Why Sonam Kapoor's wedding — Bollywood's biggest social media event yet — got boring
It was the social media wedding of the season.
Sonam Kapoor’s official social media page now reads Sonam K Ahuja. Yes! Our dear girl is businessman Anand Ahuja’s newly minted bride now. It was the wedding of the season for probably the incessant traction it got on exactly where it was targeted at — social media!
For the lack of a better phrase, the Big Fat Bollywood Wedding just culminated with a grand reception and dance-offs that saw the biggest names in the film industry letting their hair down and dancing with abandon.
All those who always wondered what a filmy folk party looked like just got their moment to gate-crash the biggest one. And it had its fair share of exclusives — after all, it’s not an “everyday phenomena(l)” when you see the favourite Khans of Bollywood serenade Mamma Kapoor (Sonam’s mother, Sunita). Yes, Salman and Shah Rukh are officially back to their Karan-Arjun ways and there’s no more denying that — if some of you still were, that is.
And who can compete with the father of the bride. Bollywood’s endearing Lakhan marked his return after 28 years and we loved him just as much. And not to mention the starry turn-out, that left many oh-so-starry-eyed. So from Sonam’s jewel-adorned look to her husband’s sneakers-on-sherwani, Salman and Katrina exchanging warm, sweet nothings, Alia and Ranbir sealing the deal on dating rumors, to the oh-so-hot bebo and a visibly trimmed Rani Mukherjee making those shabby-in-Sabyasachi appearances — this wedding got us its fair share of dope!
Although here is when I make a confession.
#SonamKiShaadi #EverydayPhenomenal got so much of traction online that it ceased to be of much interest to me. Even when you were not fishing for Sonam Anand Ahuja related content, you had pages on social media prompting just that. It was only today, before writing this piece, that I actually clicked on one of these hashtags to get a sense of the scale at which this wedding was projected, or rather exposed on social media. And what I saw was somewhat repugnant.
After requesting for their privacy to be respected, the #KapoorKlan had hashtags ready to float around every little detail that can be from the wedding. So much so that the bride and the groom are seen exchanging garlands and then after the sindur and mangalsutra ceremony, Sonam’s eagerly seen wanting to pose for a picture #ButFirstLetMeTakeASelfie! #OKthen.
It was nice though, to see the bride’s younger brother, Harshvardhan Kapoor, go out there to the waiting paparazzi and offer them boxes of sweets. Of course, that video too made it to social media pages.
Sonam Kapoor is one of the warmest stars I have met during my journalistic career. She likes to keep it real, she is someone who can let a strictly on-topic interview waver to matters of fun girl banter, food talk, or even a high-waist pair of pants you might have worn that day.
She likes to make a conversation, rather than sit pretty for a star-talk. She is genuinely simple, which is why she comes across as very relatable. And that’s exactly why she would have today’s social media savvy generation in agreement with her social media friendly wedding.
Best decision of my life.. today, I married my best friend. Hello there, husband! @Imangadbedi ❤️ pic.twitter.com/a2ePsaXUNN
— Neha Dhupia (@NehaDhupia) May 10, 2018
I, for my part, am just one of those who gets turned off with immoderation. The everyday posts from this wedding (phenomenal nonetheless) were just that for me… And as if to help me make my concluding remark — Neha Dhupia too got married. A pleasant surprise that came in through a lone social media post announcement by Neha and her now husband Angad Bedi. Now that’s what I call graceful and intriguing. Neha actually chose to keep her most cherished and private affair actually private. There’s social media friendly, and then there is living a life governed by social media alone.
You take your pick — Sonam or Neha — who had it more gracefully "this-thing" that we call marriage?