Heritage Street turns into hotspot for pre-wedding shoots in Amritsar
But the public display of affection by couples during the shoot has irked several devotees and Sikh bodies.
Heritage Street leading up to the Golden Temple, has turned into a hotspot for pre-wedding photoshoots. The couples, who are about to enter into wedlock, can be seen daily with a photographer and the entire entourage at this historical area.
The shoots are generally done early in the morning to avoid the devotee’s rush.
A photographer, who didn’t wish to be named, said most of the time it’s the couples who insist on a pre-wedding shoot at this place, while sometimes photographers bring them here “The shoot is carried out in the morning to avoid rush,” he added.
It was during the late CM Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government that the stretch was redeveloped as Heritage Street in 2016. The street stretches from the colonial-era Town Hall building to the main entrance of the holiest Sikh shrine. Besides developing the stretch, the buildings along it were also beautified and given a facelift. The national historic monument ‘Jallianwala Bagh’ is also situated along it.
But the public display of affection by couples during the shoot has irked several devotees and Sikh bodies.
“The wedding couples mostly pose as directed by the videographers. Most of the videographers shoot some objectionable poses which doesn’t go with the spiritual vibe of the place”, said retired principal Kulwant Singh Ankhi who is also a social activist.
“Most of the devotees’ are reciting Gurbani on their way to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple, and these shoots disturb the spirituality associated with the place,” he added.
Another activist Manmohan Singh demanded that civil and police authorities, along with SGPC, permanently ban these pre-wedding photoshoots.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee secretary Partap Singh also said that the SGPC has already taken up the issue with the authorities. “I had a conversation about the issue with the administration. This is a sacred place founded by Guru Ram Das ji and a centre of spirituality. This trend is very wrong. Sangat visits this place with devotion. The administration should realise it and stop this practice.”
Kotwali Police Station SHO Shivdarshan Singh said that the issue is in the police’s knowledge.
“We often disperse these people from the street. We have just conducted a meeting with the photographers and instructed them not to do so as it vitiates the religious and spiritual atmosphere of the area”.
Before this a row erupted on the folk dancers’ statues displayed outside Dharam Singh Market, situated along Heritage Street. In January 2020, a group of youths vandalised the statues and damaged its platform, demanding the removal of statues which displayed Punjab’s folk dances—Bhangra and Gidha.
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