So you think your destination wedding in Goa was all that? Did you fly in dancers from Brazil? Did you have (or need) the protection of over 3,000 bouncers because there were more celebrities at your wedding than at the Global Citizen Festival? Did you wear your weight in diamonds?
Amidst dreary headlines of people struggling in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs, news of Brahmani Reddy’s Rs 500 crore wedding definitely caught everyone’s attention. The wedding invites came via miniature LCD screens that showed the family performing a choreographed routine to a song that had been specially written for the occasion. The Bengaluru Palace Grounds were transformed to look like the Vijaynagar empire – complete with villages and temples — as one does when one is politician and mining baron Janardhan Reddy.
The 21-year old bride reportedly wore a Rs 17 crore Kanjeevaram sari and jewellery worth a whopping Rs 90 crore. Amongst the 50,000 guests in attendance, there were multiple politic figures and celebrities from Bollywood and the Kannada film industry.
If this isn’t enough to make you question everything you’ve known, then get this: There were two mechanical elephants flanking the entrance of the venue. An NDTV correspondent reported that each motor-controlled elephant cost Rs 70,000 to rent and while that eye-watering expense may sound ridiculous to some, just remember… fake elephants.
Debates about Brahmani’s marriage in the face of a nationwide crisis have already flooded the internet, with people criticising the cost and timing of the event. Meanwhile, the family claims they only dished out Rs 30 crore. Now mathematics aside, Brahmani Reddy’s wedding has already decimated all previous records.
Good luck topping that.
