New York City is often fantasised as a location for dreamers. A ‘concrete jungle’ where dreams come true, but a wedding has hardly ever stopped one of its most opulent locations. Days ahead of the 2026 Met Gala, Fifth Avenue was not laying out a red carpet, but preparing for an Indian wedding, all complete with 400 guests and 8000 flowers.
And with a flair for the show, the couple really does live an over-the-top life. One, the founder of a music festival, the other a Bollywood performer, while managing a career in endocrinology. Meet Pankti Doshi and Avinash Jain.
Who are Pankti Doshi and Avish Jain?
Pankti Doshi is something of a celebrity herself and an event creator by passion. But by profession, she is a certified genetic counsellor with a Master of Science degree in Genetic Counselling. She has thousands of followers on social media, and heads three entrepreneurial ventures: DNA Insider, a genetics service company, a music festival, and an event curation business.
She is known as the co-founder of the popular South Asian music festival, Masala Mixtape. She has lived practically all over the world, from spending her childhood in San Francisco to moving to Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Singapore. Doshi settled down in the Big Apple in 2020 to start her event company, &Aur.
Her now husband, Avish Jain, is a doctor by day and a performer by night – the couple truly cracked the side-hustle code.
With roots in Red Bank, New Jersey, Jain is a third-generation, classically trained Bollywood singer and dancer. He performs alongside some of the top stars, according to the New York Post. But manages to pursue Endocrinology as a fellow at Jersey Shore University Medical Centre, and will graduate in two months to become a certified endocrinologist.
The couple runs in the same social circles and met only in 2023. In fact, Doshi’s company hired Jain to perform at an event, and their need for flair and flamboyance has not stopped since.
“Both of us grew independently in New York City…We wanted (this wedding) to be not just about us, but everyone who cared for us, worked with us and believed in our bigger vision. That’s why we wanted to host everything in NYC — to give everybody the true New York City experience,” the couple told the New York Post.
The big-fat Indian wedding that stopped NYC
Held in Midtown Manhattan, Pankti Doshi and Avish Jain’s extravagant wedding spanned across five days. With five different venues, they hosted over 400 guests, something not unusual for South Asian weddings. They had six DJs, eight caterers, 10 choreographers, and 16 fashion/jewellery designers, which took nearly a seven-figure amount to produce.
With outfits from Delhi-based designer Samant Chauhan, the New York City baarat led the guests to a reception venue where the couple first met, against the backdrop of the Empire State Building. The baarat itself was a 55-foot floater with the 16-member bridal party and the groom dancing their hearts out. According to the New York Post report, the venue usually costs nearly $30,000 to rent and more than $150 per head.
Not only was there a choreographed Bollywood-style performance, but the Broadway-like event was also divided into five acts. The most prominent venues include Somewhere Nowehere NYC, the Polonsky Shakespeare Centre, Fifth Avenue, and the final ceremony at Radio Park.
The wedding eventually went viral on social media as passers-by recorded and cheered on the happy couple. And this comes nearly a year after a Boston-based couple, Varun Navani and Amanda Soll, filed as many as 28 permits and spent nearly Rs 21-56 lakh to secure Wall Street as their wedding venue alone.