Are we better than the Bachchans? Vivek Oberoi’s dad, Suresh Oberoi, has been thoughtfully meeting friends and colleagues with a box of dry fruit mithai and an ethnically packed brass jar of genuine Ganga jal and rudraksh beads. The Oberois have decided to give the first marriage in the family the personal touch by going over and announcing the happy tidings to close people. “We just didn’t want to send it through the driver, it’s so impersonal,” says Suresh Oberoi. “I feel so nice telling everyone personally that my daughter (and Vivek’s sis), Meghna, got married in November.” Meghna married Amit, a businessman she met when both of them went to Kishore Namit Kapoor’s acting classes. “I have been to acting classes, so I would recommend it to everybody,” says Suresh. “It’s not just to learn acting. These classes give you an all-round grooming, your personality bursts forth and it gives you the confidence to catch hold of a mike and speak anywhere in the world.” Meghna, now on her honeymoon, is a trained singer and also a painter who’s slowly gaining recognition in the art world.

You may not see pictures of Suresh and Vivek Oberoi going bare feet to Sid- dhi Vinayak temple, but it’s an intense- ly religious family. Which explains their choice of Rishikesh as the venue for, “A very spiritual wedding with only the family attend- ing it.” It also explains the Ganga jal and the rudraksh beads (both straight from Rishikesh) that have gone out with the mithai. If the Oberois are distributing it a month after the event, it’s thanks to the sombre mood that prevailed in Mumbai after the terror attack. “I just didn’t feel like meeting people with mithai,” to quote the bride’s dad.

Meghna Oberoi’s wedding was far less ostentatious than Aishwarya and Abhishek’s, but the method of announcing it to friends who were not invited has been similar. The Bachchans had also sent out hundreds of boxes of mithai to everybody they knew, informing them of the marriage. Interestingly, there were reports last month that Vivek had invited Salman Khan and the Bachchans who had decided not to attend it. But one hears that the Oberois didn’t invite anybody at all. What they did was to send out cards announcing the marriage in Rishikesh and seeking everybody’s blessings. There was no, ‘you are cordially invited to attend’ line. But the announcement was mistaken for an invitation by the media!

Besides,Vivek has been shooting in USA for Karan Johar’s new film with Omkara co-stars, Saif and Kareena, and got only a day off to fly down for his sister’s wedding. So, reports that Vivek personally invited Salman etc stands suspect!

But Salman and Vivek do have a connection — if Salman did a film titled Yuvvraaj recently, guess what Vivek’s next film with Tips is titled? It’s Prince which means the same as yuvraj! Prince and Karan’s next will be Vivek’s releases in the New Year.

Karan Johar is already in Los Angeles where shooting for My Name Is Khan started on Dec 18. “Dharma Productions dares to go where others don’t,” Karan exulted from LA. “After infidelity and homosexuality, it’s the minority.” Kajol will fly down only in January but Shah Rukh who plays an autistic Khan should be there now. No, Khan did not figure in the first shot. Karan planned to start filming with some school children and he’s got a kid from Mumbai to play Shah Rukh and Kajol’s son. So that’s where SRK will be bringing in the New Year — with Karan in LA! Don’t be mean. Chunky-Bhavna Panday and Gauri’s entire gang will be partying together in the US this New Year’s eve, along with Shah Rukh and Karan.

The Deols are going to gather all their friends and family at their Panvel farm to ring in the New Year. After a month of lying low, filmdom is back to celebrations.

Hey, psst! The venerable Jyoti Basu’s granddaughter, Koel Basu,who has been engaged for over a year to actor Sharad Kapoor from Mumbai, will have an April, 09 wedding, Bengali style. The highpoint of Sharad’s Hindi film career was his role in Josh, along with Shah Rukh Khan. Although a Kapoor, Sharad speaks fluent Bengali and is completely at home in Calcutta. Currently, Sharad is as busy as a corporate boss — he’s heading two TV channels, one in Bhojpuri called Hamar TV and a news channel with an accent on women called Focus. He’s currently in Mumbai putting together his reporting team for Focus.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor, Movie Mag International