Bengaluru, DHNS: Pujas begin on sets that replicate Hampi, mining town at Palace Grounds. The preliminary puja rituals of the much talked about wedding celebrations of mining baron G Janardhana Reddy’s daughter took place at Palace Grounds in Benglauru on Saturday.

The event, as expected, was no simple affair. Termed the ‘biggest and fattest’ wedding that Bengaluru has ever seen, the four-day celebrations started off on the elaborate sets that have been created by artist Shashidhar Adappa and team.

Reddy’s family and friends flew in from Ballari in a special aircraft in time to get decked up for the celebrations, which started at 7.30 pm.

As many as eight priests from the Tirumala Tirupati temple, brought to the city specially for the wedding, performed puja to Lord Venkateshwara, which happens to be Reddy’s family deity.

The rituals were performed by Reddy and his wife Aruna in the ‘Purandara Mantapa’ set, which has been recreated to resemble the actual temple in the ruins of Hampi.

Monuments recreated
All of the iconic monuments in Hampi, the Kaul Bazaar, the rural life of Ballari, including the school in which Reddy studied (Honnurappa), have been recreated by artists on the 36-acre space on the ground, which has been rented by Reddy for the grand affair.

Sets resembling bungalows for the bride and bridegroom, too have been created. Top film stars of Tollywood and Bollywood are expected to perform cultural programmes. But so far, there is no confirmation on this.

The Vasanthnagar entrance to the wedding venue has been under guard for the last two days, with news hungry media personnel kept out of the venue.

As many as 1.5 lakh people are expected to attend the wedding over the next three days.

While a special team has been assigned to select events for media coverage, two huge counters have been set up for food - one for VVIPs and another for the public. There is also a VVIP gallery for the who’s who to witness the celebrations