My Big Fat Indian Wedding! Billionaire’s nephew weds painter’s son

The British son of a painter and decorator from north London has wed the nephew of billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal at a spectacular event dubbed ‘The first Big Fat Indian Gay Wedding’.

The lavish festivities at a luxurious Berkshire venue went on for days as the families of Jake Prior, 28, and Divyesh Mittal, 33, celebrated the two men’s nuptials with endless dancing and feasting.

The seemingly unlikely union came about after the two men were long-term partners and both families gave the union their blessing, according to sources.

Show-stopping weddings are nothing new in the Mittal family as Divyesh’s sister Shristi was married in 2013 in Barcelona to a Dutch banker in an event which cost around ?50 million.

For that ceremony, a small army of 200 butlers, cooks and secretaries was flown into Spain from India and Thailand, and the 500 guests were made to sign confidentiality agreements.

But mystery surrounds who paid for last week’s party, the cost of which also would have run into several million at exclusive five-star hotel Coworth Park in Ascot, Berkshire.

Photos in the Indian media show a spectacular affair with a troupe of Indian dancers on stage joined by Jake and Divyesh dancing side by side.

The guests were said to be thrilled as a traditional Sangeet was performed, in which relatives from each family take turns to dance and exchange garlands, culminating in the bride and groom – or in this case two grooms – being symbolically brought together by their families.

Photos show cutting a towering multi-tiered wedding cake bedecked with flowers and guests celebrating.

Guests danced to Bollywood hits such as Jalebi Baby and Tere Bina and Divyesh’s mother danced to a number called Tum Mile [‘I met you’], the emotional theme from a Titanic-style love story movie set against the backdrop of the Mumbai floods of 2005.

The event concluded with a massive fireworks display.

Celebrity website BollywoodShaadis.com described the ground-breaking union as ‘the first big Indian gay wedding.’

The event was attended by the great and the good of Anglo-Indian society, including Gopichand Hinduja, part of the richest family in the UK, worth a staggering ?35billion.

Divyesh and Jake’s backgrounds could not be more diverse.

It is not known what Jake does for a living but he was a director of a dormant consultancy firm called D’Alembert & Ferrat, based at his parents’ home in Enfield, Middlesex, which was voluntarily struck off the Companies House register earlier this year.

His father Gerald, 70, and mother Eileen live in a well-to-do area of Enfield in a ?1.2million semi-detached house which they bought for ?355,000 in 2000. The couple also have a daughter who is younger than Jake.

Gerald is listed as a director of GSP Decorating and Maintenance Services, based at his home.

MailOnline tried to contact the family but without success.

Divyesh is a director of several Indian companies according to reports, but his father Pramod, 67, claimed to be Britain’s biggest bankrupt in 2020, saying he had debts totalling a staggering ?2.5billion.

The younger brother of Lakshmi Mittal set out his financial situation in an individual voluntary arrangement, in which he claimed that complex loans he took out had ballooned dozens of times over due to interest payments.

He said he owed ?170million to his 94-year-old father, ?1.1million to his wife, Sangeeta, ?2.4million to his son Divyesh and another ?1.1million to his brother-in-law Amit Lohia, 48.

Mr Mittal said in his application: ‘I have no personal income. My wife is financially independent from me. We have separate bank accounts and I have very limited information regarding her income.’

He estimated his monthly spending at just ?2,000 to ?3,000 and claimed his family home belonged to an offshore company in which he had ‘no financial interest’.

His assets at the time included ?7,000 worth of jewellery, several vintage cars and ?66,669 worth of shares.

Shristi’s wedding extravaganza was set in Barcelona because of Pramod’s passion for the famous Catalan modernist architect, Antoni Gaudi.

The celebrations, which stretched over three days, began with a welcome dinner in Barcelona’s maritime museum.

On the second day, the 500 guests – who were reported to have been asked to sign confidentiality agreements – were treated to a water and light display at the Magic Fountain in the Montjuic district, accompanied by the theme tune to Chariots Of Fire and an equestrian show with Andalusian and Arabian horses.

The ceremony itself took place in the Oval Hall of the National Museum of Catalan Art, which houses works by Titian and the great Spanish painter Velazquez.

The menu was presided over by double-Michelin starred Catalan chef Sergi Arola, who trained with Ferran Adria of the legendary El Bulli restaurant.

The six-tier wedding cake weighed more than 9 stone.

Pramod had already played host to one overblown wedding, for his elder daughter Vartika.

She was married in a lavish ceremony at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul in another three-day affair in 2011, described as being grander than Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton the same year.

The Mittal family fortunes stem from the steel empire founded by their father Mohan in India in the 1950s.

Until 2018, homosexuality was in theory punishable by up to 10 years in prison in India, but the law was repealed amid much celebration. Although gay relationships are still frowned upon by a minority of traditional Hindus, the country is far more tolerant of LGBT rights than many Asian countries.