A crowd of people dressed in sparkling lehengas, sarees, and sherwanis walking into a richly decorated hall to the sound of a dhol band is an image quintessential to Indian weddings. What if we told you that you didn’t have to get married or be invited to a wedding, to experience the excitement of it all – sangeet, mehendi, and wedding chaat stalls included? That is exactly what ‘fake wedding’ or ‘fake sangeet’ events gaining popularity across the country among Gen Z, aims to do.
Bengaluru too, has seen a few of these events with Big Fat Fake Wedding hosted at JW Marriott seeing around 2,000 people in attendance, priced at `4,000 for men. “It was the hottest topic in town – everyone went out their way to get a new fit made and go all out with dressing in traditional wear,” says Tanishka Choudhary, 20, a fashion student attendee. The appeal of such events to participants, mainly in their 20s, is being able to celebrate the ‘dhoom dhaam’ of weddings without the pressure or judgement of relatives. Choudhary says, “Gen Z doesn’t really believe in marriage so concepts like this are appealing because it’s a way to have fun and enjoy weddings without having to worry about marriage or judgement.”
The metropolitan nature of Bengaluru too, has contributed to the popularity of fake weddings, according to Kaushal Chanani, the co-founder of 8club, the organisers of the JW Marriott event. “A lot of the attendees were from other parts of India – these events are prominent in cities where a lot of people are not regularly going to family events or family functions, because people want to build their own community with this.”
Another fake wedding event that saw a full house is Shaadi Mubarak hosted by Vibhav Kumar Modi’s Dark Vibe Society and two others, which sought to bring the wedding experience to the queer community, giving participants an experience the law still denies. “The idea came from thinking of what it would feel like for queer people who are not allowed to get married in India, to be a part of a marriage free from judgement,” says Modi, adding that they did away with gender norms evident in weddings. “We had wedding games like a contest between partners to find a ring in the milk and a tug of war game without a groom and bride’s side. We also had a sangeet led by drag performers.”
Fake wedding nights have gained virality on social media with youngsters making reels gaining millions of views. With the social media attention, some have criticised the concept saying that Gen Z is not giving traditions the respect they are due but Prathiban, the GM of Raahi Neo Kitchen and Bar, has a rebuttal, “We are used to theme nights like a white night, red night, one night in Paris or Jamaica, etc. This is more like a sangeet-themed DJ night than a real wedding. We don’t have rituals, just the decor, food and music is like a sangeet.” This was priced at `2,000 for couples, redeemable against food and drinks.
While Delhi has been the epicentre of fake weddings events in India with at least one happening each week, Bengaluru is just beginning to catch on, notes Chanani, explaining the difference. “People in Delhi love to hop on the trend but Bengaluru’s behaviour is different in terms of event organisers. They don’t want to look like they are copying someone’s concept. But we are in talks with a few organisers to bring it back to Bengaluru,” he says, noting that there’s been interest from tier two, three and four cities as well with a search on social media showing fake shaadis hosted in Kolhapur, Jaipur and Dehradun too. “We are seeing a lot of traction from small cities like Bhopal, Rajkot, that want to bring this to their community. We’ve gotten around 50-60 requests to collaborate in the weeks after the Bengaluru event went viral,” adds Chanani.