International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanities

ISSN 2277 – 9809 (online) ISSN 2348 - 9359 (Print)

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Shri Param Hans Education & Research Foundation Trust

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IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809

Indian Industry- A Growing Opportunity

By Deepika Jindal Assistant Professor, Commerce

Daulat Ram College, Delhi University

ABSTRACT

Weddings which were just simple ceremonies in earlier days, have now become a lavish and grandeur affair. In case of Indian it‘s the moment for which the families eagerly await, as wedding not only signifies the tying of knot between the and groom but alliances between the families. Indian weddings are a family affair with multiple events lasting for days. Globalisation and technological advancements have also left their mark on Indian weddings with people opting for customised weddings, matrimonial sites for match making, designer bridal outfits, jewellery, international destinations for honeymoon and etc. This has created an exhaustive list of arrangements which need to be planned, decided and organised for the success of a wedding. This has led to the establishment of Indian wedding as an Industry with a corporate angle. The paper focuses on change in trends which have occurred in organising the arrangements of Indian wedding and how this has created growth opportunities for various professional and small scale businesses such as Wedding planners, beauty consultants, caterers, matrimonial sites and many more.

KEYWORDS

Indian wedding Industry, Changing trends, Services, Ceremonies, Planning

INTRODUCTION

Indian wedding is one of the main highlights for the whole family, where it is not just the bride and the groom tying the knot but also an alliance between the families is established. It is an event which is eagerly awaited by the parents when their son or daughter is going to get married and how will they host the wedding, which guests to invite and what gifts they will give and so

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 107 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 on. In their minds they conceptualise the whole wedding before even their child reaches the marriageable age.

In , the wedding style varies from religion to religion, region to region, each having its own sets of customs, traditions and ways in which ceremonies are performed. For this paper, we will be focussing on Hindu and Punjabi weddings being organised in Delhi. The Indian wedding is not just a one day event but lasts for many days with multiple events. Besides the actual wedding ceremony i.e. called vivaah sanskar, they are various pre wedding and post wedding rituals. The various steps which are performed in a wedding are as follows:

1. Searching for Prospective Bride/ Groom: In case of arrange marriages the first step is to look for prospective bride or groom. In earlier days, marriage brokers, pundits, family members, matrimonial columns in the newspapers were the ways used to search for the ideal life partner. The experienced and senior members of the family were the main decision makers while the person getting married had not much say in it.

2. Pre Wedding Phase The pre wedding phase consists of shopping for wedding outfits, jewellery, gifts; deciding about the invitation cards and guest lists; and arrangements for venue, caterers, tents, decoration. Besides that various ceremonies are also held at this time.  Roka: is basically the betrothal ceremony, a low key affair involving closed family members usually conducted at home of the bride where both the families meet, gifts are exchanged and followed by a celebration meal.  Sagan: is the one of most important ceremony which is usually done on large scale as compare to roka. It involves tilak ceremony and godh bharai where the bride‘s family gave gifts to the groom and that of groom‘s family to the bride. This is followed by exchange of rings which signifies they are engaged to each other.  Sangeet: Indian weddings are incomplete without music and dance. They are nightly sangeet with singing, dancing and general celebrations at both bride and groom‘s house.  Mehandi: is the ceremony where intricate designs are made with on the girl‘s hands and feet as well the rest of the ladies in the family.

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 Others: Besides the above they other small ceremonies such as haldi, chura ceremonies and many other small rituals to bless the bride and the groom.

3. Wedding Ceremonies Accompanied with dance, music, sweets and delicious food, the following ceremonies are performed:  Milni: It is the day when the bride and groom tie the knot. It starts with the welcoming of the groom‘s party: where shaagun- cash gift are given and garlands are exchanged between the male members of the bride and groom‘s side.  Jaymala: is when bride and groom come to the stage and garlands are exchanged between them, amidst the laughter and jokes going on between the bride and groom‘s family members.  Mangal Pheras: At the auspicious time, vedi ceremonies takes place which includes kanyadaan where the bride of the father hands over his daughter to the groom. Also the bride and groom make promise to be there for each other with mantras being recited in Sanskrit.

4. Post wedding Ceremonies  Vidaai: It is the time when the bride bids farewell to her parents and proceeds towards the groom‘s house in a decorate car.  Welcoming of the bride: The bride is welcomed at the groom‘s house with a puja and then the various female members of the groom‘s family give her gifts known as Mooh Dikhai. This is at times followed by a reception party.

This is how the Indian weddings take place and in earlier times all the ceremonies were done in simple ways and organised by involvement of all the family members of both the sides. But now days, the style in which Indian weddings are organised has changed and it has become an Industry in itself. Further on, this paper will focus on the change in trends in Indian wedding industry and how it‘s creating opportunity for various businesses to grow. In today‘ s time, weddings are being organised on a lavish scale with more pomp and show, technological advancements and bollywood style, where there is no end to the amount of

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money being spend. The Indian wedding has established itself as a full flourishing Industry of Rs 100,000 to 110,000 crores which is growing annually at the rate of 25 to 30 percent with every season. There has been change in the trend on how the various ceremonies are conducted; the scale on which they are held; amount of money spend on various wedding related goods and services; increase in demand for customisation and designer style.

OBJECTIVES

1. To study the changing trends in Indian wedding in the last two decades and its establishment as an Industry 2. To study how theses change in trends in Indian wedding arrangements have created growth opportunities for various professionals, small scale and large scale businesses.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

As India is a land of diverse culture and religion, so when it comes to wedding, every region and religion has its own customs in organising a wedding. The study is confined to Indian wedding scenario in Delhi and that to Hindu and Punjabi weddings.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study is based on secondary data as well as on primary data. The primary data collection method includes unstructured telephonic interviews with professionals and businessmen involved in providing wedding related goods and services in Delhi.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In India, marriages implied arrange marriages only, a union between two families. Arranged marriage is held within the literature as the dominant and preferred method of finding a partner in India (Medora, 2003: 214; Seth and atnayakuni, 2011: 332; Sharangpani, 2010: 252). Uberoi (2006: 24) estimates that 90% of Indian marriages are arranged. 'Arranged marriage' can be summarised as a marital alliance formed by elder family members through existing social networks, or with the help of third parties, in which specific characteristics are considered in order to find a 'suitable match' (including caste, education, social status, financial security, career prospects, religion, and so forth). An arranged marriage therefore does not concern only the

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 110 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 individuals to be married, but is commonly regarded as a 'marriage between two families.' Arranged marriage thus becomes a collective 'practical consideration [of matchmaking criteria] in the selection of mates rather than … romantic love' (Gupta, 1976: 77).It is in recent times of globalisation and technological advancement we see the emergence of love marriages as more and more people are meeting online and getting married

Netscribes (India) Pvt. Ltd. (2011) in their report ―Wedding Planning Industry in India 2011‖ views that the wedding industry in India thrives largely on the Indian notion of characterizing marriage as a singular high-point in one‘s life. In a bid to make one‘s wedding unique wedding planning industry derives a reasonable demand owing to their professionalism and touch of precision to make the entire process smooth. Rise in disposable income coupled with time constraints that people face has led to the development of the wedding planning sector in India. Many would even agree that, ―a wedding is the celebration of a lifetime, and whether that celebration is a grand fete for hundreds or an intimate gathering of family and friends, it is a day when dreams come true‖ (Davis, 2000, p. 8). The feeling of a dream wedding as a necessity intensifies the lavishness of weddings each year. Significantly more money is spent to create a dream wedding (Otnes & Pleck, 2003). The budget allotted to wedding reflects the social status of that family in the society.

Wedding trends are changing throughout the year and greatly influenced by societal factors in terms of what practices are being followed by the local community as well as the famous personalities such as Bollywood stars and Business tycoons. This paper will familiarise the prospective bride and grooms with the recent trends as well provide insights to opportunities for businesses who want to become part of this Indian wedding Industry.

DATA ANALYSIS

CHANGE IN TRENDS IN INDIAN WEDDING PLANNING

They are many changes which have occurred in Indian wedding arena which has created an opportunity for more business in wedding related goods and services and led to establishment of Indian wedding Industry. The same is reflected by analysis the trends in these services and arrangements as given below:

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1. Matrimonial Services: In order to search the ideal life partner, prospective brides and grooms are using the medium of matrimonial sites. These are online portals where one can by uploading their details, photograph and partners preference and can search the website database based on various criteria such as location, religion, occupation and etc. This way they can find their ideal life partner. The various matrimonial sites are shaadi.com, bharatmatrimonial.com, jeevansaathi.com, vivah.com and etc. The various packages which are commonly provided by all these sites include free registration, fee- based utilities (e-matchmaking, online chatting, email/SMS alerts), personalize services, community specific search, horoscope matching, marriage counselling and many more. They are month wise packages and price can vary from Rs 3600 for 3months to 8100 for 9 months. The details of the various matrimonial sites are given below:

They are also specific categories matrimonial sites for people who are divorced, have recovered from cancer, are in the age group of 40-50s and etc. Besides these matrimonial sites, networking sites such as facebook.com, twitter.com are also being used to gather matrimonial information. The advantage of using such medium is that they can be accessed anywhere, widens the area of search and gives opportunity to interact with more people. The market share of Indian online

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 112 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 matrimonial business was 540 crores in December 2013 and is expected to grow to 720 crores by 2017 as per NASSCOM.

2. Pre matrimonial investigation: Parents are now hiring detectives to do investigation about the suitors, so as to get more background information about the other party. The request for information varies from lifestyle, habits, income, past relationship and family‘s social reputation. Also certain times, bride‘s parent request information regarding mother in law habits and her reputation.

“There are around 15,000 such companies offering across India, conducting an average of 50-100 investigations a month during peak wedding season”, says Kumar Vikram Singh, chairman of the Association of Private Detectives of India (APDI)

The reason for increase of such service is due to increase in no. of fraudulent cases being reported and now days due to online sites where the couple meet, the involvement of parents has become less. The investigation usually lasts for a month and each case costs around Rs 25000- Rs. 40000. Methods include surveillance, disguises, social network tracking and etc.

3. Wedding Shopping: The most important part of wedding is shopping for clothes, jewellery, matching accessories, wedding trousseau not just for the main occasion but for various events be it mehandi, sangeet, engagement or cocktail. There is an increase in demand for designer wears by Sabyasacchi, Ritu Kumar, and Tarun Tahilini to name a few. They not only provide the option to buy from their stores but one can purchase online through their website. The groom as well as the relatives of both the sides goes shopping hunting to find the right designer wear for each occasion. They are fashion shows such as Bridal Fashion Week as well as Bridal

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 113 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 exhibitions are being held during wedding season where buyers gets the chance to see bridal collection of clothes, jewellery and accessories. The exhibitors not only include famous designers but various fashion boutiques located in different parts of India.

Senior couturier JJ Valaya, who opened India Bridal Week earlier this year, says that the wedding wear industry is “clearly the champion” when it comes to couture in India. “Anyone who is serious about lasting long here will have to get into bridal wear,” says Valaya. The designer‟s two main collections, which are released every year, have an 80% „ethnic couture‟ component.

The range of designer bridal offer varies from Rs 40,000 to 50 lakhs or more. For some of the designers their main the source of earning comes from wedding season. The gold and diamond market is worth Rs 60,000 crores and peak time of sale is during the wedding season.

4. Beauty Services: The demand for beauty consultants, make- up artists, dieticians, gym instructors increases during the wedding season as both the bride and groom wants to look ravishing and their best on the wedding functions. There are various pre bridals and make up packages which include various services being offered ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 50000. The dieticians are being approached where the married couple wants to slim down in 2-3 months; packages offered by them vary from Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 per month. Then they are beauty consultants who are also being approached for services such as scar remover, skin treatment and etc. This has created opportunity for these small scale parlours and consultants to expand their services during wedding season and many of them provide discounts too.

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5. Mehandi: Even though the Mehandi ceremony is traditional but the designs of Henna are no longer limited to intricate motifs. With globalisation, there is emergence of new styles of mehandi such as Arabic style, Persian style, designer style, red mehandi, tattoo mehandi and etc. The bridal mehandi costs from Rs 2000 to Rs 21000 depending on the intricacy of design and type of mehandi. For the rest of wedding members it is charged at Rs 75- 150 per hand.

6. Invitation Cards: The market is worth Rs 10,000 crores annually. The cost of each invite varies from Rs 500 to Rs 1500. Delhi has more than 500 card printers and as well they are many online sites providing not only the option of designing cards but also the option to manage the guest lists and deliver the cards. In case of invitation cards, the trend of giving invites with sweets has long gone. Now days, people are asking for customised cards with their photos printed. When it comes to boxes accompanying the invitations, it doesn‘t contain the traditional sweets, but have itaar, kesar or chocolates, cakes, pastry. This has expanded the market for local chocolate and cake makers who operate on a small scale.

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7. Arrangement of Functions: As discussed, Indian wedding is not just one day celebration but consists of multi events which last for a week or more. The events such as roka, sangeet are no longer small scale functions are organised at home. For each function, families have to decide majorly about the venue, tents, decorations and caterers. a. Venues: Destination weddings are the highlight of Indian wedding where the whole wedding party relocates at a specific place for wedding period to celebrate the various functions. The famous destination places are palaces of Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and beaches of Kerala or Goa. The cost of destination wedding usually goes up to Rs 1 to 2 crores as it involves travelling and hotel arrangements for guests. The other venues for wedding are Farm houses, banquet halls and hotels. A five-star venue for 400 guests can be hired at Rs 16 lakhs per day without food and decorations while that of Banquet hall turns around 1 to 2 lakhs.

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b. Tents & Decorations: With the trend of theme based wedding, the design of tents involves elaborative and innovative structures such as palaces, the Seven Wonders of the World and etc. There is detailed attention paid to lightening, fabrics, furniture and decoration being done. There is no limit one can spend on tent and decorations. In certain areas of Delhi, the tent providers set up the wedding tents for the whole season in open field where many wedding can be conducted. This saves them the cost of removing and putting structure again. Even in case of indoor wedding, miniature tents are being put up. The entry of bride and groom is more like bollywood style with both of them entering in separate chariots like pearls in an oyster. Also, the groom style is welcomed by giving roses or key chains to ladies and stoles or brooches to gentlemen. c. Caterers: The food being served has no limits to types of cuisines being served at the wedding. The trend is of multi cuisine which includes Indian cuisines such as North Indian, South Indian, Rajasthani, Malwari and International cuisines such as Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Lebanese and etc. The catering food is the one thing which instead of being eaten by guests, eats

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 117 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 away the budget. The weddings have been highly criticised for the amount of wastage of food being made. The cost of plate varies from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 per head.

8. Entertainment: Indian weddings are incomplete without dance and music. The time has changed when randomly people used to dance without any script. The services of professional choreographers are being hired to teach dance to bride, groom and family members of all age groups who perform at the functions. They even prepare scripts and make a story line giving it the Bollywood style. The fee charged by them is in the range from Rs 4000 to Rs 10,000 depending on how many songs have to be choreographed and duration of the performance. In certain lavish weddings, the bollywood stars and singers come to perform which can cost from Rs 20 lakhs to Rs 1 crores depending on the popularity of stars. Besides there is performance by small scale dance groups as well as music by DJs which costs around Rs 5000 or more.

9. Photographers: The services of the photographers are not just limited to shoot videos and captures photos of the entire wedding. They are providing new bundle of services such as printing posters of the couple which are displayed at the wedding venue, shooting Bollywood style video of couple which is shown during the wedding function and providing frame photographs of guests which can be given as memento to guests after the wedding and etc. the cost of photography and Videography varies from Rs 60,000 to Rs 2.5 lacks or more depending on no. of photographers, duration and album type selected. This market is growing at the rate of 35 to 40 percent annually.

10. Wedding Planners: The most important change in the wedding Industry is emergence of Event management companies or the wedding planners who make all the arrangements of wedding from start to end as mentioned above. With hectic schedule and limited time, it becomes difficult for people to make so many arrangements of wedding; hence the demand to outsource it has increased. The wedding planners provide customised wedding within the budget specified. In Delhi, they are many wedding planners with their own team partners who plan

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 118 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 wedding of different scale and they usually charge a commission of around 10% total wedding cost. They are the team behind the lavish and dream like weddings.

FINDINGS

 The wedding arena in India has establish itself into an Industry with the emergence of globalisation, information technology, change in consumer behaviour and need of people to make a social statement with a extravagant and lavish wedding

 The last two decades have seen various changes in Indian wedding industry with planning and organisation and has created the increase in demand of Event management companies or the wedding planners.

 There is emergence of Customisation in Indian wedding services, where wedding planners try to map the wedding dream of prospective bride and groom within the budget set for marriages.

 The changes in trends has opened avenues for new players such as Choreographers, Dieticians, Beauty Consultants as well led to expansion of new bundle of services being provided by photographers, fashion designers, detectives, hotels and etc.

CONCLUSION

Indian wedding Industry is over 100, 000 crores industry which is growing at the rate of 25 to 30 percent every year. With the population of 1.5 billion people, they are currently 10 million marriages being held every year. The weddings here are a family celebration which includes multiple events spread over a period of 7 to 8 days. This involves making lot of arrangements to get that perfect fairy tale like wedding which every parents dreams to give to their child be it a girl or boy. Also this is an era of romantic consumerism where the bride and groom want to have

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 119 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 that Bollywood and TV serial type of wedding which is being promoted on a large scale. This had led to making arrangements by employing professional for providing goods and services related to wedding. Thus we saw the emergence of new players and new bundle of services being provided by existing players which has given the golden opportunity for professionals and businessmen of both large and small scale to make the best use of this change in trends in Indian wedding scenario.

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 Davis, N. (2000). Bridal style. Southport, CT: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates.

 Gupta, G. R. (1976), 'Love, arranged marriage and the Indian social structure', Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 7 (1), 75-85

 Mehra, Mishtha ( 2011). How you can spend as little as Rs 10 lakh and still have a great wedding. The Economic Times. Retrieved from December 30, 2013 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-11 13/news/30391493_1_destination- weddings-wedding-budget-big-fat

 Otnes, C., & Pleck, E. H. (2003). Cinderella dreams: The allure of the lavish wedding. Berkeley: University of California Press

 Uberoi, P. (1998), 'The diaspora comes home: Disciplining desire in DDLJ', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 32 (2), 305-336

 Vaidyanath, Rajni. (2011), India's 'wedding detectives' enjoy booming trade, BBC News. Retrieved from December 25, 2013 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-radio-and-tv- 15520929

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