Oct. 16: Kareena Kapoor married Sajid Ali Khan in a civil ceremony this afternoon at the Bandra home she shares with her boyfriend of five years.
“Kareena did not marry Saif. She married Sajid Ali Khan,” marriage registrar Surekha Ramesh Lokhare said afterwards.
Few know that Sajid is Saif’s official name.
Kareena’s parents Babita and Randhir Kapoor and Saif’s mother Sharmila Tagore signed as witnesses, the registrar said.
Saif had sent his car to the family court to pick up Lokhare, who reached the couple’s residence Fortune Heights around 11.30am.
The couple appeared on the balcony around 2pm, Kareena looking pretty in a mehndi green churidar kurta and red dupatta. She wore little jewellery — just earrings and red bangles were visible — and a big smile as she posed for pictures.
Saif’s son Ibrahim, 12, from his first marriage to Amrita Singh, left school early to go for the wedding that was attended by family and a few close friends. His daughter Sara, 17, skipped the registration but was there for the exchange of vows in the evening in a Catholic wedding ceremony at the Taj Mahal hotel.
Kareena’s mother Babita is Christian while her father is Hindu. A source, who is headed to Pataudi and Delhi for the wedding celebrations, said much of the festivities would be held at the Pataudi palace.
The Dawat-e-Walima, a traditional banquet, will be held in Delhi and Sharmila went to Rashtrapati Bhavan to invite President Pranab Mukherjee and his wife for the occasion.
But the question many were asking was: “Nikaah hua?”
Sharmila had a nikaah with Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, wearing the dress her mother-in-law, Begum Sajida Sultan of Bhopal, had worn at her own wedding. She has passed on the dress to daughter-in-law Kareena to wear at her nikaah.
“They were earlier supposed to have a nikaah in Mumbai before the Christian wedding. But later on it was decided to have the nikaah in Pataudi for sentimental reasons. Kareena will wear Sharmilaji’s wedding sharara for the nikaah in Pataudi,” a Kapoor family source said.
Sharmila is hosting a Daawat-e-Walima — a traditional banquet thrown at the end of a Muslim wedding by the groom’s family — at Pataudi palace in Haryana tomorrow and another in Delhi on Thursday.
But unlike her mother-in-law, Kareena, who is a practising Christian, will not convert to Islam.
The Jamiat-e-Ulema chief of Maharashtra announced today that without conversion, there can be no nikaah for Kareena and Saif, who is a practising Muslim.
Like the civil marriage in the morning, the evening ceremony was low-key with only about 40 guests invited.
Rishi and Neetu Kapoor and their son Ranbir were present for all wedding events, marking a family reunion for the Kapoors.
Babita and Neetu have been estranged for years, but Kareena and Randhir are believed to have got them to bury their differences.
Pataudi palace, which is now a hotel run by Neemrana Hotels on the outskirts of Delhi, stopped taking bookings from October 13 and will remain closed for guests till October 25 to accommodate wedding festivities.
The Dawat-e-Walima is an important tradition in which the groom’s side invites relatives and friends to welcome the bride. In many places, brides receive gifts at the Dawat-e-Walima from the groom’s family known as burri (gold jewels, expensive clothes, money etc).
Old-timers in Bhopal recalled how Sharmila’s mother-in-law Begum Sajida Sultan had given Tiger Pataudi’s wife a new name out of affection. She was called Ayesha by her in-laws in remembrance of the Prophet’s wife Bibi Ayesha, considered a very learned and pious lady in Islamic history.
There is a general consensus in Bhopal that Kareena will be called chhoti begum or bahu begum as Begum of Bhopal title is with Sharmila or Ayesha begum.
Many in Bhopal reiterated sentiments expressed by Shah Rukh Khan’s tweet that said, “Happiest marriage bond to my friend Saif & Kareena. May Allah keep ur family healthy & happy. Just saw it is registered, sealed & delivered.”
