In an emotional broadcast on NDTV’s Rakhi ka Swayamvar, Rakhi Sawant chose her life partner by placing the traditional garland around his neck after first praying to ask God to ensure she’s made the right choice. As predicted on Bollywood Spice, she chose 30-year-old Canadian NRI Elesh Parujanwala. “I have been watching Elesh from day one,” she said, “On and off camera, he has been the same and has really taken care of me. He is everything I was looking for and I am glad to have found him on the Swayamvar. The swayamvar means finding a jeevan saathi and I have found Elesh.”
Rakhi looked simply gorgeous in a traditional gold-and-red embroidered lehenga choli and Elesh looked the perfect gentlemen in a white tuxedo with black bow tie. It was the perfect tear-stained finale to a tense series of 26 episodes that have seen the original 16 contenders whittled down to one after a series of increasingly difficult hurdles to overcome. Elesh has been welcomed into Rakhi’s family but she is not going to rush headlong into the final marital stage. “Today is our engagement,” she explained, “I am ready to get married now, but we need to understand each other better off camera. We will soon get married in front of all of you in keeping with all our traditions.”
If you are starting to get withdrawal symptoms from the show already, don’t worry, you can relive the adventure and be one of the contestants in the eponymous video game launched by zapak.com. “It was designed and developed by NDTV Imagine and is conceptualised very close to the reality show,” says Arn Mehra of the company, “The objective of the game remains to impress Rakhi Sawant and earn maximum points to get married to her.” If you impress Rakhi, you get blown kisses and garlanded in the game – but if you annoy her, watch out, she will throw cabbages, fruit and even brooms at you.
