TV wedding for Sydney

Indian Link Radio’s PRIYANKA RAO won the opportunity for her wedding to be recorded for NDTV Goodtimes’ reality TV show Band Baaja Bride

Every girl dreams of a fairy tale wedding. A dream man, guests from around the world, designer outfit, make up by the best in the country… Guess what, for my January wedding, my dream did come true! And what’s more, a few million people joined in the celebrations, watching my bridegroom Kaushik and I wed on TV.

Band Baaja Bride is a reality TV show on India’s NDTV Goodtimes channel, which goes around the country recording reallife weddings. My mum casually put my application in, and we were happily surprised to be picked for the second season of the show, hosted by celebrity anchors Ambika Anand and Bharat Arora. Our wedding ceremony was largely along Tamil traditions, but with mixed influences (my grandmother is Gujarati).

Ours was an arranged marriage that has blossomed into a relationship bonded by love. Our families were introduced by a matchmaker in Bangalore, and met a year before we did. Kaushik sent me an introductory email, and I kept him waiting 3 weeks for a reply. He knew that I moonlighted at the Indian Link Studios as a radio jockey, so he used to wake each other for around a year before we married, but for the first 9 months we hadn’t even met! I lived in Sydney, and Kaushik was in Bangalore.

We had a 3-day wedding in Hyderabad. The 10-member team from Band Baaja Bride, replete with camera crew, makeup artists, fashion photographers and of course, the host and hostess, had already spent four days with us to meticulously plan it all.

For the pre-wedding Sangeet, they dressed me up in a Kanjeevaram sari, designed by none other than the leading fashion designer of the country, Sabyasachi Mukherjee! He was there, warm and caring, as they draped the sari on me. For the make-over they planned a Rekha look. I broke into a Rekha number Man kyun behka at the camera crew’s insistence when they learned I can sing!

For the event that day, my entire family was painstakingly choreographed to a skit that told our story in tri-lingual songs: in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. And when I walked down the aisle after my bridal make-over at the hands of the Band Baaja team, I could see jaws drop!

In the Pandakkal ceremony the day before the wedding, the groom and his family were day. Kaushik tied the ‘ my neck even as the in-house orchestra’s thavil, nadaswaram and urumi reached a crescendo. About 250 of our closest family and friends shared these special moments with us.

My family hosted a dinner reception in Bangalore the following week for Kaushik’s family and friends.

Both our families were excited about the shoot and went out of their way to take great care with all the arrangements. The shoot was an added incentive for the extended clan to come out looking their best and they danced like there was no tomorrow, all for the sake of that national audience on prime time television!

Because it was a reality show, it was all impromptu and extemporaneous. Nothing was acted or rehearsed. It was an amazing party, and the biggest day in my life ended up being so much fun. Everyone had a fantastic time.

The show was aired on 9 March and we watched it with 15 miss Hyderabad and Sydney! I am now seeing a facet of life filled with beauty and leisure. Great family, great friends and a ‘friend, philosopher and guide’ for a husband. . . what more can a girl ask for!

The Priyanka-Kaushik wedding episode is available for viewing on the Band Baaja Baraat website for 4 weeks crowd with a song at her sangeeth ceremony in Hyderabad

The rellos ham up the TV cameras!

The decor is beautifully traditional Priyanka wears the traditional koora podavai (saree) given by her in-laws, but tries on the groom’s headgear for fun

The newly married couple after the muhurtham ceremony