NEW DELHI — It has been a marriage like no other – and the festivities have been going on for months. So where to start?
With three days pre-wedding celebration in March, when Rihanna and Akon performed to a star-studded guest list of 1,200 people? Or a four-day European cruise in May that featured Backstreet Boys and Pitbull shows on deck, followed by a masquerade ball where Katy Perry sang? Or last week’s traditional music night in Mumbai where Justin Bieber sang his hit songs?
Hang on. Have more. A real wedding that finally took place on Saturday morning and was attended by names like Mike Tyson, Nick Jonas, Tony Blair, Boris Johnson and Kim Kardashian, who was escorted to her hotel room by artists playing the flute.
Mind you, almost everyone from Bollywood was there too. 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, it has been a global spectacle. It not only brought together the world’s most famous celebrities, powerful politicians and business tycoons under one roof, but also highlighted the Indian billionaire’s immense influence.
The lavishness has also led many to raise questions about growing inequality in India, where the gap between rich and poor is widening and the number of billionaires has soared to more than 200. According to some economic surveys, the country’s richest 1% are over 40 years old. % of the country’s total wealth.
“The problem with the Ambani marriage is not the ostentation. It’s exhibitionism,” wrote author Salil Tripathi on the social platform X.
With a net worth of $116 billion, senior Ambani ensured that the wedding celebrations were the talk of the town
Millions were spent on grand jewelry worn by the women of the family, evoking memories of the ancient era of Indian royalty. Wedding invitations were made of silver and gold. Private jets were hired to transport some of the guests. And Bollywood’s most sought-after designer, Manish Malhotra, serves as the wedding’s creative director.
This grand display of opulence is estimated to have cost the Ambani family over half a billion dollars, according to a wedding planning app, Bridebook. with.
Let’s do these calculations.
The money spent — so far — still represents just under half a percent of the family’s total wealth, in a country where millions of middle-class families have difficulty saving for their children’s weddings and sometimes spend all their savings on pay for the wedding. celebrations.
Ambani, the ninth richest man in the world, is no stranger to throwing lavish parties. He made headlines in 2018 when Beyoncé performed at pre-wedding festivities for his daughter, which was attended by former US Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
This time, he ensured that no expense was spared for his youngest son, Anant, who oversees the conglomerate’s renewable and green energy expansion. His fiancée, Radhika Merchant, is the daughter of Viren and Shaila Merchant, founders of pharmaceutical company Encore Healthcare.
The guests made a red carpet style arrival Saturday, at the Jio World Convention Center, owned by Ambani, with a capacity of 16,000 people, passing hundreds of photographers as if it were some Met Gala event. Foreign guests wore traditional embroidered sherwanis – long-sleeved coats worn by men in South Asia – with many of them wearing designs from India’s best-known fashion designers.
Video clips released at the event showed guests dancing to Bollywood music. Most television news channels offered minute-by-minute coverage of the main wedding ritual of the couple walking seven times around the sacred fire. Even FIFA President Gianni Infantino was seen shaking his leg.
The festivities will take place over the weekend at Ambani’s 27-story family complex in Mumbai, which is worth $1 billion and contains three helipads, a 160-car garage and a private cinema. Saturday is expected to be a divine blessing ceremony, while Sunday is reserved for a final reception. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to attend on one of the days, according to local media.
Ambani’s critics say his company flourished mainly due to political connections during Congress party-led governments in the 1970s and 1980s and under Modi since 2014.
But not everyone is comfortable with the display of extravagance that has set a new standard for India’s multi-billion wedding industry.
Kunal Kanase, a researcher and activist, lives in Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Asia, about 5 kilometers from the wedding venue. He said the money spent by the Ambanis evoked “negative emotions among the country’s poor who are struggling to survive”.
“It’s crazy,” Kanase said. “I don’t understand what these billionaires want to show by showing off so much wealth.”
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
