Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan. Photo Credit: Sawf News24 April 2007 (Sawf News) - The Bachchans stated the wedding will be a low key affair because of the deteriorating health of Teji Bachchan, Amitabh's mother. However, other than the guest list nothing else was low key about the wedding.
The four day long festivities during the wedding matched dreams peddled in many Bollywood blockbusters, as did the exquisite jewelry, designer dresses and decorations. There was nothing low key about the wedding, least of all the infamous security thrown around it.
"Babu, the decoration is so grand that even Taj Mahal will look like a tiny monument," Nurrudin Shaikh, a worker told Rediff before the wedding.
"Those who are not in are really missing something in their life," he added.
If anything was muted about the wedding it was the guest list. However, there are reasons to believe that it was kept small to keep the event exclusive and make the foreign press covering it cough up more money, rather than to defer to Teji Bachchan's failing health.
A spin off from the small guest list was an opportunity for the Bachchans to get back at their detractors. It was used to settle scores - some political some professional but all petty.
Amidst the professional scores settled was one with the Indian press whom the Bachchans seem to despise, as is evident by the condescending and facetious tones they adopt when interacting with it. The low key wedding was a clever ploy to keep the Indian press at bay.
If the Bachchans actually yearned for privacy why did they allow the foreign press to cover the festivities? You can see exquisite photos of the wedding on the Hello magazine's website but not on any Indian media site.
The news report accompanying the Hello magazine photos debunks the low key claim. "The festivities had many of the elements of one of the couple's on-screen romances - riotous color, dance routines and melodrama," it reports.
The magazine also reports the newlyweds have jetted off to Venice for a month-long honeymoon.
Political scores settled include one with the Gandhi family whom the Bachchans have known for at least three generation.
Amitabh Bachchan and 'younger brother' Amar Singh make strange bed fellows. Their opportunistic and unnatural friendship makes sense only in the context of getting back at the Gandhi's over their mutual differences.
Appease just the deities
The Bachchans could have used the widely welcomed Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding to rebuild bridges and reinvigorate professional bonhomie with other stars and the press. However, they chose to flex their political and industry muscle instead. Their message was simple and simplistic - Other than the deities they care to appease no body else.
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