Gupta family the stars in #bigfatindianweddings video

03 May 2019 - 10:50 By TimesLIVE
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The Guptas have hosted another Bollywood-style wedding, this time in the UAE
The Guptas have hosted another Bollywood-style wedding, this time in the UAE
Image: Isha Films video screengrab

Lavish decor and performance artists complemented the extravagant wedding attire of the latest Gupta family members to wed, unashamedly showed off in a video teaser of the event in Abu Dhabi dubbed #bigfatindianweddings.

The clip has, however, been removed from the platform since news of its existence broke in the SA media.

Released on YouTube by Isha Films, the self-proclaimed top wedding film company in Delhi, India, the teaser showed the wedding celebrations at Emirates Palace of Rajesh "Tony" Gupta's daughter, Shubhangi Singhala. 

"Come witness the grandeur with us as the beautiful couple takes vows for an everlasting bond with the union of two families, graced by some of the well-known faces of the industry!" the company gushes.

The wedding took place in February. 

Earlier this year, the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism published the nine-page wedding invitation and said the bash was estimated to cost as much as R100m.

"The wedding is a double-feature‚ with Rajesh 'Tony' Gupta's daughter Shubhangi Singhala marrying Chetan Jain and Atul Gupta's son Srikant Singhala tying the knot with Akhya Bansal‚" amaBhungane wrote. 

In the video clip, the infamous family parties up a storm despite being at the centre of state capture allegations in SA.

The Guptas left the country for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year.

The family made headlines when it hosted the "wedding of the century" at Sun City in 2013. More than 200 guests arrived in a passenger jet that landed without permission from the military at Waterkloof Air Force Base‚ one of the country's national key points.

TimesLIVE reported in 2017 how invoices from the R30m bash‚ contained in a tranche of leaked e-mails‚ painted an astonishing picture of the family's exorbitant sweet tooth. Hazelnut milk Lindor truffles alone set taxpayers back R13‚088. The leaked e-mails revealed how the wedding was paid for with money funnelled from the Estina dairy project in the Free State to the UAE.

BusinessLIVE reported in October 2018 that Ajay Gupta‚ the eldest brother of the family that stands accused of being at the centre of state capture allegations‚ said the family had "never asked any minister for any commercial benefit".

In an in-depth interview in Dubai with the New York Times last year‚ Gupta said he would testify at the Zondo commission into state capture‚ "but not at this moment". He was quoted as saying: "I want to clear my name."


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