, while Shriya is said to have left for the US.