Band Baaja Baaraat

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Band Baaja Baaraat (English: Band Music and Revelry, referring to the classical indian wedding processions; released internationally as Wedding Planners) is a 2010 Bollywood romantic comedy film starring Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma. It marked both the debuts of Singh as an actor, and of its director, Maneesh Sharma.

Bittoo Sharma (Ranveer Singh) is a carefree, aimless young man close to graduating college, who meets the extremely intelligent and driven Shruti Kakkar (Anushka Sharma), whom also is close to graduating, while gatecrashing a wedding she were working as an assistant of the planner. Shruti is impervious to Bittoo's attempts to flirt with her, but she reveals to him that her dream is to become a professional wedding planner herself. Bittoo is somewhat intimidated by her strict and driven nature, but when graduation time comes and his family tries to bring him back to his hometown, he lies to them by saying he has decided to join Shruti into her business ambitions to avoid that fate, then follows by actually offering her to make said partnership.

Shruti initially rejects Bittoo's offers of partnership, as she believes that any possible partnership between a man and a woman will lead to romantic complications that, in turn, would bring down the business. She, however, let's him be around her when trying to get a job with a famous wedding planner. Thanks to Bittoo charming personality and quick thinking, both get hired, but soon are taken aback by the unscrupulous practices and total lack of work ethic of their boss. When, after a client complains about a unfulfilled petition their boss tried to shift the blame towards Shruti, it became the last straw and after Bitoo defends her both walk away. They soon form their own wedding planning company, Shaadi Mubarak, which they manage with increasing success thanks to the synergizing of their respective talents. In the process, Bittoo and Shruti become extremely good friends.

When they finally get their first big client (whom they stole from their former boss), they celebrate by getting very drunk. So drunk, they end acting in the Unresolved Sexual Tension they didn't realize they had and they have sex. The event causes Shruti to realize that she has fallen in love with him; but unaware to her, Bittoo, who has grown legitimately fond of her as a friend, fears that their friendship and working relationship may be compromised. When his attempts to return to their previous status quo clash with her attempts to make her feelings clear, they bot get embittered towards the other, eventually having such a big fight they break up as partners and friends.

Bittoo and Shruti try to stay in the wedding planning business separately, but they are unable to get afloat by themselves. Drowning in debt, they finally get a gigantic client who has as a main condition to hire them to both to work together. Now they have a chance to finally get together, or to at least clear the air.

Tropes used in Band Baaja Baaraat include:


  • Bad Boss: Chanda Narang.
  • Birds of a Feather: Bittoo and Shruti. While superficially quite opposite, in truth they are more similar than they give each other credit for, being both hardworking and resourceful. Shown when they had to work together again, and they quickly get in to the same workflow they used to have before their breakup.
  • Bridezilla: the bride that makes Shruti and Bittoo work together again turns out to be one of these. Along with wanting them both to organize her wedding (and it was to be them both), she was ready to call off the event when the movie star they hired to dance in the wedding got into an accident that left him unable to perform on time.
  • Career Versus Man: Averted: Shruti's career ambitions are not portrayed in a negative way and are encouraged by other characters. What's more, she falls for Bittoo because he is willing to work as hard as her, and she accepted the fiancé she is engaged near the end of the film because he was the only candidate who wasn't opposed to her to keep working after marriage. Bittoo, in turn, realizes that he loves her precisely because of her driven, hardworking nature and because he enjoys working with her.
  • Disposable Fiancé: Shruti gains one by the end of the film. He's so disposable, he doesn't even appear on screen, and is only listened on her cellphone.
  • Divorce Assets Conflict: the dissolution of Shaadi Mubarak is treated this way, with their poor employees treated as the children in the middle of a custody fight.
  • Dramatic Irony: Shruti was the one who insisted the most into the "not to let love get in the way of business" thing. When she falls in love with Bittoo, she is prevented to confess her feelings by him using her own words against her in an attempt to get back to be Just Friends again.
  • I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship
  • It Doesn't Mean Anything: Bittoo tries to justify his and Shruti's drunk sex night to her with this. Needless to say, it only hastens their friendship and partnership breakup.
  • Kissing Under the Influence
  • Lethal Chef: Shruti is completely unable to make chai, but she keeps making and giving it to Bittoo. She is unaware of how bad it is until she tries it herself.
  • Love Epiphany: Shruti has one after having had sex with Bittoo. Bittoo, in turn, has his after being confronted by Shruti for being way too concerned about her choice of future husband and the fact she is marrying in the first place.
  • OOC Is Serious Business: Shruti acting like a devoted housewife preparing and bringing chai to Bittoo after their night together, when until that time she merely drunk the one he prepared by both staff and clients and was the one who insisted into not mixing love and business, scares him enough to gets into just drinking the awful concoction and silently plan how to tell her "That night together was a fluke, let's stay merrily friends". In turn, Shruti realizing that Bittoo, who usually pointed out very vocally whenever she did anything wrong, silently drank the awful tea she made day after day, clues her that something is going terribly wrong between them.
  • Opposites Attract: Bitto is outgoing, carefree, adaptable, and (at the beginning) a bit aimless; Shruti is driven, strict, detail-oriented and quite ambitious. They complement each other fabulously to make Shaadi Mubarak a success. They, however, are more similarly minded than they first realize.
  • Second Act Breakup/Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Shruti believes that the number one rule of business is not to let love get in the way, and that any romantic complications between business partners will ruin the business, a thing that she let Bittoo well stated. When they get feelings towards each others, the actions they take to not let those feelings interfere with the business cause to embitter them towards the other and eventually cause their partnership and company to collapse.
  • Unrequited Love Switcheroo: At the begining Bittoo has a crush in Shruti, but she is uninterested. Later, she falls in love with her, but he now cares too much for her as a friend to risk their friendship. Then he realized that he maybe was in love with her all the time, just when she has gotten engaged and claims to have moved on. They get their feelings in synchrony by the end of the film.
  • Working with the Ex: Their reunion job, technically.