Marriages they say are made in heaven, only to be celebrated lavishly on earth.
And Bollywood weddings are no exception. The latest to swing on to the ‘marry-go-round’ is vivacious Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty who will tie the sacred nuptial knot with her business baron fiancée Raj Kundra on Sunday, November 22 amidst fanfare and fervour.
According to family sources, Shilpa will have her hush-hush nuptial ceremony at her buddy and business associate Kiran Bawa’s sprawling farmhouse in Khandala. Since the Bollywood biradari will not form part of the baaraat, a separate grand reception in Mumbai is planned a few days later.
“After having dated Raj for over two years I realized that we were ‘made for each other’ both as life partners and even business partners for our various commercial ventures including the IPL cricket team. My parents and my little sister Shamita were equally delighted about the alliance so I finally decided to plunge into matrimony following the quick turn of events to match the rare auspicious dates,” gushes the affable actress who merited little recognition for her histrionic talents, although she had convincingly played an ‘AIDS positive victim’ in a maverick movie ‘Phir Milenge’ co-starring Salman and Abhishek Bachchan.
Few are aware that Shilpa who is better known more for her ‘jhatak-matak’ gyrations in the sensuous item number ‘Main Aayi Hoon UP-Bihar Lootne’ (in ‘Shool’), has been nominated for over half-a-dozen awards for her awesome ‘Phir Milenge’ performance and was honoured for the same with a ‘Young Achiever’ award by the US Consulate in Mumbai.
Ironically, Shilpa’s claim to global fame happened after dramatically ‘winning’ the UK Celebrity Big Brother reality TV show. The exuberant yet resilient Shetty babe won the sympathy-wave of most home-viewers when she was allegedly made the brutal butt of racist remarks and barbed taunts by her house-mate, the late Jade Goody. Later she was singled out by the Colors TV Channel in India to host the previous season of ‘Bigg Boss’ where she had a ball connecting with the housemates.
Nevertheless, she continued to shine in her few performances in films, one of them being the role of a neglected Indian housewife in the bohemian Hindi movie ‘Life in a Metro’.
“Unfortunately my oomph-quotient has largely eclipsed my spontaneous acting talent which tends to be taken for granted,” shrugs Shilpa, who feels that her acting talent has been underrated.
Right now though, the bride-to-be is terribly busy with the elaborate preparations for her D-Day (where “D” stands for Dulhan!). She is confident that her ‘laadli’ sister Shamita who is under ‘house arrest’ in the ‘Bigg Boss’ house TV reality show will be given special permission by Colors to attend her ‘didi’s dhoom-dhaam shaadi.
Curiously enough, Shilpa and Shamita have ‘acted together’ in this Hindi movie crime-thriller ‘Fareb’ where they were pitted against each other as the charming wife and the seductive ‘other woman’ “It was a crazy mix of sibling rivalry and revelry”, quips Shamita.