Marriages, public events take a big hit

Despite having the funds needed for facilitating wedding preparations, the money has become put of bounds. A distressed man even landed up at the Reserve Bank of India Office in Rajaji Salai with a wedding card. “I have a wedding in the family and I need a lot of money. I have all my money in the bank, but I am only allowed Rs 4,000. This is not enough for the wedding preparations,” he said as he showed the wedding card to the DTNext photographer. 

Many event organisers say that their clients have slashed the budget. Nisha Kandhai of Anyonya, a wedding and party planning company, says, “As soon as the news came out, we started getting calls from existing clients to downsize the budget. So we had to bring down an event with a budget of Rs 10 - 12 lakh  to Rs 3-5 lakh.” 

Official engagements too have been disrupted. The Home Interior Fair, scheduled to be held on November 11 – 13 at Chennai Trade Centre, has been cancelled last minute due to the cash confusion. “This fair at the CTC is consumer-oriented and with the confusion going around, it was not a good idea to go ahead with the event, where most customers belonging to the upper-middle class income group spend a lump sum amount on purchases,” says Uday Kumar of Prompt Trade Fairs Pvt Ltd, adding that the organisers have incurred a loss of around Rs 20 lakhs.