PNN
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], August 11: For the first time, Hyderabad will host WV Connect, Asia's largest B2B wedding summit, as the platform brings its fourth season to the city from September 1-3, 2026, under the theme Weddings & Films, bringing together India's wedding and film industries on a single platform.
For decades, India's wedding and film industries have been borrowing from each other without formally coming together.
The art director who builds a film set may design a wedding the following season. The lighting crew behind a blockbuster song sequence may light a sangeet the following week. Costume designers, fabrication units, cinematographers, choreographers and storytellers move between both worlds.
The talent already flows both ways. The business relationships never followed.
WV Connect 2026 aims to change that.
THE INDUSTRY HAS ALREADY STARTED THE CONVERSATION
On August 4, the WV Connect flag was hoisted at Arth Resorts, Hyderabad, marking the beginning of Season 4. The ceremony brought together Kumar Raja, Founder of Designs by Raja; Ruchi Pant, Chief Business Officer of Ramoji Film City; Shwetha Sabu Cyril, Indian art director and production designer; Photriya Venky, celebrity and wedding photographer; and leaders from the wedding, film and hospitality industries.
Rituraj Khanna, President of WV Connect and CEO of Q Events, could not be present due to prior professional commitments, but sent his message to the gathering:
"The flag may have gone up without me, but I have never been more present at anything WV Connect has done. This edition asks the most exciting question our industry has ever asked. I will see everyone in Hyderabad in September."
Kumar Raja, Founder of Designs by Raja and Strategic Partner of the WV Connect Hyderabad edition, has spent two decades working across both worlds. He described what the exchange unlocks:
"A wedding planner who understands film production design thinks differently about a brief. A film art director who has built a high-end wedding understands scale and speed in a way no studio can teach. Season 4 is the beginning of that exchange. Structured, intentional and long overdue."
NOT A THEME. A BUSINESS CASE.
WV Connect 2026 is not simply about bringing cinema aesthetics into weddings.
It is about recognising that the two industries already share much of the same craft.
A large Indian wedding today has a script, a set, a cast, a shoot schedule and a director. It employs production designers, art directors, technicians and editors, many of whom trained in cinema.
The reverse is equally true. Film wedding sequences are planned with the rigour of real weddings, while studios increasingly rent their stages, sets and crews to celebrations.
The crossover is already happening. WV Connect is creating a structured platform for the business relationship to catch up.
Over three days, more than 800 delegates from 20+ cities will come together through keynote sessions, WedX talks, curated one-on-one business meetings, speed networking, a Movie Blind Date Night and the WV Awards 2026 gala.
Producers will meet planners. Studios will meet event companies. Production designers will meet wedding designers. Technicians will discover new commercial opportunities. Wedding companies will access capabilities that have traditionally belonged to cinema.
WHY HYDERABAD. WHY NOW.
Because few Indian cities sit at the intersection of two powerful creative economies quite like Hyderabad.
India's wedding economy is estimated at USD 130 billion a year, described by The Economist as the fourth-largest industry in the country. India hosts close to 10 million weddings annually. The 2024 peak wedding season alone saw 4.8 million weddings, generating an estimated ₹6 lakh crore in economic activity.
Hyderabad sits at the centre of that growth. The average wedding spend in the city has climbed to approximately ₹37 lakh, according to leading industry estimates.
Then there is cinema. Telugu films contributed 28% of India's entire box office in 2021, overtaking Bollywood, and continue to hold a significant share of the national box office. Baahubali 2 remains the highest-grossing Telugu film of all time. RRR crossed ₹1,300 crore worldwide and brought home an Academy Award. Hyderabad drives an estimated 60% of Telugu film production and is home to Ramoji Film City, certified by Guinness World Records as the largest film studio complex on earth.
One city. Two powerful creative economies. One obvious convergence.
The convergence was always going to happen here. WV Connect is creating the room for it to happen formally.
WHAT THE INDUSTRY IS SAYING
The strongest endorsement has come from the film side of the room.
Ruchi Pant, Chief Business Officer of Ramoji Film City, said:
"Weddings and films have always been two sides of the same story, built on emotion, spectacle and the art of making moments unforgettable. This is a concept very close to our heart. We are proud to power WV Connect 2026, because we see it as the beginning of a formal, creative and commercial collision between Indian weddings and Indian cinema. Ramoji Film City is where film history has been made for decades. It is only fitting that this conversation begins here."
Shwetha Sabu Cyril, art director and production designer, put the connection even more plainly:
"I have worked on film sets and at weddings, and the truth is the brief is almost identical. The same obsession with detail. The same emotional ambition. Wedding cinematography is finding a film language of its own, and production designers are now at the wedding planning table. This is not a trend. It is the natural next chapter of both industries, and WV Connect 2026 is the first room where that chapter gets written."
THE IDEA BEHIND WV CONNECT 2026
The idea for the Weddings & Films edition came to N Dakshinaa Murthi, Founder and CEO of WV Connect, while walking through the sets at Ramoji Film City.
"They were being rented for weddings. And I kept thinking, I have seen wedding set-ups built to this scale and craftsmanship, and then they are dismantled and the world never sees them. The crossover was already happening. Nobody was asking what it could become. Hyderabad is the one city where both industries are genuinely world-class. WV Connect 2026 exists to ask that question out loud, and to put the right people in the room to answer it."
AN ADVISORY BOARD FROM BOTH INDUSTRIES
Season 4 is guided by an Advisory Board drawn from the highest levels of both industries.
The board includes Sabu Cyril, the legendary production designer behind Baahubali, Ra.One and 2.0; Kumar Raja, Strategic Partner of the WV Connect Hyderabad edition; Aditya Motwane, one of India's foremost names in experiential production; Gitika Ganju Dhar, actor and a respected voice in the wedding business; Amit Sarin of Black Rock Hotels; Sumit Ghosh of Arth Resorts; and Ruchi Pant of Ramoji Film City.
The board spans the sets where some of India's biggest films are made and the venues where some of its most spectacular weddings are held.
That convergence is deliberate.
FOUR SEASONS. FOUR CITIES. ONE PLATFORM.
WV Connect is an intellectual property of Wedding Vows Magazine, which has nearly 15 years of industry leadership.
Since its first edition in Chennai in 2019, followed by editions in Mamallapuram and Jaipur, the platform has brought together globally recognised speakers, luxury hospitality brands, tourism boards, destination partners and leading names from across the wedding industry.
The 2023 edition brought together 728 participants, while the 2024 Jaipur edition crossed 800 attendees, reflecting the platform's continued growth.
Season 4 now takes WV Connect into its most ambitious crossover yet:
WEDDINGS & FILMS.
BE IN THE ROOM
Delegate registrations for WV Connect 2026 are now open at www.wvconnect.in.
The September 1-3 gathering will bring together professionals from weddings, events, hospitality, cinema, production, design, technology and allied creative industries.
For two industries where the boundaries are already disappearing, WV Connect 2026 is creating a place for that convergence to become a conversation, a collaboration and ultimately, a business opportunity.
The flag is up. The countdown has begun.
Lights. Camera. Shaadi.
ABOUT WV CONNECT
WV Connect is Asia's largest B2B wedding summit, created by Wedding Vows Magazine. Since 2019, it has united wedding professionals, luxury hospitality brands, tourism boards, designers, filmmakers and industry leaders through networking, curated business opportunities, knowledge platforms and the WV Awards.
WV Connect 2026 - Weddings & Films Edition
September 1-3, 2026
Arth Resorts, Hyderabad
MEDIA CONTACT
Wedding Vows Magazine | WV Connect 2026
Mobile: +91 72007 95519
Email: admin@weddingvows.com
Website: www.wvconnect.in
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