When Guneet Monga ‘staged’ her wedding to fulfil last wish of fiancé’s grandmother suffering from cancer

Producer Guneet Monga, who engaged to fashion entrepreneur Sunny Kapoor earlier in April, revealed on Monday that she had ‘staged’ her wedding for her fiancé’s grandmother who passed away last week.

Within 48 hours of Kapoor’s grandmother – fondly called Dadiji – being diagnosed with cancer, the couple decided to get married for her.

They staged their wedding, which was originally an engagement ceremony, but Monga said it “looked and felt like a wedding.” They exchanged ‘jai malas’ (varmala or wedding garlands) in Dadiji’s presence.

Dadiji blessed the couple and gifted the soon-to-be bride the family heirloom jewellery. She also put a ‘Chunni’ around the couple (a ceremony to welcome the new bride home. “It’s so important to live your dreams, but it’s all the more important to live for someone else’s too. We will miss you every day Dadi. Rest in power and peace,” she said in her note.

Monga said that she cooked Kadah Prashad at home, which Dadiji relished. Despite having difficulty talking, Dadiji negotiated the number of children with the new couple. The producer informed that the senior said, “only have as many kids as you can afford to teach.”

“I can only be thankful for the time I had with her, and grateful that we were able to bring her joy and fulfil her wish to get us married. Becoming a bride in Dadi’s eyes and having the honour of fulfilling her dreams, alongside mine, will always be one of the most cherished moments of my life,” she shared in her detailed post.

In her note, the 38-year-old said that she was thrilled to meet Kapoor’s family who welcomed her with open arms after losing her family for a decade and a half. “When I met Sunny’s Dadiji first time, she said ‘jaldi shaadi karlo… main naachungi’. And I was like ‘I love you, Dadi’,” she added.

Soon after Monga met Kapoor, she felt an instant connection, (like magic), but since they were based in different cities (Mumbai and Delhi), nothing more could happen.

In a year, the couple got engaged. For the engagement ceremony, she wore her mother’s blue-and-silver Banarasi saree and the groom-to-be opted for a crisp white sherwani and Achkan with mirror work.

On the work front, the newly-engaged film-maker has backed critically-acclaimed films movies the ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ series, ‘Shahid’, ‘Masaan’, ‘The Lunchbox’ and last year’s Netflix comedy-drama ‘Pagglait’ through her production company Sikhya Entertainment.

Monga also served as an executive producer on the documentary ‘Period. End of Sentence’, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 2019.