The Wedding Planner

Chapter 13

Shehnaaz and Asim were there along with the team at the location, pretty early in the morning. Rajiv Mitra, the most famous wedding photographer of bollywood, was asked by Sidharth to cover the shoot. Although Shehnaaz had quite an experience of working with big clients, she had never worked with any star. The cocktail party she remembered, was so star studded, that her eyes hurt seeing them all under one roof. Both Shehnaaz and Asim were extra cautious of everything and tried to made sure that everything was perfect on their end.

The shoot was happening at Sidharth's farmhouse, in the outskirts of the city. The place was beautiful. The front porch had a beautiful family swing and the garden had trees blossoming with flowers everywhere. It was naturally so well decorated, that Shehnaaz and Asim didn't have to put much effort to get the place ready for the shoot.

Asim had collected the costumes for the couple and had arranged them in the rooms inside. Rajiv and his team were handled well by SMW's team and even he was impressed with their work.

Asim had already got the costumes ready from Nityami's designer. Shehnaaz was checking out the decorations as she didn't want anything to look less than perfect. The front porch had a beautiful family swing, which looked magnificent. Rajiv was bit of a flirt and ever since he arrived, his eyes were stuck at Shehnaaz. As usual, he too was mesmerized by her beauty at just first glance.

Soon Sidharth and Nityami arrived along with their family. Niya, as usual, was happy to see Shehnaaz. She jumped into her arms seeing her. Rajiv captured the moment with a click. Sidharth and Nityami were asked to get ready while their family was escorted to another room where the videos were to be shot.

Nityami wore a beautiful pista coloured Sharara suit and Sidharth twinned with her by wearing a pista jacket over his plain kurta set. Both of them looked magnificent. Shehnaaz saw the two of them and for the first time, she felt jealous of Nityami. The day since she had met her, Shehnaaz could never bring herself to hate her. Nityami had always been warm and loving to Shehnaaz and had always considered her a friend more than a wedding planner. And Niya already had a special place in her heart. But the first time in many days, since the contact had been signed, she felt a tinge of jealousy and dislike towards Nityami for being so perfect. But before she could think much, she was called by her team member to check some last minute decorations.

She had been ignoring Sidharth since the morning. Sidharth was trying to talk to her but he knew it was not the appropriate place or time to talk. But he also understood why Shehnaaz was pissed.
He had seen her texts and missed call the previous night, and he couldn't reply or call back as he was too tired after the hectic day he had. And he thought he would anyway be meeting Shehnaaz in a few hours so he didn't bother. But seeing Shehnaaz royally ignore his existence since the moment he stepped foot on the farmhouse, he realised that not replying wasn't a wise decision after all.

The shoot commenced and Rajiv said, "Now I want you two to feel the love you have for each other as you look into each other's eyes. And Sid, when you hold Nitya, I want you to hold her in such a way that the photo screams out that you'll never let go of her".

A romantic photoshoot was the nightmare for three people all at once : Sidharth, Nityami and Shehnaaz. Neither Sidharth nor Nityami could bring themselves to look at each other with the kind of love Rajiv expected to see in their eyes and nor Shehnaaz could take so much intimacy between them. Although all of them knew that a pre wedding shoot would definitely entail such romantic poses, none of them could've imagined how difficult it would be for them to execute.

With great difficulty and thinking about Niya's happiness, both of them managed to strike a somewhat romantic pose that Rajiv had asked for. But Rajiv could feel that the passion was missing. He had covered enough of these shoots and seen enough of the couples to understand the intricacies of people's relationships. His camera never lied. And if the camera couldn't capture the passion, then it was simple that the couple in question, lacked passion.
The next photo was shot under a tree, with flower petals falling from above on them. Individually, both of them looked gorgeous in the pictures, but anyone could say that there was a certain sense of uneasiness in both.