Wedding industry

excite-weddings

Some of most famous names in India’s whose-who list got married this year…from Karsima Kapoor to Virender Sehwag to Raveena Taondon to Sachin Pilot.

But perhaps the most significant aspect of the weddings has been the growing trend to flaunt wealth and social status. While earlier lavish weddings were restricted to rich north Indians, now it the concept penetrated among conservative Kolkata and Hyderbadi middle class.

So, if steel tycoon LN Mittal gets Paris’ Palace of Versailles for her daughter’s wedding, and film star Raveena Tondon books the Jag Mandir Palace in Rajasthan for her wedding, Sharma ji in our neighbourhood will at least try to book swankiest five-star hotel in the city.

As style becomes the new flash point at the Indian weddings, mushrooming wedding planners are cashing in on the trend by lending their expertise to everything – from mehndi to designer dresses to honeymoon packages.

Perturbed by the trend, J&K Govt included marriage ceremonies under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA). The Act empowers the government to regulate the number of guests and the menu at any such function in the state.

Will such a law curb the burgeoning wedding business? Wait and watch.

- Saurabh Azad