Bollywood wedding of the year begins
18 April 2007
A traditional three-day Hindu festival for India's hottest Bollywood couple has begun today in Mumbai.
Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai invited around 200 guests, although some sources say this could be as low as 100, to join them in their celebrations, which was expected to be the wedding of the year.
The guests were in fact outnumbered by police, security at the venue being paramount, with hoards of fans desperate to get a look at the couple.
Although the couple did not go overboard with the number of guests, they did not scrimp on the particulars of the occasion.
The bride's henna in coming from Rajasthan, 1,000 heliconia flowers are being brought from Kerala in India and traditional Indian sweets from Kanpur.
The groom was also planning to arrive on a white horse for which the roads would be shut.
The festivities were then to be opened with an elaborate dance routine, for which Rai, a former Miss World, has been spotted rehearsing.
The couple have been dubbed 'Abhiash' by the media, the Bollywood version of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's contraction 'Brangelina'.
They had a short engagement which was announced in January, having appeared together in several films.
It is expected that the couple will honeymoon in the summer.
