'Average Indian Spends 1/5th Savings To Get Married': Zerodha Co-Founder Says Extravagant Weddings Here To Stay

Do you recall how during the last wedding season, Instagram timelines were an unending feed of glitzy, glamorous nuptial scenes? Almost every other day, it seemed that someone you knew was getting married. And, almost all weddings were an extravaganza in their own right.

Nikhil Kamath, also, feels that weddings in India have ballooned into a big affair. The co-founder of Zerodha in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, had some interesting numbers to reveal when it came to the state of weddings in the country.

Nikhil Kamath/ BCCL

The 37-year-old fintechpreneur, while sharing a set of infographics, wrote that India saw an astonishing 3.5 million weddings in just one month during November-December 2023 which averages to about 2 weddings every second! (This period is considered an auspicious one in the Hindu calendar and has seen many couples make their relationship official.)

A breakdown: Cost of Indian weddings

Breaking down the cost of Indian weddings, the billionaire pointed out that one out of every four weddings worldwide takes place in India. In his post on the social media platform, he shared two data pointers, courtesy WedMeGood and Wedding Wire agencies.

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India is now the world's second-largest wedding market after US, with wedding businesses reaching Rs 4.25 lakh crore in 2023, up by 13% from the previous year.

He also said that it's the fourth-largest revenue-generating sector in the country which, over the next decade, is likley to host 40 crore weddings, outnumbering the population of the US which stands at 32 crore.

Kamath also went on to give a detailed breakdown of the value generated by the wedding industry, highlighting that the jewellery sector, comprising gold and diamond segments, leads at Rs 90,000 crore. This is followed by the apparel segment that generates close to Rs 50,000 crore, and durable goods which go on to add an additional Rs 30,000 crore.

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Surprisingly, the mehendi industry alone, valued at Rs 5,000 crore, surpasses wedding photography/videography, valued at Rs 1,500 crore.

Who funds the big, fat, Indian wedding?

The typical Indian wedding sets you back by about Rs 20 lakh. That's like spending one-fifth of all the money you've saved up in your life!

The Bengaluru resident also pointed out that even as wedding expenses in the country sport a northward spike, the average spending per person in India is only one-tenth of that in the US.

Kamath also pointed out that mostly parents cover the entire cost for one out of every three weddings in India while 70% of all weddings are funded by parents and the couple together.

Plus, a staggering four out of every five Indian weddings are financed through loans.

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The more, the merrier!

Kamath, who has a formidable presence on social media with over 333.9K followers on X, said that that Indian weddings are heavily influenced by trends. One out of every six Indian weddings takes cues from celebrities, and one out of every five couples opts for destination weddings, he wrote. Giving gold a miss, he quoted data that said about 52% of Indian couples prefer artificial jewellery, and 46% of Indian weddings include alcohol.

Kamath is certain that with a booming population which also includes a significant number of unmarried folks (India is at 1.4 billion and has over 600 million unmarried people), there will be no shying away from wedding extravaganzas as people look for the 'right one' for their happily ever-afters!!

Check out Kamath's post here:

With this industry as fragmented as it is, I can¡¯t think of 5 dominant brands in this space that occupy any kind of mindshare. pic.twitter.com/hcvImI0bzA

¡ª Nikhil Kamath (@nikhilkamathcio) April 26, 2024

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