In a country that sees about 8 to 10 million weddings a year, Vishal Punjabi shoots just 15.
That statistic itself tells you everything about the core philosophy of The Wedding Filmer, the wedding cinematography company founded by Punjabi, that can easily take credit for revolutionising Indian wedding videos into cinematic, storytelling films.
In an industry that thrives on volume, speed, spectacle (and often mimicking), Punjabi has chosen scarcity, instinct and story. Vishal Punjabi filmed Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth's wedding. (Photo: Joseph Radhik)
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“I can only do 15 out of 1.5 million weddings. That’s 0.000001 per cent,” he says. And yet, his films routinely set the benchmark for what a “cinematic wedding” in India looks like.
But here’s the twist: he doesn’t think they’re cinematic at all.
Not a music video. A memory
It is safe to say that before Punjabi, wedding videos were largely documentation, recording everything, capturing every guest, showing the food, showing the decor. Then he came along and treated a wedding like a documentary.
Dialogue. Speeches. Pacing. Sound design. Access. Emotion.
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