JLo, look what you missed at the Reddy wedding

It was bigger than all film awards ceremonies put together. 10,o00 people in attendance, the bride on a lotus throne, the venue designed like a temple, and Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and a drove of Bollywood’s biggest flown down in chartered carriers. What a shame JLo abstained from India’s grandest event — billionaire GVK Reddy’s granddaughter’s stupendous wedding in Hyderabad. The long power list included — hold your breath — Amitabh Bachchan and wife Jaya, along with kids Abhishek and Aishwarya, Vrinda Rai, Rashmi Thackeray, Pinky and Rakesh Roshan, Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Mukesh and Nita Ambani, SRK, Poonam Dhillon, Yash and Pamela Chopra, Jaya Pradha, Sridevi and Boney Kapoor, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Praful Patel, Vijay Mallya and many more. Queenie Dhody led the pack of socialites from Mumbai, with the usual suspects in tow. Pinky and Sanjay Reddy’s daughter, Mallika’s traditional wedding with Sidharth Reddy on 11 June was the grand finale to a heady, heady build-up. It started on 9 June with Pendlikoothuru or the bride-making ceremony, hosted by Mallika’s maternal grandparents, Indira and T Subbirami Reddy on 9 June. Hema Malini performed a dance recital on the Samudra Manthan, as Mallika sat on a lotus throne. On the afternoon of 10 June, the action shifted to the Reddy residence in Banjara Hills for the mehendi ceremony. The rain caused havoc with flight schedules but nevertheless the Mumbai guests made it to the flower-decked house overlooking the lake. A line of mehendiwallis attended to every hand, while the best of Andhra cuisine was lavishly laid out. Not too long after, the sangeet ceremony began with Karan Johar as the master compere. Rani Mukerji, Sandeep Khosla and actor Charan judged a dance contest between the boy’s and the girl’s sides who put on stellar performances on Bollywood and Telugu numbers. The elders of the family matched steps, with the young ones. [caption id=“attachment_24831” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Mallika’s traditional wedding with Sidharth Reddy on 11 June was the grand finale to a heady, heady build-up. Rubina A Khan/Firstpost”]  [/caption] Then Shah Rukh Khan came on with the Don title track, and in his irreverent style, said, “Everyone asks me to be original, so here I am being original with this song, even though the original Don (Amitabh Bachchan) is here amongst us.” SRK then went on to perform on another original song, Dhinka Chika, which is from Salman Khan’s Ready, replete with sunglasses on his back collar. Despite the obvious dig, he did a marvelous mimic of the song’s choreography. He was actually filling in for Jennifer Lopez who bailed out at the last minute, and made cracks about his similarity to the singer’s booty. Priyanka Chopra brought the house down with her Desi Girl act, looking smoldering in a gun-metal hued sari.  In a skit that followed SRK called her lips “fat” like the “snout of a pig” and she calling his long nose a “Pinocchio nose”. Anushka Sharma, Ranveer and Shriya Saran performed too, with Mallika Sherawat dancing on her fist hit song, Bheege Hoth Tere from Murder and Sheila Ki Jawani. SRK danced with Priyanka, Rani and Anushka to  athunderous applause. Vivek Oberoi was there too and thankfully, he didn’t make a scene, except acting out the script in his hand. He  could really have used a better designer for the blinding outfit he wore.  Some of SRK’s one liners veered towards tawdry instead of witty. The venue designed by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla was spectacular. They might just get to design the next Yash Chopra or Karan Johar film after the amazing job they did for the wedding venue, but it is going to be tough to top this one. The auspicious sounds of the nadaswaram and thavil welcomed Sidharth and Mallika as they entered the venue for their marriage ceremony. Bangalore-based dance company Nritarutya stood on boxed platforms in luminous masks that reached the ceiling as they performed Yakshagana, a folk dance form from Karnataka. Guru Shankaracharya and his disciples graced the ceremony. The brunch on 12 June had everyone talking about the venue and its grandeur. “I have never seen something like this! It was so beautiful and grand, and done on such a large scale” said Yash Chopra. Shashi Tharoor and wife Sunanda Pushkar were an envied couple — the men envying him for marrying her, and the ladies sighing that she landed him. The figure spent on the grand wedding ran into crores no doubt, but no one knows the real numbers. And rightly so; it ain’t classy to talk money, now is it, especially at a Reddy wedding. Though every conversation inevitably turned to what the event must have cost.