BOLLYWOOD'S BIJNESS-CLASS ROMANCE

How a gamble on wedding planners, West Delhi, and two newcomers became the cultural lexicon for a generation with Band Baaja Baaraat

- BY RAHUL DESAI

You say Band Baaja Baaraat (BBB) and I hear “bijness”, “bread pakore ki kasam (swear on bread fritters)” and the lovely piano tune during modern Hindi cinema’s most heartfelt kiss. I hear the bustle of Janakpuri, smell the privilege of Sainik Farms, and sense the chemistry between two newcomers (one newer than the other) on the brink of fame.

That's the currency of a trendsetting entertainer. It becomes its own cultural lexicon or, as the kids today call it: a vibe.

And the more formal markers become a quiet resident of this package — Maneesh Sharma’s directorial debut, Ranveer Singh’s acting debut, Anushka Sharma’s breakout role, Salim-Sulaiman’s criminally catchy soundtrack, and editor Namrata Rao’s pre-Kahaani mastery of montages.

What Came First

It’s tempting to treat Band Baaja Baaraat as an era-shifting hit, a Yash Raj Films (YRF) gamechanger, or the spiritual ancestor of the wedding-planner template of Made in Heaven. The story of Bittoo Sharma and Shruti Kakkar remains remarkable for its gender balance, the subversion of the slacker-saved-by-selfless-woman trope, the musicality of its energy, and the fluid staging of West Delhi as a character trait. But just as it takes a village to raise a child, it took a genre of community to craft the success of this film. Back then, the cinema of middle-class mobility was at its peak in Bollywood. Band Baaja Baaraat felt like the culmination of a genre that reflected the ambitions of a young India no longer shackled by conventional aspiration and blueprint careers.