'Main bhi' movie star

Sometimes your estimation of yourself as an alert, always-on-the-ball chronicler of cultural trends takes a hard knock. You suddenly realise that there’s a lot of stuff happening out there that you don’t have a clue about. Basically, you’ve been living under a rock while the brave new people of the world without are doing cool, enviable things.    

One such epiphanic moment came to me recently when I was spending what I thought would be a few quiet days in Rishikesh. We had checked into a resort on the banks of the Ganga. A flight of stairs from the hotel took you straight to the soft sands of the river beach. The Ganga was pristine here — limpid as green glass. It was a startlingly beautiful sight and I was chortling in delight when the peace of the idyllic setting was shattered by loud Hindi music. I stopped mid-chortle and looked in the direction of the racket. There was a cluster of people and evidently they felt that the admirable strains of “DJ Wale Babu Mera Gana Chala Do” sounded way better than birdcall and the soft whoosh of the swift-flowing river. Closer inspection revealed that in addition to a high-decibel music system, they also had tripods and movie cameras.

Ah, it’s a film crew, I thought.

Well, I was right and wrong. After they had had their fill of the music, the cameramen started filming a girl and a young man in sundry romantic poses. They didn’t quite look like movie or television actors, so I went up to the group and asked an elderly lady what was happening. “Cuppal hai,” she beamed at me. “Honeymooners,” I asked foolishly. No, no, said the lady, and proceeded to enlighten me. The girl and the boy were engaged and the respective families, who were from Aligarh, had come here with a film crew to do a pre-wedding shoot for them.

Over the next two days, three more pre-wedding shoot parties arrived at the resort. Filming was in progress anywhere you looked. Big ugly tripods barred your way and a drone camera often buzzed overhead. The couples changed clothes for different shots — the girls wore short, strappy dresses or full-length Cinderella gowns, the guys were in casuals or three-piece regalia. They pretended to have only just met, knocked into each other as if by accident, locking eyes and making up a story of instant chemistry and love. There were shots of gentle wooing, the romance blossoming as it were, and then, the final, triumphant set-piece — the guy going down on his knees and offering the ring to the girl who tried to look coy in between rapping out orders to the cameramen to film her from this angle rather than that.

The couples at these pre-wedding shoots changed clothes for different shots — the girls wore full-length Cinderella gowns, the guys wore three-piece regalia. Photo: iStock

Needless to say, I stared shamelessly — for up until then I had had no idea about this exciting aspect of modern Indian weddings. Back in Delhi, I asked wedding photographer Priyanka Sachar about pre-wedding shoots. She laughed at my ignorance and said they’re very hot and that they have been around in India for quite a few years. The films, which are complete with dialogue and the couple lip-syncing to a song, are played on a big screen at the engagement ceremony or during the wedding. Friends hoot and cheer, and if the video is uploaded on social media, as it usually is, the “likes” rain down. In short, it's immaterial whether the couple did or did not have a romance before entering holy matrimony. Real or mythic, said romance is summoned up in full-on filmi style.

Sachar told me about other interesting shoots that are all the rage now. There are “boudoir shoots” and “couple shoots” and, apparently, even much-married folks are getting these done. The ladies are suitably negligée-ed and lascivious in their boudoirs, the couples get cosy and perhaps kiss and canoodle. Really, why belabour incessantly to get the perfect selfie or twofie? With the right light, make-up and that professional touch, you can be as sexy as you want to be.

Today, everyone can be a glittering star in the glamorous movies of their lives.

Shuma Raha is a journalist and author based in Delhi

@ShumaRaha