'Prateeksha' awaits wedding!

The National Flag which flies on all the Bachchans' properties from dawn to sunset shows the family's pride in our country. But the flag which flies on Prateeksha, the original residence of the Bachchans had suddenly disappeared from the pole two days back. It got us really worried. But now, it's up there flying again, and looking freshly laundered. Yes, looks like the Bachchans are not leaving any inch of their house or terrace untouched by the wedding revelry. Naturally, an absolutely sparkling clean National Flag is what we all want to see flying all the time. So before getting on to the actual dressing up of the house, this was top priority.

Looks like the preparations are getting underway slowly but surely. Early morning, for the past two days, a truck stops outside the Prateeksha bungalow offloading mandap samaan. From iron poles, to aluminum sheets were off-loaded both yesterday and today. A thin stream of workers are seen entering the house at odd hours of the afternoon.

Obviously the Bachchans want this to be a real low-key affair and the press only has to get a whiff of what is happening before they descend on them in full glory, which is perhaps why the preparations have started nearly a fortnight earlier.

Meanwhile the couple in the eye of the storm Abhishek- Aishwarya are in the UK for the world premiere of Provoked.

Here is what the media is planning for Ash-Abhi wedding
No wedding in Bollywood has received so much media attention. Not even Amitabh-Jaya wedding invoked so much curiosity. With the Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding, every news medium, print, net and broadcast is churning out stories by the dozen. Insiders in the Bachchan family who have trusted media friends have confided that half of it is hogwash. It's all speculation and the result of fertile imaginations. We check out with TV channels if they have any special plans to cover the wedding.

Parag Chappekar (India TV)
We are planning some exclusive stories related to wedding which is not based on speculation because there are stories which are cooked and we want to focus basically on news not speculation. Now that 20th April date is fixed for the marriage, we have to place OB vans. We will plan the whole set-up once we get closer to the date. We will place reporters at both bungalows. We are using only one OB van as fortunately there is not much distance between the two bungalows. We will start the coverage from 18 April but not 24 hrs, but we will keep a watch on the place.

See if we see this as a Bollywood story, then it's the biggest story ever. A celebrity family and a celebrity couple is getting married so it's a big story fo the media but there are other more important stories on national level so theses stories will be done on regular segments.

Rajeev Masand (CNN-IBN)
Being an English channel, we are not going to cover the way the Hindi channels would cover the event. As of now no such plans to cover it yes it's a big event but depends really on the day of wedding how it happens.

Seema Sinha (Zoom TV)
We are getting new clothes stitched, hiring a detective agency to get the details; we are also renting a chopper and going to the top storeys of all the adjoining buildings to snap the visuals. On a more serious note Zoom believes in covering the sphere of entertainment completely but we give balanced coverage directly proportionate to the viewer interest in the story and the strategy for Ash-Abhi wedding is exactly the same way.

Aaj Tak Reporter
Reporter from Aaj Tak who did not wish to be named said, "I saw an Amitabh Bachchan interview that there is no such event happening in his family then why should media plan. If Ash-Abhi wedding is happening then definitely we are going to cover. For me it's a another event in Bollywood it's nothing special in it.

Chandrika Bhattacharya & Deepak Tiwari

Friday, 6 April, 2007