With the legal formalities for their civil marriage completed and the after party picking up pace on Sunday night, newly-wed Sonakshi Sinha, looking resplendent in a custom red, ‘chand boota’ brocade Raw Mango sari, and sporting a prominent sindoor, posed for the paparazzi with her husband, Zaheer Iqbal.
Zaheer, in all white, looked a picture of happiness, and the couple oozed natural warmth as they posed for pictures outside the wedding reception venue, Bastian, the restaurant on Linking Road, Mumbai, that is famous for its Asian-inspired modernist cuisine.
After the formal photo shoot, the newly-weds joined the paparazzi for a group picture, much to the delight of the shutterbugs who had been trailing them through the day.
Sonakshi and Zaheer were joined later by Shatrughan Sinha, the bride’s father, Bollywood veteran and newly-elected Trinamool Congress MP from Asansol, and his wife Poonam.
The steady flow of celebrities, starting with Saira Bano and the ageless Rekha, continued as the evening melted into the night and DJ Ganesh pumped up the music, mostly Bollywood numbers.
Among the early arrivals were Aditi Rao Hydari (‘Bibbojaan’), Sonakshi’s ‘Heeramandi’ co-star, and her fiance (and South Indian star) Siddharth. Other ‘Heeramandi’ actresses who were seen joining the high-decibel party included Richa Chadha (with ‘Guddu Bhaiyya’ Ali Fazal) and Sanjeeda Shaikh.
Manisha Koirala, the ‘Heeramandi’ diva, sent flowers to convey her best wishes because she could not attend the wedding as a result of prior commitments.
Zaheer’s ‘Ruslaan’ cast mate, Aayush Sharma, the brother-in-law of Salman Khan, who played Cupid to the newly-weds, was among the early arrivals as well.
Others seen making a beeline to the reception venue included Vidya Balan and her husband Siddharth Roy Kapur; Huma Qureishi and her brother Saqib Saleem; Tabu, who greeted the paparazzi with a wink; Anil Kapoor, Chunky Panday, Raveena Tandon, and Kajol, whose hand-painted Shivan-Narresh silk sari drew uncharitable comments on social media.
The celebrity entry that got the shutterbugs most excited, though, was that of Yo Yo Honey Singh, who flaunted an electric-blue jacket. He was greeted with joyful exclamations and requests to break into a song.
The reception theme is black and red. A team of decorators was hard at work at Bastian earlier in the day arranging an array of red flowers and rolling out the red carpet.
Sonakshi and Zaheer, the man she lovingly describes as her ‘personal psycho’, had been dating for the past seven years. Salman, who gave Sonakshi her Bollywood break in the action-comedy ‘Dabbang’ (2010), played Cupid.
Zaheer, too, made his debut in a Salman Khan-produced film — ‘Notebook’ — where he was cast opposite another newbie, Pranutan Bahl, daughter of actor Mohnish Bahl, and granddaughter of Nutan.
It is said that Salman introduced Sonakshi to Zaheer on the sets of ‘Notebook’ in 2017.
