Actors Ali Fazal and Richa Chadha might have been legally married since 2020, but the couple finally celebrated their union on October 4 as they threw a grand reception party for their close friends and colleagues in Mumbai. The lovebirds had met on the sets of 2012 release Fukrey, and have been together for almost a decade now.
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Ali and Richa wanted a celebration of their togetherness that was very fluid in nature, and hence the duo had some pre-wedding ceremonies in New Delhi, as well as Lucknow, and finally a big reception in Mumbai.
Speaking about the same, Ali told GQ, “The festivities were very fluid, so there wasn’t that usual segregation of ‘sangeet’ and ‘shaadi’ etc that you usually experience in an Indian wedding. There was one, low-key event that’s very important, which is in honour of my mum, because she doesn’t get to be there for this moment. We also worked hard to make it eco-friendly, tried to make it minimum waste and didn’t splurge too much because ‘karna hai to karna hai’ [we have to do it because we have to do it]. I’m thinking I might even write an article on how to do an economical, jugaadu wedding now that this is all over! I just feel there’s a certain visual that people conjure up when they think ‘Bollywood Wedding’–and no offence to anyone, we all want different things–but we wanted it to feel cosy, and inviting.”
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Ali also spoke about the last-minute things that spiralled out of control, but the pair couldn’t do much about it: “Like…the fact that we lost a location, last minute. Can you imagine the stress of losing a wedding location with no warning? And this is Bombay! We went into panic mode immediately, trying to replace it. Or that one of the singers meant to perform passed away in the pandemic–someone we’d booked ages ago…I feel like pop culture has fed us this clichéd narrative for so long that most of us are kind of over it. At some point, I think you can get stressed about spending so much money, but then you’re like ‘I’m doing it, I have to face it–and so now I have to have fun’.”
But the most important thing for Ali Fazal about marriage as an institution is to prove the notion that marriages don’t last long. “I’ve seen very few marriages work in my life, so I’d like to disprove that. But aside from that, there’s something spiritual I share with Richa. And I thank her for that because she’s made me more spiritually aware than I was before,” Ali signed off.
