BELGIUM, EUROPE, September 4, 2002: A US$15.6 million Indian wedding in Belgium has hit headlines in Europe for setting a new benchmark for “opulence and innovation.” For a few days, Antwerp became a Bollywood fantasy for the double wedding of Vishal and Priya Shah, son and daughter of Vijay Shah, one of the biggest diamond dealers in the world, and brother of Bollywood producer Bharat Shah. Bollywood set designer Nitin Desai transformed an entire exhibition building, Nekkerhal, into a Rajasthani palace 1,000 feet long, 300 feet wide and 60 feet tall. The fiberglass moulding took 250 workers six weeks to make at Film City in Mumbai. The food was strictly vegetarian, but guests had a choice of Chinese, Italian, Lebanese and Indian. “Vijay Shah basically gave me a free hand,” Desai told the Daily Telegraph. “He told me, ‘We want the best.’ ”
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