The hide and seek got over as Bollywood stars Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, after two days of wedding ceremonies in the far and dreamy Lake Como setting in Italy, unveiled their first look as a married couple to the public on Thursday, immensely pleasing their army of fans.
Both Deepika and Ranveer shared two images — one each from their four-hour-long ceremony according to Konkani traditions on Wednesday and a North Indian style nuptial on Thursday.
In one picture, the two are laughing away, sharing a jovial moment during the Konkani wedding, and in another photograph from the celebration on Thursday they are all ears for each other.
Deepika looked resplendent on both occasions, dressed in Sabyasachi Mukherjee ensembles rooted in tradition as she chose red and gold as her primary colours. For the North Indian style wedding, Deepika’s head was covered with an ornate dupatta with the words ‘Sada Saubhagyavati Bhavah’ embroidered on it, while Ranveer matched up in a colour co-ordinated sherwani.
Ranveer wore pristine white for the Konkani wedding, which marked the culmination of a six year-long love story that began on the sets of the 2013 film “Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela”.
Interestingly, Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of the film’s release.
In a matter of 10 minutes of sharing the first pictures at around 8 p.m. on Thursday India time on Instagram, they jointly garnered over 4 lakh ‘likes’ as social media users were pining for a glimpse into the very private celebrations.
The couple’s film fraternity friends Farah Khan, Katrina Kaif, Farhan Akhtar, Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Hrithik Roshan and Parineeti Chopra were among several others to extend congratulatory messages.
Unlike most celebrity weddings which keep fans engrossed with social media updates, the ‘no pictures, no phones, no drones policy’ of the actors’ grand destination wedding left the media and fans yearn for a glimpse of the couple or the celebrations.
Amit, a cousin of Deepika, a daughter of badminton ace Prakash Padukone, said it has been a “magical week, steeped purely in love” for the family.
“Fairytale union of the two most kind, beautiful souls. Ranveer, welcome to the family! You’ve dethroned me as filmiest, but I’ll cope. Deepika, never seen you happier; you deserve no less,” Amit tweeted.
That, apart from some long, wide angle shots and some hazy videos from the wedding revelry, is all that people could get their eyes on.
The celebrations were as private as it could get. With a guest list of around 40, Deepika and Ranveer chose Northern Italy’s Lombardy region, a resort area known for its spectacular scenery as the backdrop for their wedding.
They were successful in hiding themselves from onlookers, using their umbrellas.
Mobile phones were not allowed outside people’s rooms and there were boats patrolling the lake for drones as part of the three-level security plan for the wedding.
Fondly called as DeepVeer by their fans, the star couple has also worked together in “Bajirao Mastani” and “Padmaavat” although they didn’t share screen space in the latter.
Before the two left for the wedding revelry to Italy last week, Deepika had a traditional puja at her Bengaluru residence while Ranveer had a ‘haldi’ ceremony at his Mumbai home.
Deepika and Ranveer exchanged rings on Monday evening in Italy. A more ‘desi’ touch to the celebrations came in with the ‘mehendi’ function on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a music-filled ‘sangeet’ the same evening.A
Singer Harshdeep Kaur, along with Sanjoy Das, Bobby Pathak and Firoz Khan, added a musical touch to the ceremony.
Poles apart from each other in personality, Deepika and Ranveer never confirmed their relationship until recently when they announced their wedding dates in October.
“We thank you for all the love you have showered upon us over the years and seek your blessings as we embark on this incredible journey of love, loyalty friendship and togetherness,” they said.
Over the years, Deepika has been a bit more reserved than Ranveer in expressing her love openly, but the “Band Baaja Baaraat” actor has been uninhibited.
The couple will have a reception each in Bengaluru and Mumbai on November 21 and 28 respectively. And on December 1, there will be a separate celebration with the film fraternity.
They have urged their guests to direct gifts in the form of a donation to Deepika’s The Live Love Laugh Foundation, which works towards spreading awareness on mental health.
After this wedding, all eyes are on Priyanka Chopra and her American singer beau Nick Jonas’ wedding, likely to happen next month.
