When Bhubaneswar’s Sonav Pratik Khatua and Himani Kothari, from the hills of Uttarakhandi, decided to tie the knot earlier this month, they wanted an Odia marriage that exuded resplendence. Since the wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event, Sonav and Himani, both alumni of XIM-Bhubaneswar, said they wanted it to be not just memorable but also leave a lasting impression on their guests. Their wedding theme was ‘royalty.’
And regal it was. From sumptuous feasts to fireworks; bespoke attires to luxurious decors, and choreographed entries of the couple to extravagant floral installations for creating a stunning visual spectacle, Sonav and Himani’s multiple-day lavish wedding in the Capital city in December's first week had it all and even more.
The days of austerity are long gone, the Gen-Z Odia weddings have exploded with grandiosity on the social circuits in the last few years and how! What used to be a two-day affair till a decade back is today a week-long celebration replete with ‘mehndi’, ‘sangeet’ and pool parties.
New Segment: Opulent Weddings
With people willing to make it memorable, marriages have turned into extravaganza of sorts and a whole new segment of economic activity has arrived. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) conducted a study of 35 lakh weddings that took place across all states in the last two months (from November till date) and pegged the wedding industry of the country at an astounding Rs 4.74 lakh crore.
In Odisha, this seasonal industry is currently estimated at more than Rs 30,000 crore. For perspective, the 2023-24 budget of the Odisha government stood at Rs 2.30 lakh crore. The Big, Fat Wedding, needless to say, is formally part of the aspirational seeking of the Odias.
Rourkela-based vice-chairman of CAIT, Brij Mohan Agarwal explains the mathematics. The basic wedding budget (middle-class families) now starts at Rs 30-50 lakh while the lavish ones are going up to Rs 1.5 to 2 crore, he says. Odisha has 100 wedding dates, divided into two to three seasons, in a year and as per CAIT, 3 lakh weddings (small, medium and big) happen during this period.
“Spending power of people in Odisha has increased manifold. Besides, the high wedding expenditure is closely associated with the perceived social status of the families. They try to outdo each other in opulence and extravagance,” he added.
Rohit Mathur, founder of Eventis Wedding Planners in Bhubaneswar, said Odisha saw 1,200 weddings on a single day - on December 8. “Even if we put the minimum value for each wedding at Rs 30 lakh, it calculates to Rs 360 crore. That’s the kind of money we are looking at. The market is huge. Big, fat weddings have become an accepted standard in the country today and Odias are already a part of the trend,” said Mathur, who has been in the wedding business for the last 12 years. Bhubaneswar, from November 1 till December 16, has seen 915 weddings.
So where is the money going? Into creating a glamorous wedding experience, said Agarwal. “The decor and food are the two biggest and most expensive elements in weddings now. Earlier, Odia weddings were just about ‘mangana,’ wedding and reception. Today, it’s an elaborate celebration with separate venues and decor for haldi, mehndi, sangeet, pool parties, cocktail dinners besides the wedding and reception,” he said.
Mathur agrees. He divides an Odia wedding into four elements – decor, sound and entertainment, hospitality and catering. “There is no limit to how much people are spending these days on weddings but if one looks at the current trend, people are easily spending Rs 10-15 lakh on decor which includes intricate light and flower installations, pathways and stages. Besides, Odia families today bring in singers and artistes to perform at weddings spending close to Rs 5-10 lakh on ‘band and baaja.’ Similarly, catering for 250 people for two days costs Rs 20 lakh,” he said.
New elements have found place in the Odia weddings such as ‘varmala’, bride and groom entries which need specific passages, live performances and fireworks. At their wedding, Sonav and Himani had choreographers from Bengaluru and Uttarakhand helping them with their sangeet and wedding performances. And during their entries to the venue, the bride and groom were accompanied by dancers who performed Bollywood hits. “In many occasions, bridal entry and ‘varmala’ are accompanied by fireworks (night) and smoke mines (daylight) and families are ready to pay Rs 1.5 to Rs 4 lakh for it,” Mathur added.
Beauty and Photography
This surge in spending is also fuelling allied industries like beauty, couture and photography. Boon Patnaik, a Bhubaneswar-based wedding photographer who has been in the business for the last 10 years, said there has been a drastic change in the way a wedding is being captured in Odisha today. The longer videos have become short – short enough to fit into social media reels – and the concept of a photo album is passé. Artistic wedding photography and videography are mandatory now whereas it was just about beautiful frames and capturing the ritual till a decade back. “In fact I feel, it is for the sake of photographs that new elements like haldi, sangeet were incorporated into Odia weddings,” added Patnaik.
And the job is carried out by a team of 10 to 11 professionals including photographers, cinematographers, drone photographers, among others, unlike a decade back when photography and videography was done by just 2 to 3 photographers. Their charges range anywhere between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 7 lakh.
While couples are choosing designer lehengas and kurtis over Odisha’s handloom, makeup charges start from Rs 40,000 and go up to Rs 1.5 lakh for the entire wedding.
A Bhubaneswar-based young entrepreneur, requesting anonymity, said she planned her wedding in a manner she did not have to splurge on her wedding couture. “My expenditure, instead, was diverted towards making memories,” said the bride who roped in popular New Delhi-based wedding photographer Tarun Chawla to cover five functions of her wedding recently. Her wedding couture were from brands like Anita Dongre and Manish Malhotra but she spent just Rs 1.25 lakh on them. “Instead of buying outfits and my wedding lehenga, I decided to rent them,” she added. The bride spent another Rs 1.25 lakh on make-up for which she flew down makeup artists from Mumbai.
Destination Weddings
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to start a ‘Wed In India’ movement so that the country’s money does not leave its shores through overseas destination weddings by billionaire businessmen.
It’s happening in Odisha. Destination wedding is the newest addition to the tourism landscape with Odias from within the state and outside arriving at places like Puri, Konark, Gopalpur, Chilika and even Jagatsinghpur, Sambalpur and Rourkela for their big, fat celebrations. The trend of weddings in Odisha is catching up with NRIs and NROs too.
When Swadesh Patra, a navigation engineer in Canada, and his friend Nasrin Eshraghi Ivari from Iran decided to get married in January, their first choice was Puri. For Patra of Bhubaneswar, who moved out of India in 2005, the wedding was a chance to reconnect with his roots. “We had all the modern elements in our marriage including a destination wedding but we remained true to our Odia wedding rituals,” he said.
The CAIT vice-chairman informed that of the 3 lakh weddings happening in the state annually, 20 pc are destination weddings within Odisha as a lot of people now prefer combining weddings with holidays.
Chairman of Hotels and Restaurants Association of Odisha, JK Mohanty said destination weddings are not just attracting Odias but also people from other states and NRIs. “This is because destination weddings in places like Rajasthan, Goa, Agra and Kerala are becoming more expensive every passing year. If a wedding at Jodhpur would cost Rs 5 crore, a family can get it done at Puri or Gopalpur at just Rs 1 crore. We have been witnessing this shift post-Covid,” he said.
Mohanty, who owns the Swosti Chilika Resort near Chilika lake, said the property handles at least 50 destination weddings a year. People book the entire resort for three to five days and come with their families and guests. Apart from the wedding and the associated rituals, they prefer sightseeing in Chilika, boating, bird watching at Nalabana and other recreational facilities like pool parties, etc. “As per the current trend, 60 pc of people who opt for destination weddings in Odisha are Odias, 35 pc are people from other states and five pc are NRIs,” he informed.
Mohanty’s Swosti Premium Beach Resort coming up in Puri (to be opened in February next year) is particularly designed for destination weddings. The new property can handle three big weddings on a day.
Such is the competition in this sector that hotel booking for weddings begins six months prior to the event. Members of HRAO in Puri said that all star properties in Puri, Konark and Gopalpur are completely booked in December for weddings.