Let’s keep it a private affair

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Is Vidya Balan getting married this month? Maybe, but don’t expect an invitation. That’s because Vidya and beau Siddharth Roy Kapoor seem to be extremely particular about keeping it a low-key affair.

This isn’t surprising coming from the actress who has been fiercely protective of her privacy and who has till date not even acknowledged the relationship. But in a growing trend in the industry, the megastars with all the moolah to spend on a glamorous wedding have increasingly preferred to go for a private affair in their homes. The much-awaited wedding of the year, Saif and Kareena’s was held at their residence with just family members present. In times of social media and paparazzi, and when the rest of the country’s wealthy still want a big fat wedding, Bollywood is showing, how to keep it simple.
Kareena’s father Randhir Kapoor in an earlier interview said, “Saif and Bebo wanted a private wedding since they are private people. As a father I would have loved to have gone all out and call everyone from the industry and family. But these days you have to listen to your kids. Being a filmstar has its ups and downs and they didn’t want any hype surrounding their marriage. We respected their decision.”
An industry insider points out that it has a lot to do with the way the industry has changed. Twenty years ago it would be enough to invite about 300-500 people. “But now, as Amitabh Bachchan pointed out during the Abhi-Ash wedding, if he had to satisfy everybody he knows, he would have had to invite around 10,000 people, which is clearly not possible. The business has expanded and so have acquaintances and friends.”
“The media and social networking has an overbearing presence. It makes celebrities feel like they are always under scrutiny, which at times tends to take the focus away from the wedding. Take for instance what happened at Rohit Dhawan’s wedding in Goa. More than a wedding, it became a hotbed of industry gossip,” says a source.
Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi, Ajay Devgn and Kajol, Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra, and Aamir and Kiran Rao all tied the knot in strictly private affairs, though Riteish Deshmukh wed Genelia D’souza in one of the few big bashes in the year. A source says, “Being Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son, there was no way that Riteish could have settled for a small wedding. His father being a political figure had several obligations to meet.”