According to Eshwar Bhosle, who publishes a directory of marriage halls of Bangalore, titled "Kalyana",(see box) about 10 new halls come up in the city every year, and an average of 60 to 80 weddings are performed in each hall every year. There are about 900-odd Kalyana Mantapas in Bangalore today. However, a look at these wedding halls throws up the presence of a lot oproblems.
The charges for wedding halls vary widely; it might start at around Rs. 20,000 and go up to over Rs. One lakh per day. The parameters seem to be the location of the hall, the "look" or the interior decoration done in it, and amazingly, some of the larger halls seem to be cheaper than one expects. Not very consumer-friendly Most of the Kalyana Mantapas that I have contacted wanted the full amount to be paid in advance. This was the first customer-unfriendly practice that I found. When I asked why I could not pay a token advance and the rest after the function, I was greeted by silence, or in one case, an open declaration of, "Madam, then you are welcome to go elsewhere." This attitude really does put one off right from the word go. More discussion slowly melts the ice and then the managers come down to 50 to 80 per cent of the amount as an advance....and this is said as if a favour is being conferred.What many people also do not realise, as they are often short of time and desperate to get a good "choultry" (as wedding halls are also called), is that they are paying quite a sizable sum towards tax, and not just for hiring the hall. There is a luxury tax of 15 per cent that is levied, as well as a service tax and an education cess, totalling to 12.2 per cent. The total tax works out, therefore, to an alarming 27.2 per cent! Another major obstacle is caused by the lack of sufficient parking. Many halls just trust to the visitors finding parking nearby, as there is just not enough space to accomodate all the vehicles. This, of course, leads to congestion in the roads near the hall, and more so if the hall has come up in a residential area. Which of the hard-pressed parents of brides-to-be, with the wedding ceremonies hanging over their heads and a thousand other details to see too, would worry about how their visitors would park? Most halls do not even talk about parking for visitors' vehicles when the hall is being booked. When I asked at one of the very well-known halls in Basavanagudi, which has no reserved parking at all, I was told that the wedding guests "would adjust". That English word with the truly Kannada significance, "adjust", happily thrusts the onus of parking on to the guest, not the host, or the Kalyana Mantapa that should be providing this facility.