The extended family of Anil and Sunita Kapoor showed up in their best outfits for the low-key wedding of their daughter, film producer Rhea Kapoor, sister of Sonam and Harshvardhan Kapoor, with her long-time boyfriend Karan Boolani.
Although the Kapoors did not make any official announcement on this milestone event in their family, the activity outside their Juhu home on Saturday, especially the steady stream of arrivals in glittering cars, confirmed the social media chatter about the marriage. Saturday apparently was the last auspicious day for weddings before the onset of the lunar month of Bhadra on August 23.
The newlyweds were seen coming out in a car quite late in the evening after their wedding. They were dressed simply and the wedding was said to have been a simple, "spiritual" affair. Unlike a Punjabi wedding, it was not preceded by nights devoted to the ‘mehndi' and ‘sangeet'. Rhea did not have ‘mehndi' on her hands, but she sported a striking engagement ring.
Since the morning, the Mumbai paparazzi gathered outside the Kapoor home, and as they clicked away, the father of the bride stepped out earlier in the evening, wearing a midnight blue kurta and dhoti, flashing a big smile and posing for pictures with folded hands, with boxes of sweets that he distributed among the photographers and television cameramen.
"It is a happy occasion and I am sharing this box of happiness with you all," he said, addressing the photographers. "Like the way you guys sent good wishes and blessings to my elder daughter Sonam, give the same blessings to my Rhea as well. Thank you so much for your support."
The arrival of Sonam Kapoor, looking picture-perfect in a shimmering light-blue outfit, along with her shoe designer husband Anand Ahuja, looking natty in Jodhpurs, sent the paparazzi into a tizzy.
Others spotted entering the Juhu residence of the Kapoors included Rhea's grandmother Nirmal Kapoor, her uncles Boney and Sanjeev (who came with his wife Maheep, who was most recently seen in 'Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives', and son Jahaan), and her aunt Reena Marwah with her husband Sandeep.
The bride's cousins were around in full force to up the glam quotient. They included a trimmer Arjun Kapoor (looking visibly different after his fitness regime with kickboxing champ Drew Neal ), Anshula, Shanaya and Khushi. Mohit Marwah, actor son of Reena and Sandeep Marwah, and fashion designers Masaba Gupta and Kunal Rawal also were seen coming in.
Rhea, who's the younger daughter of Anil Kapoor and his costume designer wife Sunita, is known for producing films such as 'Aisha', 'Khoobsurat' and 'Veere Di Wedding'. On Saturday, it was the time for 'Rhea Di Wedding'.
Karan Boolani has been working with Anil Kapoor's production house and most recently co-directed the Netflix series 'Selection Day' based on Aravind Adiga's novel of the same name.
Parallel to the news of the marriage breaking out, pictures of Karan and Rhea are being seen a lot more on social media.
In her last post on her official Instagram handle, Rhea wrote: "I really really think the secret to being loved is to love. The secret to being interesting is to be interested. And the secret to having a friend is being a friend."
(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)