My Notes on the Vijay Deverakonda–Rashmika Mandanna Wedding and the Shift in the Wedding Gaze

My Notes on the Vijay Deverakonda Rashmika Mandanna Wedding and the Shift in the Wedding Gaze

When I saw the wedding visuals of Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna, I didn’t just see a bride and groom.

I saw something divine.

It felt less like celebrity glamour and more like something out of a temple wall carving. The ivory, the red, the gold. The way the jewellery sat on him did not look like styling. It looked like embodiment. There was something almost Shiv–Parvati about the whole frame. Not dramatic. Not theatrical. Just deeply rooted.

And for once, I did not find my eyes automatically centering the bride.

Rashmika looked beautiful in the way brides always do when tradition wraps around them softly. But my gaze did not stop there. It moved to him and stayed there. Not because he demanded attention. Because he carried it.

The temple jewellery on Vijay did not feel like an accessory. It felt ancestral. The gold was not ornamental in a decorative way. It felt like heritage resting on his shoulders. There was a magnanimous stillness in him. Something king-like. Something godly. Something that felt larger than the wedding itself.

What surprised me even more was the reaction.

People were praising his jewellery. Decoding the design. Zooming into the detailing. Admiring the drape. It did not feel like a novelty. It felt like genuine appreciation.

And that is what felt new.

For years, weddings have trained us where to look. The bride is studied. The bride is zoomed into. The bride carries the spectacle. The groom stands dignified and simple, almost as if masculinity requires restraint on such days.

Minimal sherwanis. Clean silhouettes. No excess.

Somewhere along the way, masculinity got westernized quietly. Pastel palettes. Neutral styling. Imported aesthetics. The Pinterest version of weddings slowly diluted the ornamental richness that was once normal in Indian masculinity.

Because historically, our men were never minimal.

Kings wore jewels. Warriors wore gold. Gods are adorned in layers. Ornamentation was never fragility. It was divinity. It was authority. It was power worn openly.

So watching Vijay in temple jewellery did not feel experimental. It felt like return.

And the internet welcoming it felt like validation.

Validation that culturally rooted aesthetics do not need to shrink to feel modern. Validation that men do not have to tone themselves down to complement the bride. Validation that the wedding gaze can widen instead of tilt.

It was not about overshadowing her. It was about equal radiance.

The bride was beautiful.
The groom was beautiful.

Both were decoded. Both were admired.

That balance felt emotionally fulfilling in a way I did not expect. Because being seen aesthetically matters. Being celebrated matters. Being adorned and not mocked matters.

Adornment is not vanity. It is ritual. It is claiming space. It is saying, I am fully here.

For years, we have allowed women to enjoy that fullness. We have allowed them the layers, the gold, the glow. But men have often been reduced to clean lines and quiet strength.

Why should celebration be uneven?

Why should women have all the aesthetic fun?

This moment did not feel like feminism or masculinity winning. It felt like equality in celebration. Like the gaze was finally redistributed.

There was pride in watching something so culturally deep being embraced so widely. Pride in seeing Indianness not diluted for trend but embraced fully. Pride in seeing tradition feel raw and vulnerable instead of curated and filtered.

Modern weddings will always evolve. People will choose what feels authentic to them. That is beautiful in its own way. But there was something about this rootedness that felt grounding. It did not scream for attention. It carried itself quietly.

And maybe that is why it stole hearts.

Not because it was extravagant.

But because it felt divine.

For once, the groom was not just present in the frame.

He was worshipped in it.

And that felt like a shift.

hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.