Esha Deol and Bharat Takhtani at their wedding June 29 at the ISKCON temple in Mumbai

Esha Marries Bharat in Lavish, Star-Studded Ceremony

In typical “band baaja baraat” style, veteran Indian actors Hema Malini and Dharmendra’s daughter Esha tied the knot June 29 with businessman Bharat Takhtani in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony.

The Bandra-based groom came to the venue on a white horse before the couple took the marriage vows around a sacred fire.

Wearing a Kanjeevaram saree, Hema and her husband Dharmendra, looking dapper in a suit, welcomed the groom at the temple.
Esha and Bharat got married in South Indian style at the ISKCON temple in Juhu here.

Esha, too, was clad in a red and gold Kanjeevaram saree, sourced from Chennai for the wedding day by her mother, to which designer Neeta Lulla had made some changes.


The couple had been dating for quite some time and had exchanged rings Feb. 12 this year.

The wedding was the climax of three days of festivities that included a sangeet, haldi and mehndi ceremony.

Besides family members like sister Ahana and Abhay Deol, several B-town celebrities were present at the occasion including Amitabh Bachchan with son Abhishek, Manoj Kumar, Vinod Khanna, Vyjayanthimala, Ramesh Sippy, Fardeen Khan, Poonam Sinha, Madhoo, Anu Malik, and designer Neeta Lulla and her daughter Nishka.
Their reception took place June 30 at the five-star Hotel Lalit drew still more personalities from the film and political worlds.


Deol siblings Sunny and Bobby were  conspicuous by their absence at the grand wedding reception  hosted by their half-sister Esha and her husband Bharat Takhtani at a five-star hotel here June 30. When asked about the absence of Sunny and Bobby, Esha’s father, Dharmendra, said, “It is our personal matter.”

 Dharmendra married Esha’s mother, Hema Malini, in 1980 without divorcing his first wife Prakash Kaur, the mother of Sunny and Bobby Deol.

Among the glitterati who attended the reception were  veteran actors Dilip Kumar and his wife Saira Banu, Jeetendra,  Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Salman Khan, besides Tusshar Kapoor,
Sanjay Khan, Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit and her husband Dr. Sriram Nene, Sushmita Sen, Tabu, Kajol, Sridevi and her  producer husband Boney Kapoor.
Actors Fardeen Khan, Anupam Kher with wife Kirron,  Shamita Shetty, Mandira Bedi and business tycoon Subrata Roy  also graced the occasion.  Politicians of all hues including L.K. Advani, Sushma  Swaraj, Chaggan Bhujbal, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Narayan Rane,  Amar Singh, Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray attended the
event. 

Sridevi, Kareena to clash at box office

Mumbai: Sridevi's comeback film English Vinglish will clash with Kareena Kapoor's much talked about Heroine at the box office as both the films are coming out Sep 21. The former's producer R. Balki is unperturbed.

Both are women-centric films - but after much deliberation, English Vinglish co-producers Balki and Eros Entertainment have decided to stick to the original release date.

While English Vinglish is directed by Balki's wife, Gauri Shindi, while Madhur Bhandarkar wielded the shot for Heroine.

"We believe every film, no matter what the gender of its protagonist, has its own audience. I am sure Madhur Bhandarkar's film (Heroine) will be very exciting. But the prospect of seeing Sridevi again is equally exciting," said Balki.

Having had his say, Balki is now ready to move into the shadows, and "let the two ladies have their say".

"I have done what I had to. I'm just the film's producer. Now it's up to Sri and Gauri to take the film to the audience," he added.

Interestingly, English Vinglish has a cameo by Bollywood's Amitabh Bachchan and he did it free of cost.

"With Amitji, I wouldn't dare to discuss money," said Balki, who For NDTV Updates,

directed the megastar in Cheeni Kum and Paa.