Endemic, organic, and deeply rooted in the cultural ethos of people — there is one unique Indian business that is undisturbed by market swings, policy tweaks, or even changes in governments. Robust, resilient, and recession-proof — the Indian wedding industry has always seen an upward growth curve. And Delhi’s Rama Tent House, one of the city’s oldest wedding organisers and one that has steered weddings for over 70 years, saw it all.
Jagannath Batra worked as a government employee in the state electricity department in Lahore and came to Delhi after Partition, hoping to start life anew. It soon became clear to him that the seemingly secure government job is not insulated from social and financial upheavals. He began to actively look for entrepreneurial opportunities to bolster the family income and steer toward greater financial security.
Then he saw a sliver of opportunity in the chaotic wedding industry, which, in the 1950s, was even more haphazard than it may seem now. Back in the day, weddings were hosted in open terraces, courtyards, and verandahs, outstation guests stayed in dharamshalas for weeks, jagrathas or poojas were conducted in neighbourhood temples. Wedding arrangements, including catering, food, accommodation, and rituals, were nothing short of a logistical nightmare.
Road to building the turnkey company
Jagannath tentatively dipped his feet into the business by renting out large cooking utensils and halwai kitchens, which were required for up to a week for weddings. He set up a store to rent out chairs, mattresses, bolsters, duvet covers, sheets, khats or coir and wooden beds for accommodating guests.
The list of requirements — and bookings — kept getting longer, and Jagannath formally launched the Rama Tent House in 1956. This was meant to be a turnkey wedding planning business that could provide tents, lights, decorations, flowers, photography, music, and catering, along with arrangements for wedding rituals and ceremonies.
As Jagannath Batra’s sons Ram and Vijay joined the business some years later, they witnessed how the austere simplicity of a home-based wedding of the ’50s and ’60s gave way to the ceremonial extravagance of the ’70s and ’80s. Instead of traditional halwais, now there were high-end caterers offering multi-course buffets, served by uniformed waiters. Simple tents gave way to cooled enclosures with fancy electric decorations, lights, and flower arrangements with themed stage backdrops for the bride and groom. “The groom on the horse became a groom in a chariot, and the simple wedding band got replaced by formal entertainments with a lit-up dancing floor and live musicians,” says Akhil Batra, the hands-on partner-cum-owner of Rama Tent House.
By the ’90s, the wedding industry acquired amazonian dimensions. What used to be a private family ritual got transformed into a public spectacle because now, weddings began to be considered a calling card for the family’s stature. From elephants welcoming guests to choppers showering flower petals on thousands of people — shock and awe became quite the norm.
The tectonic shift
By 2000 onwards, the destination wedding trend took the industry to a point where not only the top global luxury brands were wooing Indians but even government tourism boards of various nations were eying the Indian wedding industry.
The tectonic change in the Indian wedding industry happened during the pandemic. For almost two years, it became impossible to hold large-scale events. With guest size reduced dramatically, the wedding industry was forced to change its contours. The venues were no longer located in crowded metropolises but became solitary hilltop palaces, faraway forts, and even exclusive ship decks reserved for exclusive guests. While the industry suffered setbacks, by no means did the glamour and glitz ever get dimmed.
Due to the massive growth of the wedding industry through the decades, many new players have dipped into the business, ramping up competition for Rama Tent House. “While we at Rama Tent House have seen our business spiral upwards, we faced constant pressure from new and emerging wedding firms, always on our heels, aiming to provide bigger and better wedding services. So we also have to constantly up our game, think out of the box, outshine the competitors and prove ourselves at every event. It’s clearly not a business for the meek-hearted,” says Akhil, smiling as he flicks through pictures of recent wedding functions.
From Jagannath’s small storage room to a multi-department set-up today that involves planners, designers, artists, caterers, and florists working alongside a production company that seeks government permissions to create film like moments for dreamy-eyed grooms and brides — the Rama Tent House has come a long way.
This article is a part of a series called BusinessHistories exploring iconic businesses in India that have endured tough times and changing markets. Read all articles here.