Bollywood got another dreamy wedding in Rakul Preet Singh and Jackky Bhagnani’s union. And The Wedding Filmer tells Brut how it is to film such weddings.
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00:00I think the biggest challenge filming celebrity weddings would be
00:03trying to make them look like film stars.
00:06Deepika whispered into my ear and said,
00:08would you shoot my wedding when it does happen?
00:11And I started blushing.
00:13You have to take a 100% advance
00:15because once what happened is a couple got divorced
00:18but they got divorced before I could give them their wedding film,
00:20which was just a few months after they got married.
00:23And I think he was caught cheating on her.
00:25I didn't get paid the rest of the money.
00:27This is Vishal Punjabi, the wedding filmer for Brute.
00:31I love each other's company so much.
00:37Which was your first celebrity wedding?
00:39My first celebrity wedding would have been Dia Mirza's wedding
00:43way back in I think 2015 or 2014 it was.
00:46That was my first celebrity wedding.
00:48And I think the first big celebrity wedding which was not a real wedding,
00:52it was in Yeh Jawani Hai Divani where we directed the Kabira song.
00:55And then soon after that we did Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli's wedding
00:59and that took us to another stratosphere of success.
01:03My wife.
01:06Can I say this again?
01:07My wife.
01:08We then did a bunch, we did Jaspreet Bumrah's wedding
01:11and Rajkumar Rao's wedding and then Katrina Kaif's wedding
01:14and Nayantara's wedding and Siddhant Kiara's wedding
01:16and all these fancy beautiful people who get married and we get very lucky.
01:20I love you baby.
01:21He loves you.
01:24I love you baby.
01:26Deepika told you on the set of Yeh Jawani Hai Divani
01:28that she would want you to cover her wedding right?
01:31So one night while we were playing Pictionary between shots on Yeh Jawani Hai Divani
01:35Deepika whispered into my ear and said
01:37would you shoot my wedding when it does happen?
01:40And I started blushing because I couldn't.
01:42I was just like wow how sweet.
01:46And lo and behold when it was happening
01:48many years later she texted me and she's like
01:51I want you to shoot my wedding and I was flattered beyond belief.
01:56Life came a full circle.
01:58Suddenly there's a sense of belonging, there's a sense of responsibility
02:02that just makes it really solid.
02:04You feel complete.
02:06Which has been the most fun wedding for you to cover?
02:08One of my favourites would be Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh's wedding.
02:11It happened in one of my favourite locations in Lake Como.
02:14The Italian food, the wine, the weather, the people.
02:20I felt very much a part of the family and the wedding itself.
02:25Which wedding coverage gave the biggest push to your business?
02:29I think Anushka Sharma's wedding was the first Bollywood wedding
02:33that was released on Instagram and Bluetooth.
02:36I think when that came out it went global.
02:39The fact that we could make music for the wedding.
02:41The fact that a celebrity wedding could be simple yet beautiful yet ethereal.
02:45Indian weddings didn't have to be a thousand people and a big festival.
02:50It could also be intimate and stunning.
02:52I think that's what changed the game for Indian weddings.
02:54Since then I've seen a drastic shift in bridal entries, aesthetics, flowers
02:59and even the type of garlands people use.
03:01All have been heavily inspired by Anushka and Virat's wedding.
03:05Do you think it also set off a trend of the kind of wedding people wanted?
03:10Even regular people.
03:13Then how do you keep originality when you're doing other weddings?
03:16Things don't go viral by making up or imitating a celebrity wedding.
03:22Things go viral by heartfelt moments and by keeping it real
03:26and doing something that is true to you.
03:28Not by imitating what other people did.
03:32I think chasing a trend is never going to work.
03:35Being a trendsetter yourself means creating something original every time you do it.
03:38Can you share some anecdotes from the weddings you've covered of celebrities?
03:42One of the things I learnt very early on if you're shooting weddings
03:45is you have to take a 100% advance.
03:47Because once what happened is a couple got divorced
03:50but they got divorced before I could give them their wedding film.
03:53Which was just a few months after they got married.
03:55And I think he was caught cheating on her.
03:57And I think then what happened was I didn't get paid the rest of the money.
04:02So I had to change my contracts and redo them so that now I get paid a 100% advance.
04:07Because the 50% advance thing just doesn't work.
04:09It's a matter of the heart.
04:10What are some of the challenges you face when you're filming celeb weddings?
04:14I think the biggest challenge filming celebrity weddings would be
04:18trying to make them look like film stars
04:21without all the natural light and without all the artificial lighting
04:25and the filmmaking props and the filmmaking sets.
04:27And trying to impress them with a wedding film.
04:30Because they're so used to seeing themselves on screen
04:33with amazing lighting and makeup and all of that.
04:35And is there also challenges related to how much privacy has to be maintained?
04:42Privacy with celebrity weddings is a big deal.
04:45You can land up in serious trouble if word leaks out because of you.
04:49So being extra cautious with who you tell about the weddings you're filming.
04:53Also I think another problem with celebrity weddings is the layers of security
04:57and spot boys and managers you have to get through before you get to a bride.
05:01When you do a normal person's wedding you have to talk to the mother,
05:03the father, the cousins to get access to the bride.
05:05But here there's also spot boys and security guards and police
05:08and all sorts of people you have to go through.
05:10So that's difficult but I think we find a way of wiggling our way through it.
05:14You said that it's born out of love.
05:16The wedding film is born out of love.
05:18But then you went through a separation yourself.
05:20And you continue to cover other unions, right?
05:25So how do you cope with that?
05:27At that time it was very tricky.
05:28I think getting divorced and being a divorced wedding videographer
05:32At the beginning I was always like, what will people say?
05:35Will people think I'm fake? Am I fake?
05:37But I think I got over the insecurities of being divorced.
05:40It's okay for a relationship not to work.
05:43There was a huge learning curve from all of that.
05:46And I think what I started looking for from weddings after was
05:49if I couldn't hold it together, how did these people hold it together?
05:52And I think that's something I tried to learn from the weddings I did after.
05:56And that was where I found inspiration during that hard time.
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