‘I HOPE MY VIDEO REMINDS BRIDES TO HAVE FUN’
What do you do when you’re in the middle of a dream wedding in Thailand and your husband-to-be is late for every event? “I was getting really upset about the delays, so my friends and videographer decided to distract me,” says Amisha Bhardwaj. They decided to make an impromptu pre-wedding video of Bhardwaj singing and dancing to Sia’s ‘Cheap Thrills’ as she dressed and did her make-up. In the seven weeks since that video went viral on Facebook and YouTube, it has earned Bhardwaj friends from around the world, admiration from family, and haters “I was in Cambodia when my photographer called to say this particular video was going viral,” says the 26-year-old event manager from Noida. “In three days it crossed 1 lakh views, then 2 lakh, 5 lakh…I was shocked!” “I got hundreds of friend requests on Facebook, from Dubai, Australia, Canada, Bangladesh – some positive, some negative. Someone from Canada told me her daughter’s favourite pass time was to watch my video. People from Dhaka and Bangladesh said newspapers there covered me and that was a pleasant surprise.” Bhardwaj says her mother-in-law was more excited about the video than she was. “My husband, Pranav, praised my confidence in front of the camera. His positive attitude helped me ignore comments that said my husband should have died before watching the video, or before marrying me. I started to find those comments funny.” “A lot of women have messaged me saying they wish they could have done something like that and not cared so much about what people say,” Bhardwaj says. “I hope my video reminds brides to have fun and just be themselves. You can’t make others happy if you’re not happy.