Show-Time for the BJP: 10-Point Guide to Wankhede Stadium Event

Devendra Fadnavis will take over as Chief Minister. Nine other BJP leaders, including Pankaja Munde, will take oaths as ministers, said party sources.

The VIPs in the audience will include Uddhav Thackeray, the top leader of the Shiv Sena, who had RSVP-ed, but was persuaded to change his mind by a phone call from BJP chief Amit Shah.

Mr Thackeray and his party are hoping for a larger invitation - to join the new government in Maharashtra. So far, the BJP has said only that it hopes continuing negotiations will yield a happy ending.

Mr Fadnavis, who is 44, will take his oath on a stage that will be shared by the Governor of the state.

Another stage is primed to steal the show - it will seat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose exhaustive campaign powered his party's strongest-ever result in the state. Mr Modi will be flanked by other BJP heavyweights including Mr Shah.

A massive LED screen screens images that links Maharashtra's history to its contemporary culture.

Bollywood art director Nitin Desai, who designed the sets for movies like Jodha Akbar and Devdas, is in charge of the production design for the entire event. He told NDTV that his designs include a depiction of the coronation of Shivaji, the iconic 17th-century warrior-king and Maratha icon.

Mr Desai said he has been given a detailed brief by Mr Fadnavis, who wants tourist attractions like the state's famous Ajanta Ellora caves to be highlighted at the event.

4,000 VIP invitees include actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan, industrialists like Ratan Tata and the Ambani brothers, and politicians ranging from Sharad Pawar to former Chief Minister Prithvraj Chavan.

Because the swearing-in is a government event, the BJP's symbol, the lotus, cannot be given special focus within the stadium. So the party placed at least 20 gigantic lotuses on boats in the Arabian Sea that will be visible from the city's famous Marine Drive.