Much before the era of the Big Fat Ambani weddings, it was Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan’s wedding that was billed as the wedding of the year. News publications across the country splashed the announcement with varied headlines declaring that the Guru stars had tied the knot. While some hailed them as “Bollywood’s hottest stars” and others crowned them “Bollywood’s ultimate power couple,” almost every publication carried the same photograph from their wedding—simply because it was the only image available at the time. That single photograph is today arguably referred to as the birth of paparazzi culture in India. Ironically, the wedding also led to what is believed to be the first paparazzi ban involving the Bachchan family—a standoff that was eventually resolved when the family invited photographers to the Marriott hotel and had a conversation. At a recent roundtable hosted by Hindi Rush, senior journalist Hina Kumawati revisited the frenzy surrounding the wedding and recalled how media personnel were stationed outside Jalsa for days, hoping to catch a glimpse of the couple. “We stood …