Bollywood Backstage: The Man Who Shot Virat & Anushka’s Wedding

Vishal Punjabi tells you what goes into shooting celebrity weddings.

Vishal Punjabi tells you what all goes into shooting celebrity weddings. 

(Photo: The Quint/Erum Gour) 

When Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s wedding pictures dropped, social media went berserk and everyone was talking about how beautiful they looked for (not exaggerating) at least a week. And then came this video from their wedding.

Vishal Punjabi from ‘The Wedding Filmer’ shot Virat and Anushka’s wedding. Not just that, his team has also filmed the special moments of Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, the Ambanis and Bipasha Basu and Karan Grover’s wedding functions.

The Quint spoke to Vishal Punjabi about how he and his team shoot celebrity weddings and how they manage to capture the moments.

How did you start ‘The Wedding Filmer’?

My childhood dream was to work in films. I always wanted to work in movies. I worked with Shah Rukh Khan from 2001 to 2010, and that’s the only company I’ve ever actually worked with. Everything I’ve learnt from film or everything about advertising I learnt working there. I started working with Santosh Sivan on his first film Asoka. I worked with Farah Khan on her first film. And the beauty of working with directors on their first film is that you get to learn a lot from them. And with all the experience I gained, I decided to start ‘The Wedding Filmer’ ten years later. I was getting married and I really could not afford getting a videographer for my wedding. I decided to shoot it myself with some help from my cinematographer friends. I figured nobody else could shoot it the way I could. And nobody would understand the way I would.

What’s it like shooting celebrity weddings?

With celebrity weddings the hardest part is keeping your mouth shut until the event is over. Sometimes you really want to say it but you can’t and sometimes you’re really excited, so that’s fun. The hard part about celebrity weddings is the post-production and the secrecy that goes behind it, and the privacy we have to entail while making those films so that nobody else gets to watch them but the couple. There have been celebrity weddings we have had to say no to because they’ve booked us too late and we’re not available at the time. The process of shooting every wedding is the same. I guess every bride or groom is a celebrity on the day of their wedding.

Watch the video to find out more.

Cameraperson: Sanjoy Deb
Asst. Cameraperson: Gautam Sharma
Video Editor: Veeru Krishan Mohan