For rich Indians, marriages are made in phoren

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Kolkata, Aug 4: Shooting sequences in Switzerland has given way to making marriages in Malaysia, as the Great Indian Wedding goes phoren, complete with family and friends.

Today, the rich and famous Indians prefer to get married in foreign locations. “We had nine marriages in the last two years,” said Md Roslan Abdullah, director of Tourism Malayasia. Just the cost of a four-day stay in Malaysia and air fares for 350 families adds up to around Rs 2 crore. “We already have strong booking for January and February next year,” Abdullah told FE.

Tarun Sarda, CEO of Vivaha Interactive, the wedding centric annual exhibition, points out that the actual costs involved are extra. “It is like gifting a four-day trip to buoyant and wealthy Malay beaches,” said Sarda. “Getting married in foreign locations is much in vogue for the rich Indians.” He claims the Indian wedding industry is valued at Rs 1,25,000 crore, or almost five times the size of the domestic consumer durable industry. And it is growing at 25% per annum.

For those who can afford it, the average wedding—the four-day affair with cocktails, mehendi, sangeet and reception—costs Rs 1.25 crore and upwards. Typically, Rs 35 lakh gets spent on food and beverages, Rs 20 lakh on clothing and Rs 25 lakh on jewellery.

“Wedding entertainment, chocolates, trousseau packing and decoration is becoming more popular these days,” said Sarda. He arranges Vivaha, an exhibition showcasing wedding venues, locales, outfits, jewellery, cosmetics, trousseau for brides and grooms, honeymoon destinations, theme planners and wedding co-ordinators.

The charges for a box packaging with semi-precious stones and silver plating is around Rs 10,000, said Shalini Beriwala of Magnificence, specialising in trousseau packing. “One of my clients spent Rs 20 lakh on packing,” she said. Though the north is the biggest market for the wedding industry, Kolkata is catching up fast, overtaking Mumbai, said Sarda.

Celeste, makers of customised chocolates for weddings and other parties including corporate gifts, has found a good market. “We have not been able to replace mithai, but we have started getting orders all through the year from India and abroad,” said Nidhi Bhageria of Celeste. “The target is to take Vivaha to 25 cities by 2009,” said Sarda. After major metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai he is looking at other cities like Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Pune, Raipur and Indore.