New Delhi: Even as the entire nation was glued to the Karnataka election results, the arrival of Priyanka Chopra Jonas Saturday for her sister Parineeti’s engagement with AAP leader Raghav Chadha drew a phalanx of press photographers and TV camera persons to the VIP area of Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Sporting a golf cap and dark shades, and lightly dressed in a beige sporty ensemble, Priyanka came out of the airport and headed straight for, presumably, Kapurthala House, where the ceremony is taking place at 5 p.m.
Unlike other occasions, she was not accompanied by her husband Nick Jonas, with whom she most recently grabbed a lot of attention on the Met Gala red carpet, or her daughter Malti Marie.
Priyanka, of course, has been coming regularly to India, first for the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre’s three-day inauguration gala and then for promotions of the sci-fi thriller series Citadel with co-star Richard Madden.
The engagement ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. with the chanting of the Sukhmani Sahib from the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs, which will be followed by the ‘ardas’ or the holy prayer. It is expected to be attended by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his Punjab counterpart, Bhagwant Mann, and Hindi film personalities as well.
Kapurthala House is now the official residence of the Governor and Chief Minister of Punjab whenever they are in the city. It was last occupied by Maharaja Paramjit Singh of Kapurthala, who sold it to a businessman named Radheshyam Makhanlal Seksaria in 1950, but it was later requisitioned by the Government of India.
Ahead of her engagement, Parineeti’s apartment in the Bandra area of Mumbai has been lit up with fairy lights. A video shared by the celebrity photographer Viral Bhayani shows Parineeti’s apartment in a Bandra highrise brightly lit up for the special occasion.
Rumours that Raghav and Parineeti were dating picked up last month when the two were pictured together in London and then in Mumbai. The two have been spotted together several times – at the Mumbai airport or coming out of restaurants.
On the work front, meanwhile, Parineeti will be seen sharing the screen with Diljit Dosanjh in the Imtiaz Ali film Chamkila. The film is said to be inspired by popular Punjabi singer Amar Singh Chamkila, who was assassinated in the 1980s.
It is believed that the couple got close to each other during the film unit’s long stay in Punjab for the Chamkila shoot.