India's designers at Nepali wedding

KATHMANDU: Some of India's top names in the field of fashion are working overnight for what promises to be the most India-Nepal happening thing - the fairy-tale wedding of a Nepali aristocrat and former royal fiancée to one of India's former royal families.

Indian ace designer Raghavendra Rathore faces the challenging task of modernising an antique wedding dress to make it the centre of attraction on February 23, when Devyani Rana will say yes to Indian Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh's grandson Aishwarya Singh.

Devyanai was the girl Nepal's late crown prince Dipendra had wanted to marry.

The wedding is to be attended by the who's who of India and Nepal, and, reports say even the former king of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchuk as well as a sheikh from West Asia.

The wedding dress then has to be something really extraordinary.

So the 34-year-old bride and her mother, Usha Rana, sister of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, have hit upon the idea of fetching out the wedding dress of one of Devyani's grandmothers from the family closet.

A red velvet gown has rich zardozi work and a sweeping train encrusted with priceless gems. But the gown will have to be made longer to accommodate the modern-day bride's high heels.

So Rathore has the daunting task of fitting out the border with matching lace to give the dress a longer look without clashing with the original material.

An exclusive French designer based in Mumbai, who does only about 20 saris a year for the creme de la crème of Indian society, is designing the red sari Devyani will wear for her swayamvar ceremony, to be held on February 22.

To cost nearly Rs.900,000, the sari will be complemented with the sparkling tiara of the bride's ancestors as well as the fabulous Rana jewellery that stays mostly locked up in safes.

An Indian interior designer has been roped in to design a spectacular vivah mandap (wedding platform) at the Gwalior House opposite New Delhi's Hyatt Hotel to host the wedding that will have over 5,000 guests.

A Gorkha band of soldiers of the Indian Army will play during dinner after the wedding while the chefs for the feast will be flown in from Lucknow and Kathmandu. The feast will have 84 traditional dishes served on silver and gold platters.

However, the bride's male relatives, including her father Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, grandson of the last all-powerful Rana prime minister of Nepal and head of Nepal's biggest opposition party, will stick to traditional Nepali attire: the daura suruwal - tight trousers and long shirt, and Nepali cap.

Also, the most important item in the wedding - the traditional grass garland with which the bride will choose her husband during the swayamvar ceremony - will be flown in from Kathmandu a day before the event.

While there will be a reception, mostly for Nepal's political leaders, in Kathmandu at a later auspicious date, the wedding itself is being held in the New Delhi due to several considerations.

With Devyani's indelible link to the luckless Nepali crown prince who is reported to have killed his royal parents, siblings and other family members due to their opposition to the marriage, Nepal holds dark memories for Devyani and her families.

Also, there is the memory of the disturbance at another illustrious wedding in Kathmandu last year.

When former Nepal Army chief Gen Pyar Jung Thapa's daughter wedded a scion of the Gaekwad family of India in Kathmandu last year, one of the three-day feats was marred by disturbances.

With the army supporting King Gyanendra's coup in 2005 and his 15-month authoritarian rule marked by arbitrary arrests, torture and disappearances, Gen Thapa had come under a cloud.