Added vow factor: inside India's fake wedding craze

In a country where weddings power an industry worth nearly £100bn and the uber-rich spend millions celebrating a single union, a counter-trend is quietly gaining ground: young urban Indians are paying to attend “weddings” where no couple is tying the knot and where the only promise is a night of music, dancing and spectacle.

- SHAHANA YASMIN

These fake wedding parties mimic the atmosphere of a traditional Indian one, complete with marigold garlands, shimmering sarees and lehengas, and Bollywood playlists - but without the rituals, the family drama and the financial burden. What started as a novelty in the capital Delhi earlier this year quickly spread to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and beyond, transforming into one of the year's most talked-about social phenomena.

To understand the appeal, it helps to grasp the scale of the Indian wedding itself. The country hosts around 10 million weddings annually, according to industry estimates, and families often spend years saving for the occasion.

In 2024, investment advisory firm Wright Research valued the Indian wedding services sector at over £75bn, while market research and consulting company Grand View Research forecast an annual growth of more than 14 per cent through the decade.

Indian weddings are sprawling affairs that can last anywhere between three and seven days, often involving hundreds if not thousands of guests.

Traditions vary across regions and religions. Ceremonies can include kanyadaan, which involves a father symbolically giving his daughter away; saptapadi, the ritual of walking seven steps around a sacred fire to seal the union; haldi, a ritual of applying turmeric paste to bride and groom as a cleansing and purifying blessing; and sangeet, a music and dance celebration held a day or two before the formal wedding to unite families and break any tension.

In Sikh weddings, couples walk around the sacred scripture during the ceremony, while the nikah for Muslims marks the formal signing of the marriage contract.

Alongside such old rites, however, weddings are now consumer spectacles, fuelled by choreographed dance routines, themed décor, gourmet catering, and appearances by celebrities.