Celebrations for the Ambani wedding continue with a star-studded guest list
Lavish celebrations for the son of Asia’s richest man continued on Saturday, featuring Hollywood celebrities, global business leaders, and two former British prime ministers. Anant Ambani, the youngest son of billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani, and his fiancée Radhika Merchant, both 29, are getting married this weekend in Mumbai, India, after months of pre-marriage festivities.
Saturday’s events included a blessing ceremony at a 16,000-capacity convention center owned by the Ambani family’s conglomerate, where numerous high-profile guests paid their respects to the couple. This was followed by a grand party with rumored performances by pop stars like Drake, Lana Del Rey, and Adele.
Friday’s formal ceremony and party saw attendance from socialite Kim Kardashian, actor John Cena, and former British leaders Tony Blair and Boris Johnson. Other notable attendees included FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan, and Samsung chairman Jay Y. Lee. China’s ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, also shared his well-wishes and footage from inside the venue on social media.
The weekend’s celebrations will conclude on Sunday with a reception party. Earlier events this year included parties at the Ambanis’ ancestral home and private performances by singers Rihanna and Justin Bieber, with guests like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Ivanka Trump. In June, the couple enjoyed a four-day Mediterranean cruise with 1,200 guests, featuring a masquerade ball in Cannes with performances by Katy Perry, the Backstreet Boys, US rapper Pitbull, and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
To accommodate the influx of guests, the family rented three Falcon-2000 jets, with each aircraft making multiple trips across India. On Wednesday, the family also hosted a community feast for the underprivileged.
Mukesh Ambani, 66, is the chairman of Reliance Industries, India’s biggest company by market capitalization. Forbes lists him as the world’s 11th richest person with a fortune of more than $123 billion. The family’s business ventures include retail partnerships with luxury brands, a significant share of India’s mobile phone market, and an Indian Premier League cricket team. Their 27-floor Mumbai home, Antilia, is one of the city’s landmarks, reportedly costing over $1 billion to build and staffed by 600 servants.
The opulence of the wedding has sparked mixed reactions in India. Road closures for the festivities have exacerbated Mumbai’s traffic woes, while some criticize the extravagant display of wealth. Wedding planners estimate the costs to be between 11 billion and 13 billion rupees ($132 million-$156 million). Rumors suggest Rihanna was paid $7 million for her performance, while Justin Bieber commanded $10 million. A Reliance executive described the event as a “powerful symbol of India’s growing stature on the global stage,” while opposition politician Thomas Isaac called the expenditure “obscene,” labeling it a sin against the poor and the environment.