LOVE, SET, MATCH

From a casual lockdown conversation to a deeply traditional celebration in Hyderabad, Shravya Varma and Srikanth Kidambi's union was as personal as it was poetic.

- By NUPUR SARVAIYA.

SHRAVYA VARMA NEVER fancied herself as the marrying kind, let alone the sort to orchestrate her own five-day, hyper-personalised wedding.

A celebrated costume designer and celebrity stylist, Varma built her life rooted in fashion and film, forging a professional trajectory that she calls "the longest relationship I've ever had." Never marrying "was an idea I quietly entertained but didn't dare voice, simply to avoid the inevitable drama at home." But then, along came Srikanth Kidambi and her grand plan was altered.

It began with an unassuming text—a fashion-related query in 2019. The innocuous exchange reinforced just how disparate their worlds were. A self-proclaimed "pure-bred Hyderabadi", Varma was part of the ever-evolving realm of red carpets and runways. Kidambi, a former world number one badminton player, came from the arena of professional sports, his life governed by training schedules and tournaments around the world.

But when the pandemic brought everything to a pause, the pair got to know each other over online Ludo games and late night conversations. That there was more to this friendship became clear just a few months after they started talking, during some casual banter about parents, passion projects and, funnily, livestock (you'll have to ask her for the full story). In August 2024, Kidambi proposed at the Taj Falaknuma Palace. Not long after that, he met her grandfather to ask for her hand in marriage.