After months of extravagant pre-wedding festivities, India’s wealthiest family is set to spend over $100 million on their son’s wedding, making it one of the most expensive in modern history.
Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s four-day wedding is expected to feature lavish decorations, numerous celebrity performances, and guests from politics, business, sports, and the arts.
Anant Ambani, the youngest child of Reliance Industries director Mukesh Ambani, ranks as the world’s 11th richest man according to Forbes. Radhika Merchant also comes from a prominent family, with her parents being multimillionaire pharmaceutical executives.
While the Ambani family has not disclosed the exact amount spent on the wedding, estimates suggest expenses ranging from $150 million to over half a billion. This massive expenditure includes booking musicians, chartering private jets, and providing a feast for local underprivileged communities, as reported by the BBC and the India Times.
The significant number of international and Indian political figures attending the event, such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has led Mumbai police to declare the wedding a public event, according to the BBC. Roads around the event locations were sealed off to non-wedding guests as the groom’s convoy of luxury vehicles kicked off the celebrations.
This weekend’s wedding is the culmination of extensive celebrations for Ambani and Merchant. In March, the Ambani family hosted over a thousand people at their estate in Jamnagar, India, including notable figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Hillary Clinton, and Ivanka Trump. The occasion featured a glass palace inspired by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Palm House and a performance by Rihanna.
Merchant told Vogue about the all-night party following Rihanna’s performance, stating, “I wanted to be fun, free, and young. An Indian wedding is incomplete without a lot of dancing.”
In late May, the couple held another pre-wedding event on the Mediterranean Sea. They hosted 1,200 guests for a four-day cruise starting in Palermo, Italy, with stops throughout the region. In Cannes, Katy Perry performed a surprise concert, followed by a performance from Pitbull after reboarding the ship.
The cruise also featured a stop in Portofino, where renowned opera singer Andrea Bocelli performed, which Merchant described to Vogue as “the most magical evening,” adding, “I had goosebumps.”