NZ's first 'Big Fat Indian Wedding'

  • Breaking
  • 06/01/2011

By Brook Sabin

The most extravagant wedding New Zealand is likely to ever see gets underway in Auckland tomorrow.

It has been described as New Zealand's first 'Big Fat Indian Wedding', and invited guests included Sarah Palin and Donald Rumsfeld.

The bride is Auckland-based Pooja Chitgopeker – crowned Miss India Earth in 2007.

The groom, Vikram Kumar, son of Chicago-based electronics millionaire Shalabh Kumar.

“I always wanted the grandest, most innovative, most fabulous, spectacular wedding there ever was,” he tells 3 News.

But even the biggest of weddings have setbacks.

The family had planned to have cheetah cubs, lions and an elephant, but officials won’t allow it.

“It is tradition to have a groom go on the elephant, but there is only two elephants in all of New Zealand and one is retired, one is unavailable,” says Vikram Kumar.

Despite the setback, the wedding plans are still grand scale.

The three-day celebration is being held at Auckland’s Formosa Golf Resort and gets underway tomorrow in dramatic fashion.

Fifty-three of the groom’s party will arrive at the Formosa in nine helicopters, flying in a V formation; for ‘Vikram’.

Once landed, the groom will get into a four-horse chariot for a two-hour dancing procession to a marquee. The procession will include performances by Indian pop stars like Daler Mehndi-A Man, with 19.3 million YouTube hits.

Shalabh Kumar says he doubts New Zealand would have seen anything like this.

“I don’t think anywhere in the world would have seen anything like this.”

With 500 guests and 10 separate events over three days, as well as a fireworks show, Kumar senior won’t reveal what we’re all wanting to know; the cost.

He says he’s happy to foot the bill.

3 News

source: newshub archive