(Image source from: Extravagant wedding for Lakshmi Mittal's niece})
Steel king Lakshmi Mittal is known for hosting big, fat, extravagant nuptials that almost always makes international headlines. So when it was the turn of his 26-year-old niece Shristi Mittal to walk down the aisle, how can the celebrations not be large and 'in news'.
Following his brother's footsteps, Lakshmi Mittal's younger brother Pramod Mittal hosted a whopping Rs 500 crore wedding in Barcelona for his daughter Shristi who got married to 36-year-old investment banker with HSBC Gulraj Behl in a three-day ceremony earlier this month.
Pramod Mittal surely went extra miles to makes his 500 crore extravaganza count. The Indian style spectacular wedding, which ran from 5-7 December and replete with band, bajaa, baraat, was hosted in the city's National Museum of Catalan Art that was closed down to the public to accommodate the party.
Dom Perignon champagne flowed and a 60 kg heavy 6-tier wedding cake was ordered to mark the event. An army of 200 butlers lined up at the entrance of the museum for the grand welcome of the groom who rode to the wedding venue in a horseback.
Michelin-star chef Sergi Arola, who presides over an eponymous restaurant in a suburban Mumbai 5-star, was flown down to prepare the wedding feast for 500 guests. Not just that, the family hired a private helicopter to hover over the city streets to 'shoot' the event.
The 'big spending' might have bagged the Mittals some more buzz, but has ruffled a few feather back home with critics branding the extravagant party as a 'homage to excess'.
Jordi Marto, a leader of the Socialist Party in Barcelona slammed the event and said that it was unacceptable that the city's public spaces being closed to the public to serve the private interests of a few.
However, Barcelona's mayor Xavier Trias, who was at the wedding, came up in defense saying the event was crucial because it could boost city's profile and was important for the city's 'economic activity'.
AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury
