I can’t stop myself! I keep looking at Sonam wedding videos! And, thanks to the latest batch, I now have several competing “ships” that I am rooting for. And I am sharing them with you, in the hope of either getting companions on board the SS Relationship, or else getting a solid common sense mind to drag me off.
Arjun and his sisters
I can’t help myself, I have to put up both mini-videos!!!! First the whole family coming together, with Arjun clearly in charge even though his Dad is there, tell them when it’s over, sending the women away. And then the photags asking for a “kids only” photo, Arjun calling his sisters back, making fun of Jhanvi (or Khushi?) so she laughs.
And then making the call of when it is enough, ordering the photographers to stop, and sending them all back to the steps, checking on what is going on elsewhere, coming back over to the sisters. Such a good brother! Going to spend the rest of his life taking care of things for them.
Sonam and All Her Friends
There’s other videos of the rehearsal for this. Dozens of friends got together for rehearsals so they could surprise her with a performance to “Gal Mithi Mithi Bol”, the super fun wedding song from her first home production. I love this video not for the dance, but for the big happy smile from Sonam as she is sent off the dance floor.
Although the “Swag Se Swagat” second song is maybe even better. And DANG! Swara can DANCE! Anyway, I just love it as a sign of what a good friend Sonam is, just a random collection of folks who care about her and came together to surprise her, from her co-star in her next movie to her little boy cousin. Oh wait, I just rewatched it, Swara is good, but the real talent is Tiny Little Girl in the front row. Not sure if she was part of the official group, but she is dancing her heart out!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiiuaVOAMX2/?taken-by=sonamkishaaadi
Karan Johar and Center Stage
Karan is just so happy! Sometimes when he is “on” it feels like he is trying to hard, like he is faking it a little bit to get past the nerves, playing a role. But this time, not at all. He’s not playing “flamboyant Karan” or “serious artist/businessman Karan”, he is just “Karan having a GREAT time”.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Biij3JzgabZ/?taken-by=sonamkishaaadi
Varun and Natasha
She looks SO UNCOMFORTABLE!!! This would essentially be me, if I had a super famous boyfriend. Or really, most normal people. Being the center of all eyes, with dozens of cameras going off at you would be unpleasant for anyone. But what makes me ship them is how you can see Varun sort of introducing her to how this works, talking to her and making her smile when she starts to freak out a little, and holding on to her until the last possible minute when she walks away.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bii4tVyAXHz/?taken-by=sonamkishaaadi
Shahrukh and a Dance Floor
Need I say more? I was reading an old interview or something a while back where he talked about his Sangeet, where he and Gauri danced all night, because they both loved to dance. Feels like he doesn’t get to do that much any more, just dance with his wife and old friends at a great party instead of for money on stage, or on film, being perfect. Oh and yes, Gauri was dancing too. She wasn’t caught clearly in any video I can find, but you can see bits of her dress in the background, she was dancing right there with him.
But his real partner last night was Anil, and we all know it. It is a certain kind of male bonding that finds all three of them equally sweaty, equally unbottoned, and equally euphoric at 2am.
Shahrukh, Salman, and Sunita Kapoor
The Internet identified for me that they are singing the “Bandhan” song from Karan-Arjun. So, first, Salman and Shahrukh both still remember the words to a song from a movie they were in over 20 years ago, that’s so cute! Second, I love the kind of inside joke wordless communication friendship that has to go in to deciding to sing this duet to the mother of the bride. And third, Sunita Kapoor is so cutely embarrassed! And I just looked it up, they are singing her a mother song, but she is just a year older than them! Which I kind of find even more cute, that the boys are pretending to be singing to her as a mother and the joke is how inappropriate it is.
Ranbir and Alia-ANTI-SHIP
I think it’s not just my dislike for the idea of this pairing, this video is like really really chemistry-less, right? Ranbir looks completely uninterested (to be fair, this is the wedding of his maybe ex-girlfriend) and Alia seems more interested in standing with Ayan than with him.
Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sidharth M.
They are working on a film together now, and they had the Dream Team tour together, but they really seem happy, right? Like, friends who are joking and having a good time? Way more natural chemistry than Alia and Ranbir, for instance.
Anil Kapoor and THE WORLD!!!!!
This is clearly early in the night, because he’s still got the tie on, but his energy is already set to 11. This is how you start a PARTY!
A close up! There is no holding back here, Anil is leaving it all on the floor. In hour one of a 5 hour party in which he never stopped leaving it on the floor.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiijeLxgymH/?taken-by=sonamkishaaadi
Okay, the hard part!!!!! How should I prioritize the emotional energy I waste on these ships for people I don’t even know? I’ll try to limit it to top 5, as of this moment, counting down 5 to 1:
5. Shahrukh and the Dance Floor: would be higher, but this is old news, not new news.
4. Varun and Natasha: She still feels so “normal”, it’s so refreshing!
3. Sonam and Her Friends: awwwwwww! If Little Girl was more front and center in the videos, this might have made it to the top.
2. Arjun and His Sisters: Any other night, this would have won without an effort.
1. Anil and THE WORLD: Can anyone disagree? It’s really his night.
dontcallitbollywood 
Off topic and sorry to hijack your awesome post but… the cameras were trained on SRK for hours and he wasn’t caught smoking once! I have noticed this lately at KKR games as well. He seems to be sitting through 3-4 hour games without puffing up. Not a big deal for normal people but he used to smoke even on red carpets and get fined constantly for smoking in stadiums. I don’t think he’s stopped or anything but seems he definitely has cut down a lot from his usual chain smoking. At least I hope so.
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Oh yeah, good point!!!! That’s great, if so.
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Love to see this. I’ve kinda been noticing it for a while & hoping it was true.
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I love this post so much. 😂 I can’t decide honestly. Though I love the anti-ship that you have too🤣. I totally anti-ship it with you.
Anil wins. Because what a man!(I heard it in his voice in my head). Anil once famously adviced his daughters to not be pressured to get married just because society demands it. Also to only take the step if absolutely sure. Here, he’s clearly happy with his daughter’s choice. I love that. He’s happy & he is showing it. Like shekar kapur tweeted, you can clearly see the goodwill he has gathered over the years.
Sonam – she is loyal to a fault as can be seen with her long lasting & strong friendships. A fan of hers was going through a bad phase and Sonam took it upon her to help her through, though she had no need to go out of the way for a random fan. But what she gained in the process is a devoted fan & absolute loyalty. If I hadn’t seen it happen by the sidelines I wouldn’t have believed how far she went. So yes. This ship !!
Arjun !!! It’s still hard to believe that he just took over the responsibility of two more sisters just like that. 2 girls he could’ve easily resented instead found common ground with. Sonam was there for him when he was going through a bad phase. Now he’s there for all his sisters. Life is a cycle.
Varun & Natasha – I predict a 2018 wedding for these two.
It must be hard to be in love with a guy who was a lowly asst director (and anonymous) to being in love with a star. Since it’s her first look. Baby steps. I hope they last.
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I am so glad we are united in this anti-ship! I have been anti-shipping it since Ranbir and Kat broke up and there were Alia rumors just based on her being the last woman he had down a photoshoot with.
One thing I was thinking watching the coverage, I don’t get any feeling that there is pressure for Rhea to get married. And if she does get married, she can do it any way she wants. This is Sonam’s wedding because it is what Sonam wants, not because it is how a daughter “should” be married.
Sonam also seems to sincerely value friendships. She doesn’t put family over friendship, or business or romance over it either. Not that she doesn’t value those other things too, but she sees Friendship as another alternative thing outside of all of those that is equally important. I mean, you can see it in this wedding, she was so sincerely delighted looking at how her friends surprised her, and there’s another video I didn’t put up where she puts on the Veere Badshah song and calls out her co-stars to come dance with her, and she was delighted to dance with her brother, and spend time with her sister, and so on. It’s all special.
Arjun also looks so genuinely happy about it! Of course, this was a public setting and they knew all eyes would be on them, but still it has been only a couple of months, and he is already joking around and casually moving them all back and forth and so on. Such an interesting life, his girlfriend breaks his heart and it turns into a career change to movie star. He is about to have his first big movie, and his mother dies. His career moves along, he struggles to find a place, and then suddenly all his plans change again and he switches to being big brother before everything else. Very much a “man plans, God laughs” kind of life.
I’m feeling a 2018 wedding too. Now’s the time, they’ve been together forever and he is slowly bringing her more to the front. It feels like it must be part of a plan leading up to an engagement announcement. And I have the same feeling about their relationship! Especially since in that time his older brother got married and had a kid and no one noticed or talked about it. I imagine that at one point that’s what Varun and Natasha were like too, on track to get married and have a kind and have a nice normal quiet life. And then Varun started his focused attack on stardom, and the reasonable thing to do would have been to let Natasha go. Maybe that’s why some of us have that warm feeling for them as a couple? Varun is so nakedly ambitious and focused and clear in his career goals, but he is also holding on to the totally illogical and unprofitable relationship with his college girlfriend, which makes it look like he must love her even more than he wants to be a movie star.
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 9:12 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Fun post! I’m also thinking I’m spending too much time thinking about the private lives of these people instead of watching Pari and Sonu Ki Sweety which are new on Prime and I need to see! But that’s why celebrity culture exists!
My favorite ships of this event: 1) Arjun and his sisters for sure 2) have to say Ranbir and Alia…I don’t see much chemistry there in this but I think it could be because he’s more tentative about it going public than she is…they went to a special screening of Raazi and left the reception together in Ranbir’s own car apparently…they are totally together 3) Swara and the world:) after seeing her dancing (and how fierce she looked in her looks and generally because I like her work and her outspokenness) dancing I think I may definitely have a girl-crush 4) Anil and the world because he is pretty adorable as the proud, drunken dad…middle-aged Anil is so much cooler than young Anil
Despite his relationship with Natasha being the one thing I like about Varun, after watching the video and not just basing my earlier comments on their picture, I think she’s not uncomfortable, she’s actually just pissed about something and his dopey gang signs when he was doing solo pictures are so cheesy. He’s like the least cool guy in Bollywood.
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So glad I am not the only person obsessed with Arjun and his sisters! It’s not that unhealthy, right? I mean, we are all just happy because it is a good loving thing in the world, that can’t hurt anything, either for them or us. Postivity!
Just to counter the car story, there was the same stuff making the rounds during the filming of SOTY about her and Varun, which was squashed by Varun and Sid and everyone else saying that they were just dropping her home. Because she was young and shouldn’t be traveling alone. So it is possible she and Ranbir left the screening together in his car just because he insisted on taking her home. And he was at the screening because they are working on a movie together for the same production house that is producing her current movie. Anyway, I am still strongly anti-Alia/Ranbir, but if it is a real thing, they can always try to win me over. I am very easy to win over.
Feels like, based on how front and center she is here and at other times, Sonam may have taken Swara under her wing a bit. Which would be great! Swara needs a connected powerful sponsor in the industry, and I feel like Sonam would now the best possible way to present her.
Middle-aged Anil is soooooooooo cool. Can you imagine how awesome middle-aged Sonam will be? I want to see her rocking all night at her daughter’s wedding.
Watching the video, I did notice that Varun’s face was way more natural when he was talking to Natasha, once it was just him in the picture, he dropped into a really fake look. And that’s after watching tons of these red carpet photo moments, Varun still looked more fake than the others. Oh well, maybe they are in the middle of a fight and neither of them felt like smiling. Maybe she told him the see through shirt looked tacky when they were in the car and it was too late to change.
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 9:39 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I like that theory that Natasha just really hated his tacky shirt!
So as much as I love that Arjun has taken on some very adult responsibility in taking care of his sisters and his father in this difficult time, I just can’t help wondering what was keeping them from being so visibly and publicly connected. From all accounts Sridevi was a lovely and shy woman, so I find it hard to believe that she actively kept them apart. Was it just awkwardness and the separation of the two households, and clearly possibly some resentment from the older children? It’s just so sad that a tragedy was the reason they came together. I’m sure it will be a comfort to Boney Kapoor that his children will be closer in the future, but still sad all around.
On a selfish note, I just really want one of his next films to be a gigantic hit. He is coming off a pretty box office decent showing in Mubarakan (and honestly only Tevar was truly a flop). I doubt that the two movies with Parineeti will do big things (but I’m certainly looking forward to them). Wouldn’t it be amazing if Panipat does better than the Ranbir film or even Kalank. You never know!
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My impression of Arjun’s family is that it was just awkwardness. Boney moved out and started a new household with Sridevi, Mona stayed with her in-laws and clearly her kids were still part of the main branch of the Kapoor family while Sridevi and her kids were kept a little separate from the rest. It would have taken an effort for Boney to force his older kids to come to his house and spend time with their siblings, or for Arjun and Anshula to make a move towards that out of their current family. What Arjun always said was that he had a great relationship with his father, but they met each other at the office, he had never been to his home. In other words, Boney stayed connected to both households, but the wives and kids didn’t travel between. Although I am sure Arjun and Anshula had seen their sisters at stuff like big weddings and things, just as they would have seen any other distant relative.
I would love for Panipat to do the best of all the epics! Just to keep Dharma and YRF on their toes if nothing else.
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 11:11 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I love this post and I so needed it after a crap day. Random thoughts:
I didn’t know Anil was Sonam’s father until this week. Oops. I still have so much to learn!
I’m predicting that little girl is going to make her film debut in the not-too-distant future.
Karan can really dance!
That photo of open shirt SRK with Sonam looks like a movie still. And damn, he looks really good for 52! Salman is still a handsome man but when you see them together in this setting you can see that Salman hasn’t aged nearly as well.
Aniiiiiiiilllllllll!!!!
I’m fascinated by how different Sonam’s wedding was from Anushka. Sonam’s wedding was very filmi and all about their family and their community. I imagine people in India following the wedding felt like it was their family members getting married with all the same touchpoints, the loud exuberant daddy, people performing dance numbers from their favorite films, resolved feuds, budding romances, and spots of conflict on the edges that don’t touch the new couple.
Anushka’s wedding was cosmopolitan, international and removed. No one is going to look at Anushka’s wedding and think oh that’s just like the weddings in our family. Gorgeous images but not those real little moments like Salman and SRK singing to the bride’s mother.
The differences in the weddings speak to their images and probably also their long term career ambitions, don’t you think?
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If you need a distracting from another bad day, here is the post that explains the whole “Other Kapoor” family tree: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2017/01/12/hindi-film-101-kapoors-part-vi-the-other-kapoors-anil-boney-sanjay-and-sridevi/
I think Karan is one of those people that dances better once he gets out of his own head and forgets how he looks, but it takes a lot to get him there!
Somehow they both have health problems, but Shahrukh’s have turned into more “internal constant pain, but still flexible” while Salman’s have turned into “I can’t move large parts of my body at any given moment”. And seems like the key to having a natural healthy glow at age 52 is being able to move.
The other thing I was thinking of with Anushka versus Sonam is that Sonam is really really “in” the film industry. She grew up in it, her whole family is in it, and she has chosen to make friends and form new connections within it. While Anushka is liked by a lot of people, but seems to hold herself back a little bit from the close connections. So Anushka’s wedding in Italy was maybe as fun and silly and wild as this, but they kept it completely private to the point of going to a whole other country. And then her official film industry reception was very formal, because it wasn’t people she really knew the way Sonam knows them.
On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 1:27 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thanks to this wedding I came from –
“I like Anil”, to “OMG I love this man, I want only good things happen to him, and I want to be friends with him”
And with Arjun from
“He’s not bad” to “A man with sad past and heart of gold? I think I’m in love”
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Anil has the most charming interviews! Always. That positive happy vibe you get from these photos seems to be just his approach to life.
And Arjun is so lovely! I really hope he somehow turns his career around with these stories and images, partly because I really want to see him play something onscreen similar to how he now appears in real life.
On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 2:17 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Neha Dhupia got married, too! I love that she kept it so secret and married her best friend. He’s a cutie…I think I remember him from Tiger Zinda Hai. I would put money on her being pregnant though:) I feel sad though that her close friend Karan wasn’t there? Hope they have a reception back in Mumbai…
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My goodness, wedding season indeed!
On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 7:03 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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So much to say, so much else I should be doing! 1st: Anushka vs. Sonam in wedding types. Remember Virat is also mega famous and has many many fans. Their wedding could easily have been more circus like, hence the need for more privacy. Also, Sonam likes living large. Her posts, her interviews etc. she doesn’t mind being the center of attention that plus the filmy filmy family makes both choices make sense.
Next: Varun. I’m not at all sure how good an actor he is. Even in October which was a great performance, there was not a lot of nuance. Nevertheless I love his continued connection to his first love. Remember the scene in Luck By Chance at the end when Shah Rukh (as himself) meets Faran and says “don’t forget the friends who knew you when; they will always tell you the truth.” I have a fantasy notion that Shah Rukh gave Varun this advice and said, stay with the woman who is not in awe of you at all and then you can have a real life. He always says he is NOT Shah Rukh Khan at home. Have you noticed Gauri most often refers to him as “my husband”. So, I hope Varun stays with her. I love that she looked either nervous OR pissed off, however you want to read it. No pretense there.
By the way, I LOVE this thread!!
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I love this thread too! And I also should be doing other things, but am not. I just keep watching the Swag Se Swaget video over and over. Swara is so good! That little girl is so cute!
Besides Virat being mega-famous, he also is in a sort of “national hero” responsible position. It looked like the Italy wedding was fun and happy and just for them, but Delhi was about being impressive and representing the country and all that, and the Bombay reception was about paying dues to work acquintances. One thing I loved about this wedding was the feeling that Sonam’s film family all showed up for her, but it was mixed in with her husband’s “regular” friends. Made it feel even more like it was a family wedding, not a celebrity one.
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I don’t know if my other post went through, so I apologize if this is a repeat. Those of you who have seen Luck by Chance: Shah Rukh has a cameo as himself at the end when he tells the rising star Farhan: ” don’t give up the friends you had when you were nothing. They will always tell you the truth and keep you in a real life.” or words to that effect. I wonder if he told Varun the same or Varun just knows it. Keeping his girlfriend from when he was ‘no one’ is the smartest thing he can do. The fact that she can pose with that annoyed look on her face…shows she really is keeping it real.
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Just rescued the other comment from spam! Which also allowed me to learn that there is apparently a doctor out there who has a cure for cancer AND Aids AND diabetes. The amazing things that somehow only spam commentators know.
I agree about Varun. With Shahrukh, who is in a similar situation, I feel like now Gauri is the only one who can really keep him young. But for Varun right now, it feels like his girlfriend is the only one who can really keep him old, he looks so much more mature when he is with her, a reminder that if their life had played out as planned he would now be the head of a young family instead of playing teenagers in movies.
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You can relax about the whole Ranbir-Alia relationship.They are not dating.She’s reportedly dating billionaire Sunil Mittal’s son.I feel you’re being a little harsh on Rabir.Sure he’s got a reputation for cheating.But then you’d have to be prepared to dole out the same treatment to Sridevi,Hema,Akshay, and all the way back to the golden era.If it’s the nepotism factor, he got nothing close to the perks that Alia did.He’s a good actor,good looking and hasn’t broken any laws.Be a little kind to him.
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I don’t mind the cheating exactly, although I don’t condone it in anyone golden age or otherwise, it’s more the age/experience that makes me not like it. I’d love for Ranbir to start dating and have a happy relationship with someone in his own age group, but 24-35 just feels like much too big of a gap. Unless he was some kind of 35 year old who’d lived totally isolated from the world so it is as though he is only 24, and we know that isn’t true.
And now I will be reserving judgement on the rumored millionaire dating, until I find out if he is also a 35 year old who has 35 years of romantic experience, or else much younger/sheltered from the world.
On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 12:13 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Whatever his faults ,Ranbir has always been linked up with women of his own age -Sonam,Deepika,Katrina,Mahira.I don’t think someone as young as Alia is his type.And Alia has always been very very private about her dating life.Sure she throws crumbs at the media in the form of Varun and Siddharth.But they always felt fake.The World Economic Forum thing makes sense if you consider the businessman boyfriend.The current link-up with Ranbir is firmly in line with the promotions for Brahmastra.
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Phew! That’s what I thought, especially since it is clear that Alia, Ayan, and Ranbir came to the wedding as a threesome. So, film promotion/work outing.
On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 2:20 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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