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EXCLUSIVE: Want to know how Sonam Kapoor & Anand Ahuja were as a bride and groom? Wedding Photographer REVEALS
Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja's wedding was anything but the big, fat Bollywood weddings we are used to seeing. Anand Rathi, the official photographer for Sonam and Anand's special day, spilled the beans on THE WEDDING, that everyone should have.
Arguably, Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja's wedding was the 'WEDDING OF THE YEAR,' and deservedly so.
From their undeniable chemistry to the candidness of the family, from the Bollywood stars letting their hair down and celebrating Sonam and Anand's wedding day to the wedding ceremony that was all about subtle romance, this wedding was the complete opposite to what we envisioned a big fat Bollywood wedding would look life.
Anand Rathi (Reels & Frames), the official photographer for Sonam and Anand's wedding, feels the same way. In an EXCLUSIVE tête-à-tête with Pinkvilla, Anand got candid about the dream wedding.
Given the enormity and chaos around Sonam and Anand's wedding, when we asked Rathi about the entire experience, he revealed, "It was tiring and surreal, and at the same time, it was very satisfying because all said and done, we know that we came back with some really good content and memorable and pretty images."
While rumours of the wedding were rife untill a week into the wedding, the Kapoor family had got in touch with Anand back in February 2018. Anand stated that it was the bride's mother and sister (Sunita and Rhea Kapoor) who were deeply involved in the whole process.
But one wonders what brief Sonam and Anand had regarding their wedding photos given how, it would be their memory for a lifetime, to look back on with the pictures. However, Anand surprised us with his answer when he said that Sonam and Anand let him have his creative space and did not dictate anything which was surprising and fortunate as well.
"Something that Sonam did say was, 'I do get photographed a lot so I'm not looking for a stylised and editorial shoot for my own wedding. I would like to relive my wedding memories in their purest form and that's the approach we took. We didn't over-stylise any of our shots. We took them in a very photojournalist manner," Anand said.
One question on our minds which was constantly on our minds was of how Sonam and Anand were as a bride and groom. Anand revealed, "Chatty! They chat a lot (laughs), in a good way. They are always talking to each other and they smile after every conversation. It's a good sign that their chemistry is intact even during all the hustle and bustle of the wedding. Sonam is your happy girl-next-door female and does not have the airs about being an A-Lister. Anand is a very accomplished man in his own rights. He is super warm and affectionate. He approaches you with the same warmth as he approaches anybody else, so try doing that for 600 people at a wedding (laughs) and you would know! It's a mark of his character, that he continued his warmth throughout the wedding."
An anecdote from the wedding that Anand recalled was, "from the wedding itself, the Anand Karaj in the morning. They were facing the Guru Granth Sahib and it's supposed to be a very quiet ceremony. You're not supposed to talk too much but these two would just keep chatting and then look at the pandit and go silent. Then chat and repeat. At one stage, Sonam said to the pandit, 'We talk a bit too much, don't we?' She said it in a very light and jovial mood to lighten the whole situation. That's something that I remember."
When the wedding ceremony ended and Anand and Sonam officially became husband and wife, the couple shared endearing photos on Instagram to announce them becoming a married couple. Both the photos saw the pair decked in their wedding attires were seen planting a kiss on each other's cheek.
On the meaning behind the photo, Anand explained, "The photo has a wall of mogra flowers and that was the scent in the air. The whole place was done up like that. We wanted to keep that intact. We didn't want to take them to a dark room or one of those Sabyasachi-styled shoots. We didn't want to do that in their wedding venue. That was one part of the thinking process and the second involved only natural light. It was a well lit fresh daylight ceremony and that's what we wanted to replicate. The third was the pose itself which was of him kissing her cheek and vice versa...we did not make them do that. It was their chemistry. We just had to make sure that we place them in the right frame and for the entire wedding, these two were on auto-mode when it came to their own chemistry."
What was Anand's favourite photo of the married couple? "It's not out yet. There is one picture of both of them just bowing their head down in front of the Guru Granth Sahib. It was quite a surprise in a nice way, to be witnessing and documenting a wedding which could have looked completely different but what stood out was that quietness, the quaint and the calmness and that whole setup. Anything to do with the morning ceremony is by far my favourite moments from the entire wedding."
Finally, given the years of weddings covered by Anand, we ended the candid interview by asking him the difference between a Bollywood celebrity's wedding and a non-celebrity's wedding.
"I really won't peg this as a Bollywood wedding. It didn't feel like shooting one. In some sense, a celebrity wedding versus a non-celebrity wedding, there is obviously that star factor. You walk in and basically, the who's who of the entertainment industry are there. But, I've seen these people party as hard as any other normal happy family would and I'm talking about the entire industry coming together partying as a family. So, instead of a difference, I would look at it as something that was unexpected. You would expect that this will be a social gathering, like a social party sort of an affair at least with the reception...it wasn't. The other difference would be that most normal couples actually want too much of drama around the pictures. They like to envision themselves in a pre-wedding shoot, save the date and they want to have the 'Bollywood Wedding', whereas these guys went for the wedding that everybody should have...a happy wedding," Anand concluded.
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