Vicky Kaushal proposed to Katrina Kaif, publicly, two years ago in 2019. “Shaadi ka mausam chal raha tha, mujhe laga aapka bhi mann kar raha hoga, to maine kaha pooch leta hoon,” the new star in the galaxy rattled off while on stage with the actress he confessed to being a huge fan of. In response to Katrina’s kya?, Vicky asked, to the tunes of the Salman Khan chartbuster, “Mujhse shaadi karogi?”, even as the man she was then expected to marry looked on with a smile.
Though it had been a choreographed act during an award show, the lines obviously rehearsed, and Katrina had replied with a “himat nahi hai” looking straight at Salman, their twin expressions of blushing bashfulness should have alerted the aam janta that something was brewing. But with Tiger zinda hai no one imagined that the anyone else would bell the Kat despite the rumours floating around since and the occasional photo bombings.
Well, today is the day, when reportedly around 3.30-3.45 pm, Uri’s Major Vihaan Singh Shergill will prove once again that when the josh is high, nothing is impossible.
As he had urged her that day, Katrina did find an achcha sa Vicky Kuashal who wooed and wed her, with band, baja, baraat, haldi, mehndi, sangeet and a ballroom party, over three days, at the Six Senses Resort, Fort Barwara in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan.
It’s the kind of wedding every starry-eyed teenager dreams of, and having lived it many times on celluloid, Katrina was determined to make it a hundred times more opulent and personal. With her groom happy to comply, weeks and months of work went into orchestrating this Big Fat Indian Wedding that only a select few guests have been privileged to witness even virtually with the couple enforcing a strict no-phone-no-social media-posts dictat to the guests, sweetened with a hamper of goodies.
So, everything one has heard or read so far has been pure speculation. One knew that the celebrations had begun when two days ago, Neha Dhupia posted a picture with husband Angad Bedi exulting about sleep deprived new parents heading out to party. Given that they had been spotted earlier at the Jaipur airport, and from the strings of fairy lights, the colourful flags and the guests behind, one just knew that they were at the resort. A long shot of a motorcade entering the venue was another signal.
One knew that the mehendi was done when Veena Nagda posted a selfie with the cryptic message “Finally we did it” with the hashtag #BigFatIndianWedding”, before moving to her next destination. Instantly, pictures surfaced of her with the bride. It took a while to figure out that this mehendi ceremony was from the sets of Katrina’s 2006 film, Humko Deewana Kar Gaye.
One knew that the poolside sangeet was on from the snatches of music that floated out. Excited news anchors pointed to the brightly lit up fort behind them so you would not be left in any doubt about the venue. And one learnt that “Ghungroo toot gaye” “Nachde ne saare” “Teri oor” and “Hiwaro mohro re tharo” were being played.
The morning after one read that Vicky’s mother had organized a smaller ladies sangeet with dhols to welcome the bride. Onr news channel waylaid the dhol players as they walked out, but all that they learnt was that sab first class tha, sab bahut dance kiye, sab bahut khush the and that they played for two hours.
Rajendra Kishan, the district collector of Sawai Madhopur, had told news agency PTI that 120 guests were expected for four days from December 7 to 10 and given the on-going pandemic, RTPCR tests were compulsory for the unvaccinated. After that every celebrity who landed in Jaipur was a guest. It was only after singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan informed that he was not there for the wedding and playback singer Gurdas Maan clarified that he was there as a guest that photographers started sending out pictures of Hardy Sandhu, DJ Chetas and Astha Gill with the tag lane that it was not confirmed if they were there to perform.
With guests issued secret codes, speculations continued right till D-day. Would Karan Johar be bringing Alia Bhatt, Arjun Kapoor and Malaika Arora with him? Was Akshay Kumar flying out for the wedding? Would SRK be there… and Hrithik Roshan? Only one thing was for sure. No one from Salman Khan’s family had been invited, as sister Arpita reiterated.
With reports that the telecast rights had been sold to an OTT platform, there were no leaks and hungry for news reporters were left to interview the mithaiwala and learn that among the different halwas and sabzi, the khaman dhokla and the kachauri, was Silky Diamond and Roasted Laddoos.
The wedding will reportedly end with guests treated to an exclusive tiger safari at the neighbouring Ranthambore National National Park and the newly-weds flying off to the Maldives for a honeymoon before Vicky flags off his Sam Maneckshaw biopic and Kat goes back to shoot for Tiger 3. Grrrrrt!
And so, after AbhiAsh, DeepVeer and Virushka, as VickKat now become another of Bollywood’s biggest brands, one has to say that the Tiger series has taught its Zoya well. She managed to turn her real-life love story and the fairytale wedding that followed into a secret mission that would have done Bond proud.
