Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; December 9, 2017)

Rumours of Virat Kohli, one of India’s most eligible bachelors, tying the knot with Bollywood’s sweetheart Anushka Sharma have turned out to be true! Anushka left for Italy from Mumbai on Thursday night with her family. Sources reveal that the wedding celebrations will be held in Florence and Milan between December 9 and 12.

A source close to the families revealed to BT, “The invitations have gone out to close friends and family. Only a few of Virat’s friends from Delhi have been invited — one is his childhood buddy, who used to play league cricket with him, and the other, who has been advising him on his fitness.”

Virat has taken a break and he won’t be a part of the T20 or ODIs against Sri Lanka. However, he will lead Team India in the South Africa series and will leave for SA on December 27. The cricketer has apparently even requested not to be disturbed during his break. According to a film industry insider, Anushka had also, much in advance, requested a filmmaker to not schedule her shoot for her upcoming project during December.

Another source revealed, “The couple has booked a SoBo fivestar hotel for their reception on December 21 in Mumbai.”

Virat’s manager Bunty Sajdeh, who is usually quick to dismiss such rumours, has been tight-lipped this time around. There was no response from him despite our repeated attempts till the time of going to press. Interestingly, he had flatly denied any such possibility in October, when the rumours first surfaced after news of Virat’s alleged application of a spouse visa for South Africa went viral. Back then, Bunty had replied to us saying, “These are baseless rumours and there’s no truth to it as far as I know.”

Anushka’s spokesperson denied the news to us even after the actress left for Italy, saying, “It is not true.” Meanwhile, we hear that Anushka’s family guru, Maharaj Anant Baba, too, is in Italy for the wedding. We contacted Devashish Anant from the guru’s Haridwar ashram, asking if the guru was in Europe for the wedding. He said, “Yes, Maharaj Anant Baba is not here, but I won’t say anything else. I won’t say yes, I won’t say no.” However, another source from the ashram confirmed that Anant Baba is in Europe for a wedding, but didn’t divulge whose wedding it is. According to him, the guru’s trip was planned weeks in advance.

— Inputs by Divya Kaushik, Abhimanyu Mathur, Akshita Vohra and Riya Sharma