Inside the lavish Indian billionaire wedding where Jennifer Lopez led a star-packed line-up

1. Asia
2. India

Three-day celebrations see popstar perform alongside Bollywood celebrity

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Jennifer Lopez headlined one of the most extravagant Indian weddings of the year this week, performing a high-energy concert at the Udaipur celebrations of US-based pharmaceutical heiress Netra Mantena and New York tech entrepreneur Vamsi Gadiraju.

The three-day celebrations, held between 21 and 23 November, were hosted across some of the western Indian city’s most lavish venues, including the Jagmandir Island Palace on Lake Pichola and the opulent The Leela Palace hotel.

The bride is the daughter of Orlando-based Rama Raju Mantena, chairman and CEO of Ingenus Pharmaceuticals.

The groom is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Superorder, a US-based software platform used by multi-location restaurants to manage delivery operations.

The celebrations started with haldi and mehendi ceremonies at the Taj Lake Palace and sangeet at the City Palace complex before the wedding itself was held at the Jagmandir Island Palace, a 17th-century monument in the middle of a lake, the broadcaster NDTV reported.

Haldi, mehendi and sangeet are pre-wedding ceremonies common to many regions of India. The haldi ceremony sees friends and family apply turmeric to bless and protect the couple and the mehendi involves the bride’s hands and feet being decorated with intricate henna patterns in a celebratory gathering.

Sangeet is a high-spirited night of music and dancing led by friends and relatives that is meant to break the ice between families but is now marked at high-profile weddings by celebrity performers.

The over-the-top wedding festivities of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant last year saw the likes of Rihanna, Katy Perry, Andrea Bocelli, and Justin Bieber flown in as performers, and global celebrities like Kim Kardashian and former world leaders like Boris Johnson and Tony Blair as guests.

The reception of Mantena and Gadiraju took place at the Leela Palace on 23rd November, one of Udaipur’s most expensive luxury hotels.

Donald Trump Jr reportedly attended with his family. He was photographed earlier in the week visiting the iconic Taj Mahal in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh.

According to the Indian Express, Lopez performed some of biggest hits at the sangeet ceremony on Friday, including “Get On the Floor”, “Waiting for Tonight”, “Save Me Tonight”, “Get Right,” and “Ain’t Your Mama”, accompanied by dancers and several costume changes.

The performance reportedly marked her first visit to India and quickly went viral on social media, with many commenting that it felt “like a concert”.

Photos of Lopez attending the wedding ceremony, posing alongside the bride’s father in a custom saree by Indian designer Manish Malhotra, also made their way online.

The sangeet was hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar and featured performances by actors Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, and Janhvi Kapoor, all of whom performed popular songs from their films.

Videos of Donald Trump Jr and his girlfriend Bettina Anderson being coaxed to dance with him to his song “What Jhumka?” from Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.

The mehendi ceremony on Saturday saw the who’s who of Bollywood showing up to perform. Dia Mirza hosted the event while Madhuri Dixit performed a medley of her signature numbers before joining the famed Cirque du Soleil artists for a performance to AR Rahman’s Oscar-winning song “Jai Ho”.

For the wedding, the bride wore a Sabyasachi red lehenga featuring traditional intricate zari embroidery.

While the exact numbers are unclear, NDTV estimates the wedding cost between Rs 750m (£6.4m) and Rs 800m (£6.8m), taking into account all expenses for the venues, guest accommodation and performer fees.

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