It has been a wedding like no other — and the festivities have been going on for months. So where does one start?
With a three-day pre-wedding celebration in March when Rihanna and Akon performed for a star-studded 1,200-person guest list? Or a four-day European cruise in May that featured on-deck concerts from the Backstreet Boys and Pitbull, followed by a masquerade ball where Katy Perry sang? Or last week’s traditional music night in Mumbai where Justin Bieber belted out his music hits?
Wait. There’s more. An actual wedding that finally happened early Saturday and was attended by the likes of Mike Tyson, Nick Jonas, Tony Blair, Boris Johnson and Kim Kardashian, who was escorted to her hotel room by artists playing a flute.
Mind you, almost everyone from Bollywood was there as well. And the groom arrived in a Rolls Royce, with marching bands playing in the procession.
The wedding of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has been a global spectacle. Not only has it brought the world’s most famous celebrities, powerful politicians and business tycoons under one roof, it has also highlighted the immense clout of the Indian billionaire.
The lavishness has also led many to raise questions about rising inequality in India, where the gap between the rich and poor is growing and the number of billionaires has shot to over 200. According to some economic surveys, the country’s richest 1% own over 40% of the country’s total wealth.
“The problem with the Ambani wedding isn’t the ostentatiousness. It is the exhibitionism,” wrote author Salil Tripathi on social platform X.
With a net worth of $116 billion, Ambani senior has made sure the wedding celebrations are the talk of the town
Millions have been spent on grand jewels worn by the family’s women, evoking memories of the long-gone era of Indian royalty. The wedding invitations were made of silver and gold. Private jets have been hired to fly in some of the guests. And Bollywood’s most sought-after designer, Manish Malhotra, is serving as the wedding’s creative director.
This grand display of opulence is estimated to have cost the Ambani family more than half a billion dollars, according to a wedding planning app, Bridebook.com.
Let’s do that math.
The money spent — so far — is still little less than half a percent of the family’s total wealth, in a country where millions of middle-class families find it hard to save for their children’s weddings and sometimes spent their entire savings to pay for the celebrations.
Ambani, the world’s ninth richest man, is not new to hosting lavish parties. He made headlines in 2018 when Beyoncé performed at pre-wedding festivities for his daughter that were attended by former U.S. Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
This time he made sure no expense was spared for his youngest son, Anant, who oversees the conglomerate’s renewable and green energy expansion. His bride, Radhika Merchant, is the daughter of Viren and Shaila Merchant, the founders of pharmaceutical company Encore Healthcare.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/india-ambani-merchant-wedding-mumbai-85352daf3b60e598f83d7ebb299fe3fc