Behind the scenes of celebrity weddings

Brut India

Bollywood got another dreamy wedding in Rakul Preet Singh and Jackky Bhagnani’s union. And The Wedding Filmer tells Brut how it is to film such weddings.

Transcript

00:00I think the biggest challenge filming celebrity weddings would be

00:03trying to make them look like film stars.

00:06Deepika whispered into my ear and said,

00:08would you shoot my wedding when it does happen?

00:11And I started blushing.

00:13You have to take a 100% advance

00:15because once what happened is a couple got divorced

00:18but they got divorced before I could give them their wedding film,

00:20which was just a few months after they got married.

00:23And I think he was caught cheating on her.

00:25I didn't get paid the rest of the money.

00:27This is Vishal Punjabi, the wedding filmer for Brute.

00:31I love each other's company so much.

00:37Which was your first celebrity wedding?

00:39My first celebrity wedding would have been Dia Mirza's wedding

00:43way back in I think 2015 or 2014 it was.

00:46That was my first celebrity wedding.

00:48And I think the first big celebrity wedding which was not a real wedding,

00:52it was in Yeh Jawani Hai Divani where we directed the Kabira song.

00:55And then soon after that we did Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli's wedding

00:59and that took us to another stratosphere of success.

01:03My wife.

01:06Can I say this again?

01:07My wife.

01:08We then did a bunch, we did Jaspreet Bumrah's wedding

01:11and Rajkumar Rao's wedding and then Katrina Kaif's wedding

01:14and Nayantara's wedding and Siddhant Kiara's wedding

01:16and all these fancy beautiful people who get married and we get very lucky.

01:20I love you baby.

01:21He loves you.

01:24I love you baby.

01:26Deepika told you on the set of Yeh Jawani Hai Divani

01:28that she would want you to cover her wedding right?

01:31So one night while we were playing Pictionary between shots on Yeh Jawani Hai Divani

01:35Deepika whispered into my ear and said

01:37would you shoot my wedding when it does happen?

01:40And I started blushing because I couldn't.

01:42I was just like wow how sweet.

01:46And lo and behold when it was happening

01:48many years later she texted me and she's like

01:51I want you to shoot my wedding and I was flattered beyond belief.

01:56Life came a full circle.

01:58Suddenly there's a sense of belonging, there's a sense of responsibility

02:02that just makes it really solid.

02:04You feel complete.

02:06Which has been the most fun wedding for you to cover?

02:08One of my favourites would be Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh's wedding.

02:11It happened in one of my favourite locations in Lake Como.

02:14The Italian food, the wine, the weather, the people.

02:20I felt very much a part of the family and the wedding itself.

02:25Which wedding coverage gave the biggest push to your business?

02:29I think Anushka Sharma's wedding was the first Bollywood wedding

02:33that was released on Instagram and Bluetooth.

02:36I think when that came out it went global.

02:39The fact that we could make music for the wedding.

02:41The fact that a celebrity wedding could be simple yet beautiful yet ethereal.

02:45Indian weddings didn't have to be a thousand people and a big festival.

02:50It could also be intimate and stunning.

02:52I think that's what changed the game for Indian weddings.

02:54Since then I've seen a drastic shift in bridal entries, aesthetics, flowers

02:59and even the type of garlands people use.

03:01All have been heavily inspired by Anushka and Virat's wedding.

03:05Do you think it also set off a trend of the kind of wedding people wanted?

03:10Even regular people.

03:13Then how do you keep originality when you're doing other weddings?

03:16Things don't go viral by making up or imitating a celebrity wedding.

03:22Things go viral by heartfelt moments and by keeping it real

03:26and doing something that is true to you.

03:28Not by imitating what other people did.

03:32I think chasing a trend is never going to work.

03:35Being a trendsetter yourself means creating something original every time you do it.

03:38Can you share some anecdotes from the weddings you've covered of celebrities?

03:42One of the things I learnt very early on if you're shooting weddings

03:45is you have to take a 100% advance.

03:47Because once what happened is a couple got divorced

03:50but they got divorced before I could give them their wedding film.

03:53Which was just a few months after they got married.

03:55And I think he was caught cheating on her.

03:57And I think then what happened was I didn't get paid the rest of the money.

04:02So I had to change my contracts and redo them so that now I get paid a 100% advance.

04:07Because the 50% advance thing just doesn't work.

04:09It's a matter of the heart.

04:10What are some of the challenges you face when you're filming celeb weddings?

04:14I think the biggest challenge filming celebrity weddings would be

04:18trying to make them look like film stars

04:21without all the natural light and without all the artificial lighting

04:25and the filmmaking props and the filmmaking sets.

04:27And trying to impress them with a wedding film.

04:30Because they're so used to seeing themselves on screen

04:33with amazing lighting and makeup and all of that.

04:35And is there also challenges related to how much privacy has to be maintained?

04:42Privacy with celebrity weddings is a big deal.

04:45You can land up in serious trouble if word leaks out because of you.

04:49So being extra cautious with who you tell about the weddings you're filming.

04:53Also I think another problem with celebrity weddings is the layers of security

04:57and spot boys and managers you have to get through before you get to a bride.

05:01When you do a normal person's wedding you have to talk to the mother,

05:03the father, the cousins to get access to the bride.

05:05But here there's also spot boys and security guards and police

05:08and all sorts of people you have to go through.

05:10So that's difficult but I think we find a way of wiggling our way through it.

05:14You said that it's born out of love.

05:16The wedding film is born out of love.

05:18But then you went through a separation yourself.

05:20And you continue to cover other unions, right?

05:25So how do you cope with that?

05:27At that time it was very tricky.

05:28I think getting divorced and being a divorced wedding videographer

05:32At the beginning I was always like, what will people say?

05:35Will people think I'm fake? Am I fake?

05:37But I think I got over the insecurities of being divorced.

05:40It's okay for a relationship not to work.

05:43There was a huge learning curve from all of that.

05:46And I think what I started looking for from weddings after was

05:49if I couldn't hold it together, how did these people hold it together?

05:52And I think that's something I tried to learn from the weddings I did after.

05:56And that was where I found inspiration during that hard time.

06:01For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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