Preity Zinta makes it good enough for tinsel town

For several weeks, there had been reports of Preity Zinta throwing a big wedding reception for her friends in the film industry. The much-awaited bash took place in Mumbai when she had a couple of days’ respite from being with her team during the IPL matches.

Preity married Gene Goodenough, a financial consultant in LA in March. The wedding was a very private ceremony and insiders had been wondering when a reception in India would happen.

As usual, Manish Malhotra, the designer behind most of her looks, designed Preity’s outfit for the reception as well. A guest at the party told us, “All the arrangements were done by Neelu and Deepankar (Preity’s mother and brother) and the invites also had their names. There was no dancing but it was a very classy affair. The guests started to come in around 11 pm.

The fact is that Preity herself was meeting many of her friends after nearly two years. She had been in LA and would come down to Mumbai just for work. She looked very happy and was excited to meet her friends.”

Gene too seems to have enjoyed the big fat Bollywood bash. Another guest tells us, “His friends from US had flown down and they were happy to see a big Indian function. Many of his male friends found the women in sarees very pretty and elegant.”

The big story, though, was about Salman Khan walking in with his girlfriend Iulia Vantur to the reception. Salman may have well made his relationship with the Romanian actress official. A guest told us, “She stood with Salman at the party and was happy mingling with the guests. It’s not like he was introducing her to people as his girlfriend. It was kept very normal but all eyes were on him.”

While Iulia left the venue with Atul and Alvira Agnihotri, Salman walked out with Abhishek Bachchan just a little away from him; both the actors made an exit at the same time.

The paparazzi had clear instructions to not enter the property and were made to click pictures from outside the venue. “It was Preity’s order to us to not let any media photographer inside, “said a security official at the venue. The family too requested the guests to not take any pictures or selfies at the function, explaining the lack of inside photos from the reception.

Shah Rukh Khan happened to be the last guest to arrive for the reception and Preity along with Gene stepped out for a few seconds to pose for the paparazzi. The newly wed actress is expected to join the sets of Bhaiyaji Superhit in the coming week.