YOU might know little of Sahara but India-watchers could not help but notice in February the marriage of Subrata Roy’s two sons, which was celebrated jointly on St Valentine’s Day.
The billionaire pulled out all the stops for the extravaganza, held in the city of Lucknow in the impoverished state of Uttar Pradesh, in which live about 8 per cent of the world’s poor.
The wedding cost an estimated £30 million and caused almost a shutdown of the Indian film industry (all the stars were booked to appear at the nuptials).
More than 10,000 guests attended the week-long celebration of the betrothal of the 27-year-old Seemanto and the 29-year-old Sushanto to their respective sweethearts. Among the guests were Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then the Prime Minister of India, Amitabh Bachchan, the Bollywood superstar, Lord Paul, the British industrialist, Sachin Tendulkar, India’s idolised cricket batsman, and Nadia Comaneci, the Olympic gold medal-winning Romanian gymnast.
Guests were ferried about in 5,000 Mercedes limousines and were entertained by the University of Warwick Symphony Orchestra, which was flown in specially for the occasion. Sahara’s headquarters in the city was transformed into a dreamland of flowers and candles.
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Mr Roy flew guests to his private estate, Sahara City, on a fleet of Air Sahara jets, with the luggage racks stuffed with flowers.
About 1,800 chefs were hired to create the numerous banquets.
To cap the event, the tycoon then spread his generosity wider, feeding 140,000 of India’s poorest people for a day and offering free weddings to 101 couples of modest means, picked from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian families.
What does it all mean? Heaven knows, but it’s heading this way.