'Kanyadan' over, Manisha Koirala moves to husband's place

A day after exchanging wedding vows with Nepali businessman Samrat Dahal, Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala was today given a tearful 'bidai' by her parents.
   
The 'kanyadan' ceremony was a five-hour-long affair at the Gokarna forest resort, 10 km east of here, and attended by family members and Manisha's Bollywood friends Jackie Shroff, Gulshan Grover, Deepti Naval, Vivek Mushran, Suman Ranganathan and Govinda's wife Sunita among others.
   
Both Manisha and Samrat dressed in traditional Nepali attire for the occasion in which her father Prakash Koirala gave away the responsibility of his 41-year-old daughter to the 34-year-old businessman amid chants of mantras.
   
After the 'kanyadan' and a tearful send-off, Samrat took his bride to his home at Maharajgunj in a procession accompanied by a wedding band that played mostly Bollywood tunes.
   
Manisha's father Prakash said it was love marriage.

"Yes, it is a love marriage. When she asked for consent, I gave the nod as I trust her," Prakash said.
   
Spread over three days, the elaborate marriage ceremony will conclude tomorrow with a grand dinner party at Hotel Soaltee Crowne Plaza here in which about 3,000 guests have been invited including President Ram Baran Yadav, prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Maoist chief Prachanda and former King Gyanendra.
   
Yesterday the couple exchanged wedding rings and garlands in a 'swayambar' as priests recited Vedic mantras in the presence of the actress' father Prakash Koirala and mother Sushma.