Last week in Dubai, a friend hosted me for lunch at The Arts Club. As we discussed the evolving landscape of society and culture, she shared a video-cum-advertisement that left quite an impression. It was a video with eye-popping colours, choreography, and an unmistakable shaadi dazzle. Young people in exquisite ethnic ensembles twirling to Bollywood beats, grinning through varmala ceremonies, throwing petals with perfect cinematic timing. It looked like a wedding. It felt like a wedding. Except, there was no bride or groom. No priest. No sacred fire. Just a curated performance of what a wedding is supposed to feel like.

Welcome to the world of fake weddings.

A rapidly growing trend among Gen Z across India’s metros—and now increasingly across global campuses and expat communities—these shaadi-style parties have all the makings of a big fat Indian wedding minus the actual marriage. There’s a mehendi counter. There’s a sangeet. There may even be a baraat, a mock phera, and a buffet that rivals real wedding spreads. But what binds it together isn’t commitment—it’s content.

At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. As someone who has spent a lifetime celebrating and chronicling Indian culture—from classical forms to crafts, from cuisine to couture—I carry a deep reverence for the Indian wedding. In our country, a wedding is not just a private promise; it is a public sacrament. A convergence of tradition and modernity, of generations and values, of ritual and joy. So when I saw these ceremonies unmoored from meaning, I felt a curious discomfort.

But the more I read, watched, and listened, a layered story began to emerge. One that is less about........

© News18