Hyderabad: After 2 yrs, bells ring for wedding industry

Hyderabad: After a lull of about two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and with no restrictions this wedding season, the 'big fat Indian weddings' are back on cards. Function halls, banquet halls and open grounds across the city are witnessing hectic schedules as people have now started holding grand-scale weddings. Bride and groom families are looking forward to host big-day celebrations after a break of two years.

Function and banquet halls in places like Bandlaguda, Mehdipatnam, Tolichowki, Ring Road, Shamshabad and several others areas in the city have been fully booked for weddings for the next two months. Some areas in the city also witnessed Night Baarat with many dancing with joy, which was then followed by a wedding reception.

The city houses around 800 function halls which now were decorated with festive lights and flowers. According to reports, over 9,000 weddings take place across the city during the wedding season which usually begins after Ramzan and lasts before the monsoon begins. Daily over 400 to 500 weddings take place in the city.

"After two years, people are back with the grand-scale celebrations of their big day," said Aleem Khan Falaki of Socio Reforms.

Mohammed Masiuddin, a bride's father at Red Hills said that in 2021, the wedding of his son was fixed, and he decided not to put off and hold his wedding in a low-fete a simple Nikah at his residence by trimming the guest list owing to the restrictions. "This year, with no restrictions, I am holding a wedding of my last daughter in a grand scale with over 1,000 guests and booked a hall at Ring road in Attapur. The wedding is on May 20," he added.

"As there were restrictions in the last two years and no extravaganza in weddings was observed, now with no restrictions full band-baaja-baaraat is here and huge gathering has also turned the wedding festivities extra-large. Fully decorated cars and baggis, lights and baaratis dancing were observed in various weddings across the city," said Diya Katri, who was seen attending the wedding of her friend.

Meanwhile, Baba Khan, an owner of the function hall at Old City said, "Usually, our business depends only on the marriage season and the past two years of the pandemic had hit us hard. Now with no Covid cases and restrictions we are looking forward to our revival."

Zafer Ali, a manager at Rose Garden said banquet and function halls, which suffered the most during the pandemic, have bounced back to business. "We will host at least 20-30 weddings as things have got back to normalcy now. Weddings are one of the biggest revenue generators for us and we had suffered a lot during the pandemic. The business is reviving now."

"Apart from function halls, workers, waiters, tent house and catering companies are back to business this wedding season," said Kareem, an owner of a tent house.