Watch: Rare footage of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi’s dreamy wedding
The video beautifully captures the couple’s marriage with Indira Gandhi looking on
New Delhi: Watching this rare silent video that captures the fairy tale wedding of Sonia and Rajeev Gandhi, one is easily compelled to compare it with an overwhelming romantic feature from the 60's.
In the beginning of the clip, one can see the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi beaming proudly beside her 23-year-old son as the elderly women in the family perform pre-wedding rituals.
The 21-year-old Sonia Maino, who is chaperoned by her uncle, seems nervous and lost. Like any other bride, she catches glimpses of the guests present at her wedding.
The couple exchange garlands in a simple ceremony which took place in the lush green lawns of the Prime Minister’s residence in 1 Safdarjung Road on 25th February 1968 in the national capital.
The happy couple cut a huge 4-tier wedding cake in the presence of their near and dear ones.
Only family and close friends were invited to the high-profile wedding. Notable figures that attended the glittering affair were Mrs. Vijay Lakshmi Pandit and the then Indian President Dr. Zakir Hussain.
The video documents only some parts of the wedding, but shows an evidently much in love couple looking forward to starting a new life together. Rajiv Gandhi, who went on to become the Prime Minister, had met the Italian girl Sonia Maino at Cambridge, two years before their wedding.