Following seven months of lavish pre-wedding festivities, the youngest son of the wealthiest man in Asia tied the knot with his longtime lover. Politicians including Boris Johnson and Tony Blair were there, as well as celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, John Cena, Nick Jonas, and Kim and Khloé Kardashian.
On July 12, in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra in western India, Anant Ambani, the son of Mukesh Ambani, wed Radhika Merchant in a customary Hindu wedding. The pair was blessed by guests and elders during a “shubh ashirwad” ritual on Saturday, which was followed by a “mangal utsav,” or banquet.
The guest list for the festivities was diverse, featuring Bollywood’s elite such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Rajinikanth, and Amitabh Bachchan with their families, alongside stars like Alia Bhatt and Ananya Pandey. Global celebrities including Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach, designer Prabal Gurung, and former world leaders Tony Blair and Boris Johnson were also in attendance.
There were also a number of Indian leaders and chief ministers there, including Devendra Fadnavis, Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, Aaditya Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav, and former president Ram Nath Kovind.
Anant Ambani, 29, is the youngest child of Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, a Fortune 500 business, whose estimated net worth, based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, is $113 billion (£89.53 billion).
Reliance Industries is involved in organized retail, chemicals, digital streaming services, telecommunications, and petroleum refining and marketing.
29-year-old Radhika Merchant is a board member of her father’s business, Encore Healthcare, and the daughter of pharmaceutical magnate Viren Merchant.
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Afrobeats artist Rema wowed the guests with his hit song “Calm Down,” while videos of the Ambani family dancing with Indian musician Daler Mehendi went viral on social media.
The baraat, a vibrant wedding procession for the groom that included live music and dancing, was another event that the attendees appreciated. Videos of Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra dancing to well-known Bollywood hits went viral very fast on social media.
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The bride wore a hand-embroidered bridal lehenga by Indian brand Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, while the groom wore a crimson and gold sherwani created by renowned fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. Her skirt had a detachable train that measured seven feet, and her lehenga had a 16-foot-long veil.
Nita Ambani, the mother of the groom, donned an ensemble that was allegedly created over 40 days by designers Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla and craftspeople Vijay Kumar and Monika Maurya.
The public has been fascinated by and highly critical of the Ambanis’ wedding, even if the precise cost of the festivities is still unknown. Indian media and wedding planners put the total cost of the ceremonies at about $300 million.
From July 12 to July 15, Mumbai police enforced traffic restrictions in the vicinity of the wedding site situated in the central business sector of the city.
Traffic issues have been experienced by locals, forcing bankers to change their plans and choose to work from home.
It has an impact on our income. The wedding doesn’t really interest me,” cab driver Vikram told the Associated Press.
In a nation where ninety percent of households earn less than ₹10000 (about £94), the $320 million (₹2673 crores) Ambani wedding is outrageous. Legally, it may be their money, but such conspicuous spending is a transgression against the poor and the planet, according to Indian economist and politician Thomas Isaac, who wrote on X.
In a country where monthly income of 90% of households are below ₹10000, Ambani wedding of $320 million (₹2673 crores) is obscene. Legally it maybe their money but such ostentatious expenditure is a sin against mother earth and poor.
— Thomas Isaac (@drthomasisaac) July 11, 2024
The pre-wedding festivities, which started in March, might add significantly to the already exorbitant cost of the wedding—the Guardian pegs the total at as much as $600 million. To put things in perspective, this is a meager 0.5% of the Ambanis’ total wealth.
The pair began their festivities in March with a three-day pre-wedding party in Jamnagar, the hometown of Mukesh Ambani, which is situated in the Gujarat state in western India. Prominent people like Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump, the king and queen of Bhutan, and a number of international dignitaries were on the guest list.
