Ram Charan Teja, Upasana and Chiranjeevi at a pre-wedding ritual at the Domkonda fort

Hyderabad, June 13: Don’t you ever use the word cherry- pick before Upasana Kamineni. She might just take it personally.

The 22-year-old heiress of one of India’s leading healthcare chains has, after all, picked a “Cherry” as her life partner.

Upasana, vice-president of Apollo Charity, an Apollo group company, will tie the knot tomorrow with Ram Charan Teja, 27, the actor son of matinee idol-turned-politician Chiranjeevi, at a glittering ceremony on Hyderabad’s outskirts.

Ram Charan, as you must have guessed by now, is popularly known as Cherry.

While the bride is set to take a Cherry home, there’s something for her dad-in-law, too — the wedding is set to strengthen Chiranjeevi’s bond with the Congress.

Several heavyweights from the Congress and the UPA government, including a host of Union ministers and MPs, are expected to be present in Hyderabad tomorrow for the wedding.

“But for the political crisis in Delhi, even Sonia Gandhi had agreed to come and accepted Chiranjeevi’s invite two months ago,” said a Congress spokesperson.

“At least five chief ministers and chiefs of five national political parties have assured me that they will be in Hyderabad that day,” Chiranjeevi had earlier said.

The Rajya Sabha MP, who had merged his 18-MLA Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress last August, had put off a convention on the political union so that the VIP guests could attend the matrimonial union, sources close to the actor said.

Sources said the wedding would be a fairytale affair with 15,000 guests, including 5,000 VIPs. It isn’t often that a business heiress exchanges vows with a movie star’s son.

Upasana’s mother Shobana is the daughter of C. Pratap Reddy of the Apollo group. Her father Anil Kamineni has built a business empire around infrastructure, leisure and healthcare.

The bride and the groom, who had got engaged in December, have hired folk weavers from Kalamkari (Krishna district), arranged for brassware from Pembarti (Warangal) and silver filigree works from Bidri (Medak) for the wedding. Most of the pottery will come from Chittoor while the cutlery will be Nizami.

The groom’s family has hired two security companies for the wedding at 7.30 tomorrow morning at Temple Tree Farms, Gandipet, about 30km from Hyderabad.