A Glimpse into the Ambanis and Merchants
Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest billionaire and chairman of Reliance Industries, is set to tie the knot with his fiancé, Radhika Merchant. Deeply involved in the operations behind one of India’s largest conglomerate, Anant is poised to inherit his father’s empire. Radhika, equally prominent in her own right, likewise hails from a distinguished and wealthy family as her father, Viren Merchant serves as a leading entrepreneur and the CEO of Encore Healthcare.
From Celebrations to Vows
In a spectacle of wealth and tradition, Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant have embarked on their journey of marital bliss. The lavish affair, attended by esteemed guests from around the globe, marks the culmination of their months-long celebrations leading up to the wedding finale. Amidst luxurious settings and extravagant displays, the couple’s love story unfolds in a ceremony that epitomises grandeur. It is no wonder that the forthcoming union of these two prominent families has captured significant attention.
It is not everyday that one gets to witness the convergence of the Kardashians, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gathered in one place for a wedding ceremony. The couple’s pre-wedding festivities attracted a global gathering of wealthy business magnates, former world leaders and celebrities to Mumbai’s Jio World Convention Centre in India. In the months preceding the summer nuptial, well-known performers like Rihanna, Justin Bieber and The Backstreet Boys held private performances for the esteemed guests. While the Ambani family never did disclose an official guest list, the celebrations held in their ancestral home and a four-day Mediterranean cruise reportedly saw the attendance of over 1200 guests, where the singer-songwriter Katy Perry performed at a masquerade ball in Cannes, France. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Ivanka Trump, alongside many Bollywood stars were also photographed at the event.
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The Cost of Splendour
Indulgence in such lavishness and glamour undoubtedly comes at a price. News agency Reuters reported that the Ambani family had rented out three Falcon-2000 jets to ferry their wedding guests to their series of celebratory events. In addition to transportation costs, rumours suggest that Rihanna was paid USD7 million and Justin Bieber USD10 million for their performances. The Ambanis remained tight-lipped about the wedding expenses but industry estimates have since stepped up to share that the total cost of the wedding (from decor to cuisine and ambience) could have very well amounted to a jaw-dropping total of USD600 million easily.
With Mukesh Ambani ranked as the world’s 11th richest person with a net worth of approximately USD123 billion, it comes as an effortless feat for the patriarch to fund his youngest son’s wedding. Among their extensive assets is a notable 27-floor family compound worth USD1 billion, featuring amenities such as a 160-car garage and a private movie theatre.
This, however, was not Ambani’s initial foray into extravagant weddings. He had previously made headlines when Avant’s elder sister, Isha Ambani, had an opulent wedding of her own back in 2018. Her pre-wedding bash included a private 45-minute performance held by Beyoncé that was rumoured to cost between USD4-5 million, and garnered similar attention to her brother’s.
The same goes for Akash Ambani, Isha’s twin brother, who wedded his childhood sweetheart Shloka Mehta in 2019, just a year after her wedding. The pre-wedding festivities were equally extravagant and star-studded, featuring exclusive performances by Maroon 5, The Chainsmokers and Coldplay’s Chris Martin. It is clear that the Armanis spare no expense in taking a lavish approach to any of their children’s nuptials.
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Public Response and Backlash
The Ambani’s grand wedding had caused a divide amongst the residents on the streets of Mumbai. While some welcomed the boost in India’s economy, others harboured mixed feelings about the extravagant string of celebrations. Key roads in Mumbai had reportedly been sealed off for several hours each day to make way for the guests’ entrances into the Jio World Convention Centre. Given Mumbai’s notorious reputation for its congested traffic, particularly during this monsoon season, many believed that it was unjust for the grandeur of this large-scale nuptial to be built upon the expense of the country’s common folk.
Key figures like opposition politician Thomas Isaac stood forward to publicly criticise the family’s lavish gesture for their son as “obscene”, firmly believing that “such ostentatious expenditure is a sin against mother earth and [the] poor”. His take on the extensive celebrations had sparked considerable criticism amongst the public in the comments section of his post on X. Others, on the other hand, saw the wedding festivities as a “powerful symbol of India’s growing stature on the global stage”.
There is a natural sense of pride in hosting weddings in the Indian culture and it thus comes with no doubt that a magnate of such immense influence would seize such occasions to showcase his status and wealth. However, it is also understandable that many view such opulence as a “vulgar display of wealth”, particularly in a nation grappling with recurring calls for wealth redistribution. The Ambani wedding has undoubtedly established a new benchmark for extravagant celebrations, yet the current criticism highlights the growing discontent among those marginalised by the country’s economic growth and widening wealth disparity.
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