Wedding Diaries presented by Neotia Arts Trust in association with The Telegraph, will be back at Swabhumi after a pandemic hiatus. And Madhu Neotia, managing trustee, Neotia Arts Trust, is a bundle of excitement when we meet her for a preview chat. She tells us what to expect and what’s new.
You are back with Wedding Diaries after a break…
Coming back to anything is not easy and when the break has been for over two years it does make it tougher to pull everything together to create the same story. Our audience somewhere also expects us to come back bigger, better!
Weddings are perhaps the one event that none of us really took a break from. We might have scaled it down during the pandemic, planned functions differently but we still had them.
So in a way it was meaningful for me to look at Wedding Diaries also in a different way. This year, the event is a lot more experiential —we have tried to make it a one-stop solution for all things wedding —not just clothes and jewellery but also services, gifting, food and more.
How have weddings changed for you since the time you got married?
I was married more than three-and-half-decades ago. Of course things were much simpler back then because our exposure was also different, in a way limited compared to this generation.
I remember the beautiful lehnga my mother-in-law had done for my reception. It was heirloom put together by master craftsmen of those times. Today the visual narrative has changed. Brides have evolved and their inspiration has also changed. What however, is unchanged is a young girl’s dreams about new beginnings — the joys of small things that she will remember for years after this day! It is this change and continuity that the social media today hyphenates. The star weddings are a big inspiration; Bollywood is a young person’s mood board. These are the changes I see over the years and I have learned to embrace them.
What strikes me is the creativity I see now in weddings. I remember attending a friend’s son’s wedding where one of the food themes was pistachio and how beautifully it was rendered by the celebrity chef Ritu Dalmia.
So much has evolved in the visual dialogue too. A bride is no longer in red, they experiment in beautiful pastel shades now! The hair... so many of them wear it open or try things other than the conventional bun for instance, hair jewellery... who would have thought it will come back in such a big way. I feel today’s bride is also looking at being comfortable, being at ease with her wardrobe because she too wants to have fun and enjoy this big day and I think this is a wonderful change for us all to embrace!
I think spontaneously and what flows through these conversations more often stay with me. This time I have tried to get into the minds of the youngsters, in trying to gauge what they look for, how they wish to plan their wedding. It is through this that we came about this concept of ‘The Dressing Room’. Again, over a conversation with Dolly Jain, the celebrity draper, the idea of having bridal services like hair, make-up, draping, mehndi, skin, dermatology, photography under a common space, came up. Dolly has been a big help in bringing together celebrity artists from Bombay to complete this section.
This is also the first time we explored a wedding shoot in which we curated the looks to celebrate wedding functions — Mehndi, sangeet, the cocktail and the wedding. For this, Arti Nayar, celebrity make-up artist, collaborated with us so closely from planning to executing the entire shoot. The outcome is stunning and they are all up on the billboards too for all of you to see!
We have always been very keen on a fashion show at Wedding Diaries as well as The India Story. This time, supermodel Indrani Dasgupta Paul is not only doing the choreography for the show but she is also bringing in the names that will stand out. Indrani wished to include younger names and I thought why not? So we have this time Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna, Rose Room Couture and Varun Bahl doing the garments and Rose Jewellery, B.C. Jain and Rawat Jewellers doing the jewellery for the ramp.
In terms of participation too, we have a few new categories like fitness. Pace Active is an Indian fitness-wear label started by this young girl and they are showcasing with us. Angie Homes by Angeleka Kripalani is bringing her homeware to Wedding Diaries. The multi-brand store Ogaan is showcasing affordable bridal buys for the season too.
So these are the new elements of Wedding Diaries this year but then every participant is hand-picked and very special!
I have always wished to support a cause though our events. This year we have pledged to donate a part of the proceeds to support a charitable cause.
Tell us about the F&B offerings…
Ambuja Neotia has tied up with Taj and the group has three new properties in the city — Raajkutir, Taalkutir and Taj City Centre New Town. So we thought why not showcase food from the three hotels?!
Picture: Rashbehari Das