Farhan Akhtar and Shibani Dandekar’s pre-wedding festivities took place with a lot of fervour over the past few days. The couple, who is all set to take their wedding vows today, had a mehendi ceremony on February 17 at Farhan’s Mumbai home, which was attended by close family members and friends like Shabana Azmi, Anusha Dandekar, Rhea Chakraborty, Amrita Arora Ladak. Yesterday, the couple and their guests left for the wedding venue, Akhtar’s family home in Khandala, where the haldi ceremony took place.

A day before their wedding, BT spoke to Farhan Akhtar’s mother, screenwriter Honey Irani, who said, “I had tested COVID positive and was under isolation, but I am fine now. I am looking forward to participating in their big day.”

Talking about her daughter-in-law, Irani says, “Shibani is a lovely girl. She is so beautiful and is extremely respectful towards others. She gets along very well with the family. I meet Shibani every second day because they (Farhan and Shibani) live just next door. We also went on a holiday to the Maldives together. Shibani and I talk on the phone almost every day and keep messaging each other. She’s just too sweet. I am even fond of her parents and her sisters who are very cultured. It was really nice meeting all of them.”

Farhan apparently broke the news about their decision to get married to his mother, by inviting her for a dinner hosted by the duo. Sharing more about the kind of rapport she shares with Shibani, and how both Farhan and his partner relish her food, she said, “There are times when they both call me and say, ‘Mom, we are coming home, kuch achcha banake rakhna. Shibani likes to eat the guacamole I make. She also enjoys eating my nawabi keema and all the other mutton dishes I make and, of course, the dhansak. She is quite a foodie! It’s good for them as both of them love food. Both of them are on a diet all the time, but Sunday is the day when they want to treat themselves,” she says.

When asked if Irani gave any inputs to the couple with regards to the wedding prep, she replied, “I told them that the festivities will be incomplete without kulfi and jalebi on the menu. I just don’t care about the rest (laughs!). The food has to be good and it can’t go wrong. That is the only thing everybody has been contemplating right from the word go. It was never about ladki kya pehnegi, ya ladka kya pehnega… khaana kya banega has always been very important.”

She further elaborates how the wedding celebrations will be a small and intimate affair. “We are a very close-knit group for the wedding. That in itself is a celebration because it is great fun to have everybody who you care about and who cares about you as part of the festivities. The people who will be present are the people who have been with us for all these years. So, we really want them to be there with us on the big day. We have to keep in mind the precautions and protocols we need to follow during the pandemic and hence, we will have a limited number of guests. It has been a difficult task to chalk out the guest list, but the good part is that the people have been understanding.”