Are you tired of celebrity weddings? Because I am. The photoshoots in marble-walled palaces; the high production value sangeet set-ups; the clothes so bling-ed out that they might induce seizures if the light hits them just right — and let’s not forget that 75-foot veil. The over-the-top Indian wedding is an entire genre of performance unto itself. And between the sponsorship deals, million-dollar jewelry, and exclusive rights to wedding photos sold to the highest bidder, the whole thing is starting to feel a bit hollow.
Cue Keshav Suri and his husband, Cyril Feuillebois, being escorted down the aisle by each of their sisters last week, with Suri’s sister, Shradha, leading them while playing a dhol like a pro.
Suri, the Delhi-based hotelier, has been working to uplift the LGBTQ+ community in India for years now, using his clout and resources to provide opportunities for folks who are often discriminated against. Kitty Su, the inclusive nightclub attached to The Lalit Group, is known to be a safe space for queer folks, with regular drag nights and wheelchair accessibility, and the hotel group offers job opportunities for trans people, acid attack victims, and other marginalized communities. Suri was also one of the activists who successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Section 377, decriminalizing homosexuality in India.
He also fell in love with Cyril Feuillebois, on a rainy day in Goa, about 10 years ago. The couple got married in Paris earlier this year, but the 377 ruling gave the couple a reason to renew their vows, throwing the Big Gay Indian Wedding you never knew you needed. Held at The Lalit Hotel Goa, the beach setting, the fabulous guests, and the grooms themselves made for the perfect destination wedding.
Subverting all of the over-done shaadi antics, Suri and Feuillebois’s weekend events included a drag night, at which Suri wore a gown designed by Gaurav Gupta, danced on stage with his mother, Jyotsna, and international drag queens, Violet Chachki and Hungry, performed for guests. The wedding ceremony, held on the beach, was overseen by Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, a trans rights activist, and both Suri and Feuillebois’s mothers officiated the exchanging of rings.
And yes, this wedding had all those usual capitalist trappings, from the designer clothes to the extravagant celebrity performers. But there’s something a lot more subversive going on underneath all the organza and silks. While Suri and Feuillebois’s wedding may seem like an extravagance in the face of the violence and struggles that LGBTQ+ people face in India, it’s also a source of hope for a generation that has never seen an Indian wedding done this way. The celebration of love, of unapologetically queer love, is still a radical act. Hopefully it will be one that we see more often.
