New Delhi: Indian weddings have always been grand affairs but now the whole world has become a stage, quite literally, for the rich.

'Money is not an issue,' said Ms Dimple Anaund, a professional wedding planner. 'They want something new, what others have not done, something that puts them one-up on others and is memorable.'

Ms Anaund is the CEO of Silver Twigs, a wedding and events planner in Delhi's swanky Gurgaon suburb, and she has seen it all.

For instance, for a 'celebrity night', a Delhi businessman recently had her fly in from Mumbai not one or two Bollywood stars, but 20 - including the curvaceous Shilpa Shetty - for his daughter's wedding.

'They were flown in one evening just to be there and went back next morning. That alone cost 30 million rupees (S$900,000),' she said.

Such extravagance has gained popularity over the years.

The mega wedding which steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, one of the richest men in the world, held for his daughter Vanisha in 2004 is already the stuff of legend.

The 20-page A4-size invitation, cased in silver, was virtually a wedding guide.

It started with dinner for family and friends in Paris.

The next day came the sangeet ceremony, when the women gather around the bride to frolic, dance and sing traditional wedding songs.

Mr Mittal also brought in a special attraction - a play by Mr Javed Akhtar, Bollywood's best-known scriptwriter.

The mehndi ceremony - when the hands of women guests are painted with henna in traditional Indian designs - was followed by a 'Bollywood night' of Hindi films, songs and dances.

The engagement ceremony was held at the Palace of Versailles, once the home of Louis XIV.

A banquet and the wedding itself were held at a chateau 55km away from Paris.The cost of the wedding was said to be US$78 million.

Wedding planners and analysts say that the Indian wedding industry is already worth 2,000 billion rupees and continues to grow by 25 to 30 per cent every year.

Vivaha, or 'Wedding', a Delhi- based company, has successfully tapped into the urge to splurge. It has brought all the services associated with weddings - bride's trousseau, jewellery, wedding designers, caterers, venues and travel agents - under one roof in an exhibition that has become an annual feature in the capital since 2000.

The latest trend is the 'Destination Wedding', said Ms Ratika Seth, Vivaha's communications manager.

Typically, the sangeet is held in India, the actual wedding in France or elsewhere in Europe, and the reception in a third country. The couple fly off to a fourth country for their honeymoon.

But the wedding trends of the rich change from year to year.

'Last year, the craze was for the traditional. This year, it is modern,' said Ms Anaund.

She added that many of her clients this year wanted the wedding venues to resemble locales in England and Europe, with Russian ballet dancers and Egyptian belly dancers adding to the fun.

Still, for all the pomp, some things never change; priests still conduct the wedding ceremony in traditional fashion.

Said Ms Seth: 'But apart from that, weddings increasingly look like scenes from Bollywood films with songs and dances, and actors paid to add to colour to the occasion.'

This article was first published in The Sunday Times.